Danish robot manufacturer Universal Robots is seeing an increased interest for its cobots (collobrative robots) from the Indian FMCG sector, while globally the company plans to double its turnover this year, said top company officials.
“We get our major orders from the Indian automobile component manufacturers. In addition, lots of FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) including food product makers are showing interest in our cobots,” Pradeep S. David, General Manager, South Asia, told reporters here on Friday.
He said cobots are colloborative robots or robots that work alongside humans.
Normally robots or industrial robots are housed inside a fence and would work independently as per preset programme.
“No human being will be near an industrial robot. It would take several days to set up an industrial robot. But in the case of cobots, human beings will be working alongside it. It reduces the fatigue of repetitive work on workers while retaining the human expertise in the production process,” David said.
He said the company is hoping to double its sales volume to 300 units this year with the focus on the small and medium enterprises (SME) sector.
According to Universal Robots President Jurgen von Hollen: “We are growing at about 63 percent. This year we hope to double our turnover.
“Last year, our turnover was US $170 million. We will also be increasing our global headcount to about 700 from the current 440.”
He said the company is seeing a good demand for its cobots from the Asian region from last year onwards.
“In six months, we will decide on our second location. Currently our manufacturing plant is located in Denmark. Presently 50 percent of our sales are from Europe and 25 percent each from the US and Asia,” Hollen said.
