Originally made popular by the introduction of Rethink Robotics’ Baxter, so-called collaborative robots have created a lot of excitement around the industry over the last few years. Before that, robots had been seen as limited to large industrial projects where they sat behind safety fences without human interaction. Recent advances in technology, however, have brought humans and robots closer together in a variety of industries and created a high demand in the marketplace.
Just how much demand is difficult to gauge because of the way that the data is collected. All established robot manufacturers make what they call “collaborative” robots, but a large percentage of those sold are used in non-collaborative environments without humans. Conversely, many large industrial robots are operated in collaborative environments with the aid of an area scanner or light curtain. Reporting agencies, however, only count those advertised with the distinction in the collaborative category.