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Whereas headlines typically highlight U.S. and Asian corporations within the humanoid robotics race, a silent revolution is brewing within the tech hubs of Europe, the place cutting-edge startups are making outstanding strides in creating human-like robots.
From Norway to Switzerland, progressive European corporations are pushing the boundaries of robotics know-how, creating machines that may sense, really feel, and work together with their surroundings in more and more human-like methods.
These developments aren’t simply technological marvels; they’re additionally potential options to international labor shortages and catalysts for a societal shift in how we work and stay.
Robotics innovation is going on throughout Europe
Europe affords a good marketplace for growth, a stable expertise pool, and no scarcity of progressive concepts and analysis labs. Its various cultures and languages additionally encourage the event of robots that may navigate advanced social interactions.
The continent has an extended historical past of robotics innovation, with a variety of analysis performed throughout various fields akin to service, industrial, and cognitive robotics. Examples embody PAL Robotics in Spain, which claimed that it developed the primary autonomous bipedal robotic in Europe, to Swiss corporations like ANYbotics and Swiss-Mile main advances in quadrupedal robots and embodied AI. The continent affords a wealthy surroundings for robotics growth.
Europe has a various and progressive robotics sector. Within the realm of autonomous car, the U.Ok.-based Oxa develops low-compute software program, whereas Sweden’s Einride produces autonomous, electrical highway transport autos. U.Ok.-based ECARX affords turnkey options for next-generation good autos.
Startups in Europe tackle robotics challenges
A number of corporations in Europe have been engaged on promising robotics tasks that deserve consideration:
1X (Norway): This AI robotics firm not too long ago unveiled NEO Beta, a humanoid robotic designed for dwelling use. With a formidable $100 million funding spherical in January 2024, 1X has now raised a complete of $137 million.
ABB (Switzerland), a worldwide chief in electrification and automation, relies in Zurich and has greater than 105,000 staff worldwide. With over 140 years of expertise, the firm integrates software program and engineering to optimize manufacturing, vitality, and automation processes.
ABB Robotics in June launched its next-generation management platform, OmniCore, designed to boost precision, pace, and sustainability in automation. Ensuing from a $170 million funding, OmniCore integrates AI, sensor, cloud, and edge computing methods right into a unified management structure, providing sooner and extra environment friendly robotics options throughout industries.
The platform can enhance robotic movement accuracy to lower than 0.6mm and permits as much as 25% sooner operations whereas lowering vitality consumption by 20%, stated the corporate.
Collectively with Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Analysis Institute, ABB Robotics developed an automatic fruit-fly switch system utilizing ABB’s YuMi robotic. This eradicated the necessity for anesthesia, which might have an effect on fly habits and examine accuracy in neurological illness analysis.
Agile Robots (Germany), based in 2018 by Dr. Zhaopeng Chen and Peter Meusel, former researchers at DLR’s Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics, has quickly grown to make use of over 2,300 folks throughout a number of international manufacturing websites and R&D facilities in Germany and China.
The Munich-based firm focuses on combining AI with robotics for user-friendly options to advanced manufacturing challenges. Agile Robots stated its capability to depend on each “Chinese language market dynamics and German engineering precision” units it aside.
ANYbotics (Switzerland) emerged from pioneering work at ETH Zurich in 2009 and was formally based in 2016. It has made strides in autonomous robots for industrial purposes. It developed ANYmal, a four-legged robotic able to navigating advanced terrains and performing inspection duties in difficult environments.
Over the previous 14 years, ANYbotics has demonstrated its capability to boost employee security, enhance operational effectivity, and help sustainability targets. The corporate has a partnership with Vitality Robotics, a developer of hardware-agnostic fleet administration and knowledge analytics platforms, to rework asset monitoring within the vitality trade by built-in, autonomous inspections.
KUKA (Germany), based in 1898 in Augsburg, has developed from a neighborhood acetylene gasoline plant to one of many world’s main suppliers of business automation. The firm stated it developed Europe’s first robot-operated welding switch line in 1971 and the world’s first industrial robotic with six electrical motor-driven axes in 1973.
KUKA’s gross sales have exceeded €4 billion ($4.2 billion U.S.) and it employs round 15,000 folks throughout greater than 50 international locations. The corporate’s portfolio consists of LBR iiwa cobot launched in 2013, and it’s increasing into new markets and areas past its conventional stronghold within the automotive trade.
