EU to double robotics R&D budget

Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding: “A clear window of opportunity.”

At the same time, the Commission called on the industry to intensify its efforts in manufacturing critical components, such as gears, to beat off competition from Asia and avoid strategic dependencies on other regions of the world.

“There is a clear window of opportunity for automation industries in Europe, in particular robotics, not just to maintain leadership, but to grow further and to move higher up the value chain,” said Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media. “To achieve this, the industry has to intensify its efforts in several areas.”

The EU is considered to be well placed in industrial robots for automation, with about a third of all such robots in Europe. The sector is expected to experience significant growth in the next two decades. The International Federation of Robotics estimates the current world market for industrial robots at about €4 billion and forecasts a 4.2 per cent increase per year up to 2010.

Service robots that operate outside the manufacturing domain offer opportunities for new applications and market expansion. According to the Federation, growth in this market is expected to be between 10 and 15 per cent per year between now and 2010 and the number of professional service robots will grow from 40,000 in 2006 to 75,000 in 2010. Service robots are used in many sectors, for example, in the distribution of goods, for cleaning vehicles, in agriculture and in medical applications.

As part of the €400 million research programme, the European Commission wants to set up a technology transfer scheme between academia and industry, enabling research labs to use industrial-strength robots for large-scale experimentation. The resulting scientific knowledge will directly be fed back to participating companies.

The Commission will also encourage the industry to agree on technical standards and develop business models in this field.