Robotics and automation back on growth track

Impetus for the future

The robotics and automation business is characterized by strong pent-up demand: Investments were postponed in the course of the pandemic and are now filling the order books. The transformation on the way to climate neutrality and a sustainable use of resources is also generating new business: robotics and automation are increasingly proving to be key technologies.

Here are three examples:
• In agriculture, low-cost field robots are helping to locate weeds using artificial intelligence and eliminate them selectively with lasers. Organic farmers halve their weeding costs with such an automation solution from the Cologne-based company Igus and UK startup Small Robot Company. At the same time it replaces the use of chemical agents.
• In order to produce fuel cells for hydrogen-powered cars in the future in a cost- and energy-saving manner, the industry is relying on automation technology. The German company Innocise, founded in 2019, together with Schunk, offers novel robotic grippers whose principle is inspired by nature. They use bionic adhesive properties and operate without any external energy when gripping components. This significantly reduces energy consumption in production.
• Powerful batteries are a core technology for decarbonisation - in the transport sector and in industrial production, in stationary storage technology and for the stabilisation of electricity grids. Intelligent automation reduces production costs, which helps battery technology achieve a breakthrough in e-mobility and other areas. At the same time, highly efficient production technology reduces CO2 emissions.

Photovoltaics coming back to Europe

An impressive example of robotics and automation in the energy sector is currently the construction of one of the largest solar power plants in the world. The Constance-based company RCT Solutions is providing cutting edge production know-how and technology for this project. The automation experts are helping the client and operator in Turkey, one of the country's largest construction groups, to decouple itself from international supply chains for solar panels. In the first step, a specially built Industry 4.0 factory in Ankara is producing 3.5 million solar modules. In a photovoltaic power plant in Konya, 260 kilometers away, these panels from the company's own production are installed directly after their production. The aim is to generate 1 GW of electricity from solar power in the final expansion phase - in the sixth largest solar power plant in the world. The investment volume is around 1.1 billion euros.

"In many European countries, people are currently thinking about rebuilding a complete photovoltaic value chain that includes all production steps," says Dr. Peter Fath, CEO of RCT Solutions. "In Turkey, they have now shown that it works. It has already created 1400 new jobs at the Ankara factory."

"The solar power plant in Konya shows where the journey is heading," adds Patrick Schwarzkopf, Managing Director of VDMA Robotics+Automation. "We now must find ways of achieving the ambitious climate targets in reality. To do so, we need to scale renewable energies and environmental technologies to unprecedented dimensions. Robotics and automation enables us to achieve this with the highest quality and at competitive costs."

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1. Robotics and automation back on growth track
2. Impetus for the future
3. Outlook to Automatica Sprint: 22-24 June 2021