Objective is to put India among top global markets: Universal Robots

By OEM Update Editorial April 11, 2018 6:06 pm IST

Denmark’s Universal Robots, the pioneer of collaborative robots or cobots, expressed its commitment to expand and deepen business presence in India, reports Subhajit Roy.

Cobots are designed to work with humans and assist them with a variety of tasks which help to automate and streamline repetitive and potentially unsafe processes thus, ensuring safe work environment while increasing productivity and efficiency.

Today cobots can automate virtually anything – from assembly to painting, screw driving, labelling, packing, polishing, and injection and whatever other tasks you can think of. Cobots are being considered as the third arm of an operator and a critical component for the factory of the future. They can be deployed in virtually any industry, by any employee.

In India, where labour is comparatively cheap, it is not advisable to eliminate all labour unlike robots do. However, according to Pradeep David, General Manager – South Asia, Universal Robots, “Cobots are very apposite of traditional robots and suitable for the Indian market as they are relatively inexpensive, safe, and easy to deploy.”

Targeting Indian market
Highlighting the company’s core objectives as far as Indian market is concerned, Jürgen von Hollen, President of Universal Robots said, “For me, India means diversity in every context. There are tremendous opportunities despite challenges. So, delivering on the potential of Indian market should be another priority. We believe, if we are successful here, we can be successful anywhere.”

Further, Jürgen believes, India has everything that it needs to be a manufacturing hub – let it be capability, competence and resources. He said, “This is the time for India to elevate itself to the global stage by bringing in the missing tools. I think, one of those may be our cobots. Therefore, our priority is to put India among our top global markets.”

He adds, “We would like to see India aggressively adopt advanced technologies across the spectrum – not only restricted to automotive industry. General production manufacturing segment can be explored at least 10 times with the help of some advanced tools.”

India’s biggest strength is human resource, acknowledges Jürgen. He adds, “We would also like to tap in the fantastic resource base here – the education level is high and moreover the hunger for doing something innovative is high. People want to be successful here and that hunger is very important for us. So, one of our key challenges in taking our company to the global level would be to take advantage of the Indian workforce.”

Pradeep David,
General Manager – South Asia, Universal Robots