Cobotics Survey Results

IMR and the Robotics Executive Committee (REC) carried out an industry survey as primary research on the real reasons Human-Robot Collaborative Applications are not wide-spread. The results will allow IMR to guide the REC activities and solutions in that space, as well as to get Industry to consider Collaborative Applications.

The objective of the survey is to understand the current state of collaborative robotics applications in manufacturing and to identify the major concerns that engineering managers and manufacturing directors have which prevent the wider adoption of collaborative robotics applications.

Between July 2019 and October 2019, the survey received 23 responses from engineers, managers, and directors of various sized companies.

The results of the survey indicate that while most of the surveyed have to start or have deployed collaborative robotics applications (73% of the participants), the level of human-robot collaboration is mostly limited to Sequential collaboration and below (12 participants over 16 who have started/already deployed HRC applications).

The lack of a clear and methodical process for Health & Safety sign-off and the lack of definitive reference documents/standards are the most prevalent concerns across the 23 surveyed individuals and have been the most frequently rated as preventing a meaningful engagement with human-robot collaborative applications at this time.

The results were presented to the Robotics Executive Committee (REC) and have been guiding the activities and solutions in that space.

Full survey report available here: