A century ago, robots were the heroes of sci-fi novels. Today, they are a reality that keeps improving. Robots are already doing several home tasks, including vacuuming, washing floors, cleaning windows, and more. They help surgeons conduct complicated surgeries, drive us around, build cars, help with military tasks, explore space, investigate hazardous environments, and much more.

Robots

Thanks to the fast development of new technologies, machines are becoming quicker, smarter, and more independent. It seems that robots will soon replace humans in many tasks. Let’s look at the latest technology trends in the robotics industry.

1. Cobots

Cobots or collaborative robots have recently become a reality. Numerous manufacturers, including KUKA and Nachi, create robots with a high potential in the robotics industry.

These collaborative robots differ from their industrial counterparts by working safely alongside human specialists without a safety fence, which usually protects workers from robots.

Cobots are programmed to use sensors, which allow them to avoid hurting their human colleague while working in a confined space. Cobots are created to be used in numerous manufacturing industries, improving the product cycle time.

2. AGVs

Automated guided vehicles, or AGVs, are self-guided robots that automatically track the route in a manufacturing assembly work environment. These robots can control handling products without hard methods. Numerous companies have been using AGVs to speed up production, packing, and loading/unloading.

These robots can deliver parcels, assemble cars, and even help hospital nurses with patient tasks. By 2025, the AGVs market will reach $7.3 billion since these robots are necessary for numerous industries, from food and beverage to aerospace.

3. 3-D Printing

3-D printing, additive manufacturing, is becoming a big trend in the automotive industry, trying hard to minimize production costs. These days, the cost of part manufacturing has increased. 3-D printing has the best chance to reverse the process and make manufacturing faster and cheaper.

Addictive manufacturing could decrease the production time by as much as 70 percent. It could also reduce labor and production expenses and prototype manufacturing costs.

Many industries besides the automotive can benefit from 3-D printing in the future. However, the automotive sector currently needs it the most.

4. New Skills Of AI

It’s not surprising that AI is one of the most popular and talked about developments in the robotic industry. Improving machine learning and artificial intelligence is one of the biggest trends, mostly due to research and energy.

Robots (especially collaborative robots) will use new AI developments to become more intuitive. The automated tasks will not have as many limitations as before. For consumers, such robots will move past vacuuming and window washing to security and eldercare.

5. Mainstream Adoption

New technologies fuel the trend of mainstream adoption of robots. According to Firewall Technical IT specialists, in the near future, humanity will adopt robots just as they did PCs in the 1980s and the Internet in the 1990s. Millions of robots will enter our lives in the next five to ten years. Some specialists say that by 2045, there will be more robots than humans.

As sensor technologies improve, we can trust robots to do more and more tasks, such as assisting disabled people or walking dogs. In the future, we will likely see robots doing the jobs we’d rather not do, such as mowing the lawn, taking out the garbage, washing toilets, and much more.