Another User Conference
Another day, another conference. Just home from San Antonio on Wednesday, then drove down to Dayton, Ohio to attend robotics manufacturer Motoman's 15 year anniversary celebration. Looked like at least 100 customers in attendance.
Listening to the conversations and sitting in some of the sessions of both this conference and the Invensys one this week, I was reminded of the value of attending these events. First, there is the opportunity to ask factory specialists questions that have been bugging you. At the same time, there is opportunity to make suggestions for improvements. I don't know of a single company in this industry that isn't hungry to hear from users what improvements need to be made. Third, there is often specialized training available to sharpen your skills. Finally, there is the sharing of problems and best practices.
Motoman President Craig Jennings started off the event with a state of the industry presentation. Industry performance took a big drop in 2000 and 2001, but rebounded in 2003. Jennings expects a strong 2004. Motoman recorded a 35 percent growth in 2003 and expects growth again this year. The over all robotic market has rebounded to nearly $1 billion. In terms of market segmentation, material handling is now the highest in sales, followed by arc welding then spot welding applications. Interestingly, product service and training sales actually are higher than arc welding sales.
Jennings expects future growth to come from the material handling and service segments. In terms of industries, high growth areas are plastics, life sciences, pharmaceutical and medical. Another growth area is in service robotics-hazardous duty, defense, entertainment (robobar served drinks at lunch), pharmaceutical dispensing, surgery and medical treatments.
Future technologies impacting robotics according to Jennings include application specific robotics, new and crossover manipulators (e.g. articulated scara), 3D vision, multiple robot control, PC-based robot control, wireless information management and Web-based commerce and support.
9:22:54 AM 
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