[isml] Robot sales in Asia plummet, but future bright

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From: "Dan S" <ds1999@ZVmWXHO9XFIKQWN7d7Y2wAgTBGawPm9N3sWO3iwDKta71puRWRjGrS-irK0dokqnj5RaCTxOOkvpT7DNPw.yahoo.invalid>

>>From http://www.afr.com.au/content/991005/update/update43.html
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Robot sales in Asia plummet, but future bright

The use of robots to scrub floors, mow the lawn, help the disabled and
assist in surgery may well enjoy a boom in the next 10 to 15 years similar
to the recent explosion in mobile phones and personal computers, a UN report
predicted today.

Sales of industrial robots fell 16 per cent last year because of recession
in Japan and South Korea, but orders are increasing, said the report by the
UN Economic Commission for Europe.

With improving performance and falling prices, the market potential is huge,
it said.

The annual survey, co-authored by the International Federation of Robotics,
forecast that the spread of personal computers, Internet linkups and
"digital knowledge" would smooth the transition of robots into wealthy
homes.

Equipment such as domestic heating systems, fire and burglar alarms, ovens
and refrigerators would increasingly incorporate microchips and be able to
communicate with each other via electricity wiring or infrared, it said.

"We will be able to control them remotely, using mobile phones as
terminals," said the report. "In this environment domestic robots will serve
as an important link between the various types of computer controlled
equipment and systems in our wired homes."

It painted a picture of robot platforms with specially designed automated
arms and other utilities carrying out a variety of chores.

"They coud vacuum, scrub the floors, empty the dishwasher and place the
china in the cupboards, lay the table, take out the garbage, guard the house
against fire and intruders, mow the lawn, increase the mobility of old and
disabled persons and much more," the report said, identifying a huge scope
for use in surgery.

It estimated that by 2002, some 24,000 service robots and half a million
vacuum cleaning robots would be installed at a total value of $US3.3 billion
($A5.04 billion).

It forecast that sales of industrial robots would grow by eight per cent a
year to 97,000 by 2002, with big potential in sectors like the postal
industry.

In 1998, sales of industrial robots fell 16 per cent to 71,000 units, with
an estimated value of $US4.2 billion ($A6.4 billion).

This was due to plummeting sales to recession-hit Japan and South Korea. In
Japan, the world's most automated country with more than half its robots,
more were taken out of service than new ones installed, the study said.

Sales in the United States dropped by 13 per cent last year but orders
skyrocketed in the first half of 1999, it said. The European robot market
increased by 10 per cent in 1998.

There was healthy growth in the car industry - one of the main uses for
robots. Orders rose by 101 per cent worldwide in the first half of this
year, largely thanks to a 214 per cent surge in the United States.

Even so, the United States lagged in terms of density. In the motor vehicle
industry in Japan, there was one industrial robot for every six production
workers, compared with one to 14 in Italy and one robot to 19 workers in the
United States.

--
Dan S

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