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Europe is a significant heart of robotics improvement and use, in accordance with Humanoid. Supply: Adobe Inventory
Whereas headlines typically highlight U.S. and Asian corporations within the humanoid robotics race, a silent revolution is brewing within the tech hubs of Europe, the place cutting-edge startups are making outstanding strides in growing human-like robots.
From Norway to Switzerland, progressive European companies are pushing the boundaries of robotics expertise, creating machines that may sense, really feel, and work together with their surroundings in more and more human-like methods.
These developments should not simply technological marvels; they’re additionally potential options to international labor shortages and catalysts for a societal shift in how we work and stay.
Robotics innovation is going on throughout Europe
Europe provides a positive marketplace for improvement, a stable expertise pool, and no scarcity of progressive concepts and analysis labs. Its numerous cultures and languages additionally encourage the event of robots that may navigate advanced social interactions.
The continent has a protracted historical past of robotics innovation, with a variety of analysis performed throughout numerous fields akin to service, industrial, and cognitive robotics. Examples embrace PAL Robotics in Spain, which claimed that it developed the primary autonomous bipedal robotic in Europe, to Swiss corporations like ANYbotics and Swiss-Mile main advances in quadrupedal robots and embodied AI. The continent provides a wealthy surroundings for robotics improvement.
Europe has a various and progressive robotics sector. Within the realm of autonomous car, the U.Ok.-based Oxa develops low-compute software program, whereas Sweden’s Einride produces autonomous, electrical highway transport autos. U.Ok.-based ECARX provides turnkey options for next-generation good autos.
Startups in Europe tackle robotics challenges
A number of corporations in Europe have been engaged on promising robotics tasks that deserve consideration:
1X (Norway): This AI robotics firm lately unveiled NEO Beta, a humanoid robotic designed for dwelling use. With a powerful $100 million funding spherical in January 2024, 1X has now raised a complete of $137 million.
ABB (Switzerland), a worldwide chief in electrification and automation, is predicated in Zurich and has greater than 105,000 workers worldwide. With over 140 years of expertise, the firm integrates software program and engineering to optimize manufacturing, vitality, and automation processes.
ABB Robotics in June launched its next-generation management platform, OmniCore, designed to boost precision, velocity, and sustainability in automation. Ensuing from a $170 million funding, OmniCore integrates AI, sensor, cloud, and edge computing methods right into a unified management structure, providing sooner and extra environment friendly robotics options throughout industries.
The platform can enhance robotic movement accuracy to lower than 0.6mm and permits as much as 25% sooner operations whereas decreasing vitality consumption by 20%, stated the corporate.
Collectively with Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Analysis Institute, ABB Robotics developed an automatic fruit-fly switch system utilizing ABB’s YuMi robotic. This eradicated the necessity for anesthesia, which may have an effect on fly conduct and research accuracy in neurological illness analysis.
Agile Robots (Germany), based in 2018 by Dr. Zhaopeng Chen and Peter Meusel, former researchers at DLR’s Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics, has quickly grown to make use of over 2,300 folks throughout a number of international manufacturing websites and R&D facilities in Germany and China.
The Munich-based firm focuses on combining AI with robotics for user-friendly options to advanced manufacturing challenges. Agile Robots stated its capability to depend on each “Chinese language market dynamics and German engineering precision” units it aside.
ANYbotics (Switzerland) emerged from pioneering work at ETH Zurich in 2009 and was formally based in 2016. It has made strides in autonomous robots for industrial functions. It developed ANYmal, a four-legged robotic able to navigating advanced terrains and performing inspection duties in difficult environments.
Over the previous 14 years, ANYbotics has demonstrated its capability to boost employee security, enhance operational effectivity, and assist sustainability targets. The corporate has a partnership with Vitality Robotics, a developer of hardware-agnostic fleet administration and knowledge analytics platforms, to rework asset monitoring within the vitality business by way of built-in, autonomous inspections.
KUKA (Germany), based in 1898 in Augsburg, has developed from a neighborhood acetylene fuel plant to one of many world’s main suppliers of commercial automation. The firm stated it developed Europe’s first robot-operated welding switch line in 1971 and the world’s first industrial robotic with six electrical motor-driven axes in 1973.
