On Robot: New Directions and Virtual Expos

December 8, 2020

By Owen Hurst

Earlier this month (December 2-3, 2020) OnRobot held a virtual expo with a direct focus on providing valuable keynote discussions on current trends and topics as well as an interactive virtual showroom for products and solutions.

As part of the kickoff OnRobot also held a press conference where Kristian Hulgard, GM of OnRobot’s Americas Division discussed current market trends and directions, a look back over 2020, Current goals for OnRobot and the outlook moving forward for both the company and market in general.

A good starting point surrounded what really are collaborative applications. And when it boils down to it Kristian pointed out that in essence it is “safe and easy programmable and deployable industrial automation.” And or OnRobot it is about creating value in the whole supply chain from distributor to integrator to end-user.

Part of achieving that value that is the flexibility of the tools and products on and around the robot and this is where OnRobot excels. The flexibility in the more modern end of arm tools are growing rapidly and OnRobot has recognized the change in the market from the normal passive tools to more software and electrical driven tools on and around the robot.

And if we take a look at the current market as it stands today the advantage of collaborative applications are providing support to labour shortages, it is increasing turnover at the production level, improving product quality and productivity, and is provided fast ROI. Regarding COVID-19 it can help with physical distancing. A great example of this is in Europe where several cobots with a flexible gripper are performing COVID-19 tests to eliminate potential human interaction. And Kristian noted that his is a great test to see how fast collaborative and lightweight industrial automation can move into a market that is needed right now with standup products. Robots like this can be very quickly deployed.

Overall OnRobot, all things considered, have been able to push through 2020 on track and provide consistent support to distributors, integrators, and end-users. At current OnRobot has over 800 combinations of products to go on Robots and supports 18 robot brands with deep integration. They have over 500 partners worldwide, with about 130 in the Americas.

In all OnRobot is focused on continuing its effort to work with all robots, all types of application, all accessory types and to be represented in all industries.

Striving toward getting all these goals achieves. And with the Product development roadmap they follow they feel this will be achieved.

In the short term the market looks promising with more and more robots and cobots being deployed every day and the market forecast expects further growth. There are more than 10 million manufacturing companies globally with the majority of those being small to medium size. This is the market where many cobots and light weight industrial applications are most appealing. On Robot is well positioned to serve and continue its ability to serve this market.

If we look ahead data and machine learning will involve easier and almost fully automatic application programming. Programming will be largely automatic and support the engineering heavy portions of designs which at current is often the most laborious. Lightweight cobots will become standard, with a shift in focus to a solution that deals with how easy and fast an application can be implemented.

In all OnRobot’s main goal is to create one language to all robots, one product portfolio and one software to open automation for every company out there.

Coinciding with the talk from Kristian was OnRobot’s Expo that featured a number of keynote talks from a variety of experts (register to see the archive of keynote talks) as we as a fully interactive showroom to learn about new products and solutions. When viewing new solutions in the showroom you were able to see product overviews, download data sheets and watch numerous videos detailing the functionality and variety of application uses. Also, on-hand were numerous product experts to answer your questions.

The expo provided a variety of opportunities to support distributors, integrators and end-users making it a valuable resource for today and tomorrow.