In 2023, the RBR50 Robotics Innovation Award winner launched three new autonomous cell robots (AMRs): the KMR iisy, a cell manipulator with a collaborative arm and a 200 kg (440.9 lb.) payload capability; the KMP 1500P, designed for heavy-duty duties carrying as much as 1.5 tons; and the KMP 600-S, able to transporting 600 kg (1,322.7 lb.).
Neura Robotics (Germany), based in 2019, stated it’s a participant within the cognitive robotics discipline. The Metzingen-based firm has grown to greater than 170 staff from over 30 international locations, attracting various expertise in a aggressive tech panorama. NEURA’s product lineup, together with the MAiRA cognitive cobot and 4NE-1 humanoid robotic, showcases its deal with advancing human-robot collaboration.
The corporate’s current partnership with NVIDIA to make use of the Isaac platform suggests NEURA is positioning itself strategically within the AI-driven robotics market. Nevertheless, the real-world impression and market adoption of those applied sciences stay to be seen within the coming years.
PAL Robotics (Spain) has been on the forefront of service robotics since 2004, gaining vital traction with its autonomous robots throughout numerous sectors together with trade, healthcare, retail, agriculture, and meals. With greater than twenty years of expertise, the corporate has established itself as a pacesetter within the discipline, persevering with to encourage roboticists worldwide by its customizable robotic platforms and modular elements designed for integration into each day life and industrial settings.
Shadow Robotic (U.Ok.), based within the late Nineteen Nineties by a non-tech entrepreneur and a bunch of hobbyists, has turn into Britain’s longest-running robotics firm. The London-based firm is greatest recognized for creating the Shadow Dexterous Hand, described as probably the most superior five-fingered robotic hand on the planet. It options 20 motors, 24 levels of freedom, and over 100 sensors.
Shadow Robotic stated its know-how is being utilized in each educational and industrial settings. The corporate’s moral stance, together with a “robots for good” coverage and refusal to promote for navy use, exhibits its dedication to accountable innovation.
Swiss-Mile (Switzerland), integrated in April 2023 as a spin-off from ETH Zurich‘s Robotic Methods Lab. In its first yr, the corporate achieved early traction with pilot deployments for last-mile supply in good cities and safety for important infrastructure.
Swiss-Mile raised $22 million in seed funding spherical in August 2024, led by Jeff Bezos and HongShan. This substantial early-stage funding and the involvement of high-profile traders demonstrated market confidence in Swiss-Mile’s strategy to creating autonomous robots that combine AI with the bodily world.
Common Robots (Denmark), based in 2005 in Odense, has established itself as a pioneer in collaborative robotics. The firm first bought the UR5 cobot in 2008, adopted by the launches of UR10 in 2012 and UR3 in 2015.
Common Robots’ progress is evidenced by its acquisition by Teradyne Inc. for $285 million in 2015, the introduction of the e-Sequence in 2018, and reaching the trade milestone of 50,000 cobots bought worldwide in 2020. It additionally launched the UR20, a 20kg payload cobot, in 2022, and opened its a hundredth coaching middle, showcasing its dedication to training and international growth.
What’s driving the robotics increase in Europe?
The explosion in robotics analysis shouldn’t be taking place in a vacuum. It’s pushed by urgent international wants, notably labor shortages.
“Labor shortages have appeared throughout a various group of nations that don’t have any obvious widespread options apart from their stage of growth,” stated a current McKinsey report. “Tightness is especially acute in seven international locations—the Czech Republic, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, and the US—which have extra vacancies than unemployed staff.”
McKinsey famous that these international locations account for 53% of the full labor provide of the 30 superior economies in our analysis, and 64% of collective GDP.
Japan, typically thought of the entrance runner in growing old inhabitants, is projected to have 38% of its inhabitants aged 65 or older by 2050, up from 28% in 2020. In Germany, the proportion of individuals aged 65 and older is predicted to rise from 21.7% in 2020 to 31% by 2050, in accordance with the most recent knowledge compiled by the United Nations.
The U.S. is growing old extra slowly than Europe or East Asia however nonetheless expects to see its 65+ inhabitants enhance from 16.9% in 2020 to 22% by 2050. Whereas China and Western markets have vastly totally different labor and residing prices, these financial contrasts instantly form the main focus areas and use instances pursued by robotics startups in every area.
These demographic shifts contribute considerably to labor shortages, because the working-age inhabitants shrinks relative to the general inhabitants. This pattern is prone to proceed and doubtlessly intensify within the coming a long time, presenting challenges for financial progress and social methods in these international locations.
Cobots are a part of the answer
Regardless of perceptions that European factories may lag in robotic innovation, a wave of collaborative robotics is sweeping throughout the continent’s manufacturing sector. The Sharework and SHERLOCK applications, funded by the European Fee’s Factories of the Future initiative, have developed and applied methods that work safely alongside human operators with out the necessity for protecting obstacles.
These clever robots, outfitted with AI-driven notion and decision-making capabilities, might revolutionize meeting traces from automotive to renewable vitality. By specializing in human-centered design and employee well-being, these tasks aren’t solely boosting productiveness but in addition enhancing job high quality, doubtlessly opening up manufacturing to a extra various workforce.
A future with humanoids approaches
Humanoid robots supply one other resolution to labor shortages, and the market is responding to their potential to reshape industries and society. The worldwide marketplace for humanoid robots was valued at roughly $1.5 billion in 2024 and is predicted to succeed in $9.4 billion by 2030, rising at a compound annual progress charge (CAGR) of 36.2%.
Whereas there are quite a few industrial trials, there have been no profitable mass deployments or confirmed enterprise instances within the humanoid robotic area, making it an thrilling second for the trade. Goldman Sachs analysis predicts that by 2035, the full addressable marketplace for humanoid robots will attain $38 billion—greater than six occasions their earlier projection of $6 billion.
Robotics startups akin to Neura Robotics and 1x Applied sciences are focusing extra on family purposes, setting Europe other than industrial-focused rivals within the U.S. or China.
At Humanoid, we consider in a extra gradual strategy, and we predict that humanoid robotic know-how ought to first turn into important at factories and warehouses earlier than ultimately integrating it into our properties.
Three main technical challenges at present restrict humanoid robotics growth: AI capabilities and coaching, battery life, and actuator applied sciences for protected, environment friendly motion. Social facets and regulatory issues are additionally challenges.
The price of constructing these robots varies broadly based mostly on their supposed use, with our estimates starting from $10,000 to $300,000 per unit. The funding panorama is dominated by U.S.-based humanoid startups, which are a magnet for 80-90% of whole funding, adopted by Chinese language corporations.
The U.S. additionally leads in industrial pilot applications, whereas stricter labor rules and the presence of sturdy labor unions in Europe and the U.Ok. have restricted deployment alternatives in these areas.
Humanoid shares imaginative and prescient and positioning
At Humanoid, we deal with constructing versatile robots with a modular, human-like design that may combine into current environments. These humanoids are supposed to be appropriate with present instruments and automation methods, simply repurposed for various duties, and able to automating medium- to high-precision duties that commonplace industrial robots can’t deal with, all whereas sustaining security.
The firm‘s imaginative and prescient aligns with these of corporations like 1X, which see automation not as a method to maximise effectivity in any respect prices, however as a option to improve human potential. By taking over the bodily demanding and repetitive duties, Humanoid’s robots might release people to interact in work that’s extra fulfilling, inventive, and aligned with their private progress.
Think about a world the place former warehouse staff, free of bodily pressure and monotony, have the time and vitality to pursue training, begin companies, or just spend extra high quality time with their households. That is the long run we’re working in direction of — one the place know-how serves humanity by giving folks extra time to be really human.
In regards to the creator
Dmitrii Rudnitckii is chief know-how officer at Humanoid (SKL Robotics Ltd.). He has in depth worldwide expertise and a confirmed monitor report in robotics, AI, and autonomous methods throughout a number of industries, together with manufacturing, telecommunications, and banking.
At Humanoid, Rudnitckii leads the event of next-generation humanoid robots with cutting-edge AI integration to reshape human-robot collaboration and push the boundaries of automation. He beforehand spearheaded the creation of a totally versatile autonomous electrical car manufacturing unit at ARRIVAL, an organization targeted on creating zero-emission transportation by superior manufacturing processes.