KUKA’s gross sales have exceeded €4 billion ($4.2 billion U.S.) and it employs round 15,000 folks throughout greater than 50 nations. The corporate’s portfolio consists of LBR iiwa cobot launched in 2013, and it’s increasing into new markets and areas past its conventional stronghold within the automotive business.
In 2023, the RBR50 Robotics Innovation Award winner launched three new autonomous cellular robots (AMRs): the KMR iisy, a cellular manipulator with a collaborative arm and a 200 kg (440.9 lb.) payload capability; the KMP 1500P, designed for heavy-duty duties carrying as much as 1.5 tons; and the KMP 600-S, able to transporting 600 kg (1,322.7 lb.).
Neura Robotics (Germany), based in 2019, stated it’s a participant within the cognitive robotics area. The Metzingen-based firm has grown to greater than 170 workers from over 30 nations, attracting numerous expertise in a aggressive tech panorama. NEURA’s product lineup, together with the MAiRA cognitive cobot and 4NE-1 humanoid robotic, showcases its deal with advancing human-robot collaboration.
The corporate’s current partnership with NVIDIA to make use of the Isaac platform suggests NEURA is positioning itself strategically within the AI-driven robotics market. Nevertheless, the real-world affect and market adoption of those applied sciences stay to be seen within the coming years.
PAL Robotics (Spain) has been on the forefront of service robotics since 2004, gaining vital traction with its autonomous robots throughout varied sectors together with business, healthcare, retail, agriculture, and meals. With greater than twenty years of expertise, the corporate has established itself as a pacesetter within the area, persevering with to encourage roboticists worldwide by way of its customizable robotic platforms and modular elements designed for integration into day by day life and industrial settings.
Shadow Robotic (U.Ok.), based within the late Nineties by a non-tech entrepreneur and a gaggle of hobbyists, has turn into Britain’s longest-running robotics firm. The London-based firm is finest identified for growing the Shadow Dexterous Hand, described as probably the most superior five-fingered robotic hand on the planet. It options 20 motors, 24 levels of freedom, and over 100 sensors.
Shadow Robotic stated its expertise is being utilized in each tutorial and industrial settings. The corporate’s moral stance, together with a “robots for good” coverage and refusal to promote for navy use, reveals its dedication to accountable innovation.
Swiss-Mile (Switzerland), integrated in April 2023 as a spin-off from ETH Zurich‘s Robotic Techniques Lab. In its first yr, the corporate achieved early traction with pilot deployments for last-mile supply in good cities and safety for essential infrastructure.
Swiss-Mile raised $22 million in seed funding spherical in August 2024, led by Jeff Bezos and HongShan. This substantial early-stage funding and the involvement of high-profile traders demonstrated market confidence in Swiss-Mile’s strategy to creating autonomous robots that combine AI with the bodily world.
Common Robots (Denmark), based in 2005 in Odense, has established itself as a pioneer in collaborative robotics. The firm first offered the UR5 cobot in 2008, adopted by the launches of UR10 in 2012 and UR3 in 2015.
Common Robots’ development is evidenced by its acquisition by Teradyne Inc. for $285 million in 2015, the introduction of the e-Collection in 2018, and reaching the business milestone of 50,000 cobots offered worldwide in 2020. It additionally launched the UR20, a 20kg payload cobot, in 2022, and opened its a centesimal coaching heart, showcasing its dedication to training and international growth.
What’s driving the robotics growth in Europe?
The explosion in robotics analysis will not be occurring in a vacuum. It’s pushed by urgent international wants, significantly labor shortages.
“Labor shortages have appeared throughout a various group of nations that haven’t any obvious widespread options apart from their stage of improvement,” stated a current McKinsey report. “Tightness is especially acute in seven nations—the Czech Republic, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, and america—which have extra vacancies than unemployed staff.”
McKinsey famous that these nations account for 53% of the whole labor provide of the 30 superior economies in our analysis, and 64% of collective GDP.
Japan, typically thought-about the entrance runner in getting old inhabitants, is projected to have 38% of its inhabitants aged 65 or older by 2050, up from 28% in 2020. In Germany, the proportion of individuals aged 65 and older is predicted to rise from 21.7% in 2020 to 31% by 2050, in accordance with the newest knowledge compiled by the United Nations.
