DYNA JOURNAL ENGINEERING

The effort to automate manufacturing will also make small and medium-size enterprises an important market. Thus, the total number of active robots at the end of this period will reach a total of nearly 2.6 million. At that time, China will also be the country that accounts for 40% of the world market for these equipments, in its effort to reduce the gap that in 2016 had only 49 robots per 10,000 employees in the manufacturing industry. Its Made in China plan (2015-2025) proposes to reach 150 robots per 10,000 employees by 2020, which means the need to install between 600,000 and 650,000 new robots in that period.

Of the 22 countries that were above the world average (69) half are in the European Union and Spain, with 150 occupies a worthy place, due, in particular, to its important automobile industry. But the demand is expected to come from the automation projects of industry in general by applying the principles of industry 4.0, which will unite collaborative robotics with artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Against those who accuse the automation of the reduction in employment, IFR assures that the increase in the industrial robot fleet has always gone hand in hand with a growth in employment and more qualified employment: the improvement in production costs increases the market possibilities that, in turn, require more employment.