The U.S. is getting old extra slowly than Europe or East Asia however nonetheless expects to see its 65+ inhabitants improve from 16.9% in 2020 to 22% by 2050. Whereas China and Western markets have vastly totally different labor and residing prices, these financial contrasts immediately form the main target areas and use circumstances pursued by robotics startups in every area.
These demographic shifts contribute considerably to labor shortages, because the working-age inhabitants shrinks relative to the general inhabitants. This development is prone to proceed and doubtlessly intensify within the coming a long time, presenting challenges for financial development and social methods in these nations.
Cobots are a part of the answer
Regardless of perceptions that European factories may lag in robotic innovation, a wave of collaborative robotics is sweeping throughout the continent’s manufacturing sector. The Sharework and SHERLOCK packages, funded by way of the European Fee’s Factories of the Future initiative, have developed and carried out methods that work safely alongside human operators with out the necessity for protecting obstacles.
These clever robots, outfitted with AI-driven notion and decision-making capabilities, may revolutionize meeting traces from automotive to renewable vitality. By specializing in human-centered design and employee well-being, these tasks should not solely boosting productiveness but in addition bettering job high quality, doubtlessly opening up manufacturing to a extra numerous workforce.
A future with humanoids approaches
Humanoid robots provide one other resolution to labor shortages, and the market is responding to their potential to reshape industries and society. The worldwide marketplace for humanoid robots was valued at roughly $1.5 billion in 2024 and is predicted to achieve $9.4 billion by 2030, rising at a compound annual development charge (CAGR) of 36.2%.
Whereas there are quite a few industrial trials, there have been no profitable mass deployments or confirmed enterprise circumstances within the humanoid robotic house, making it an thrilling second for the business. Goldman Sachs analysis predicts that by 2035, the whole addressable marketplace for humanoid robots will attain $38 billion—greater than six instances their earlier projection of $6 billion.
Robotics startups akin to Neura Robotics and 1x Applied sciences are focusing extra on family functions, setting Europe other than industrial-focused rivals within the U.S. or China.
At Humanoid, we imagine in a extra gradual strategy, and we expect that humanoid robotic expertise ought to first turn into important at factories and warehouses earlier than ultimately integrating it into our properties.
Three main technical challenges at present restrict humanoid robotics improvement: AI capabilities and coaching, battery life, and actuator applied sciences for secure, environment friendly motion. Social features and regulatory considerations are additionally challenges.
The price of constructing these robots varies broadly primarily based on their supposed use, with our estimates starting from $10,000 to $300,000 per unit. The funding panorama is dominated by U.S.-based humanoid startups, which are a magnet for 80-90% of whole funding, adopted by Chinese language corporations.
The U.S. additionally leads in industrial pilot packages, whereas stricter labor rules and the presence of sturdy labor unions in Europe and the U.Ok. have restricted deployment alternatives in these areas.
Humanoid shares imaginative and prescient and positioning
At Humanoid, we deal with constructing versatile robots with a modular, human-like design that may combine into current environments. These humanoids are supposed to be suitable with present instruments and automation methods, simply repurposed for various duties, and able to automating medium- to high-precision duties that commonplace industrial robots can’t deal with, all whereas sustaining security.
The firm‘s imaginative and prescient aligns with these of corporations like 1X, which see automation not as a method to maximise effectivity in any respect prices, however as a approach to improve human potential. By taking over the bodily demanding and repetitive duties, Humanoid’s robots may unlock people to have interaction in work that’s extra fulfilling, inventive, and aligned with their private development.
Think about a world the place former warehouse staff, free of bodily pressure and monotony, have the time and vitality to pursue training, begin companies, or just spend extra high quality time with their households. That is the long run we’re working in the direction of — one the place expertise serves humanity by giving folks extra time to be really human.
In regards to the writer
Dmitrii Rudnitckii is chief expertise officer at Humanoid (SKL Robotics Ltd.). He has intensive worldwide expertise and a confirmed observe document in robotics, AI, and autonomous methods throughout a number of industries, together with manufacturing, telecommunications, and banking.
At Humanoid, Rudnitckii leads the event of next-generation humanoid robots with cutting-edge AI integration to reshape human-robot collaboration and push the boundaries of automation. He beforehand spearheaded the creation of a completely versatile autonomous electrical car manufacturing facility at ARRIVAL, an organization targeted on creating zero-emission transportation by way of superior manufacturing processes.
