A Sad Startup Story: Finding the Right Problem, Not the Right Way

Before the birth of collaborative robots, Europe was facing a severe situation brought about by an aging population, and the labor shortage caused by it was still on the rise. The voice of "machine substitution" in the market is high. The unit price of the mainstream traditional industrial robots at that time was between tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the multi-axis high-precision industrial robots applied to large equipment even reached millions of dollars. In addition, the system integrator has to pay an additional service fee of about 300,000 to 1 million for the installation and commissioning of the equipment, and the application cost of traditional industrial robots is prohibitive for small and medium-sized enterprises. Not to mention that this type of equipment is complicated in structure, requires fences to separate people during operation, and must be operated by professionally trained staff. Otherwise, once the operation is improper, there may be a safety accident.

It was cumbersome, expensive and difficult to operate, which led to the fact that small and medium-sized enterprises at that time had the inherent need to apply robots, but due to various inconveniences, the application of traditional industrial robots was regarded as "chicken ribs".

Robots that complement humans

Esben Østergaard, Kasper Støy and Kristian Kassow, the three founders of Universal Robots (UR), saw the shortcomings of traditional industrial robots and realized the convenience There will be a huge market for easy-to-use robots, so it is desirable to design lightweight robots that are easy to install and program to open up new demands. Coincidentally in 2005, the robotics project funded by the European Union was launched to encourage small and medium-sized enterprises to improve the labor level, reduce costs and enhance competitiveness through robotics technology. Thus Universal Robots was founded in Denmark that year.

In 2008, Universal Robots' distributors in Denmark and Germany sold the first UR5 cobot, the first cobot on the market for commercial use. Compared with traditional industrial robots whose loads are counted in tons, this six-joint articulated arm robot has a self-weight of 18 kg, a payload of 5 kg and a working radius of 85 cm. Moreover, a force-feedback sensing device is installed on its robotic arm, which is designed to protect people and can collaborate with people in the same space. Most of the collaborative robots before UR5 were limited to the idea of traditional robots, either focusing on "machine substitution" or emphasizing the cooperation between machines and machines, and UR5 was the first to emphasize collaboration with people from the design concept. A robot developed with the requirements of a collaborative robot.

The concept of collaborative robots combined the advantages of humans and machines at that time, and complemented each other's strengths: let robots assist humans to complete those tasks with high repetition and high precision; while humans solve high-flexibility, continuous optimized work. For this reason, most collaborative robots support drag teaching, which allows people to "teach" a certain action by dragging the robot arm. Its graphical programming interface is also more intuitive, which is much simpler than traditional industrial robots. Moreover, due to its lightweight body and easy programming characteristics, collaborative robots can be transferred to any position on the production line after the enterprise adjusts the production process. For products such as 3C, it has the characteristics of small batches and individuality, and the production line is replaced quickly. And enterprises with extremely high requirements for flexible production, greatly meet their needs.

"industrial" robots out of application scenarios

However, in the collaborative robot industry, which should have a bright future, some people have accidentally embarked on a "wrong path".

In the same year, MIT professor Rodney Brooks founded the predecessor of Rethink Robotics in the United States. The purpose was to help small and medium-sized enterprises in the United States improve production efficiency and reduce costs. However, Rodney Brooks has always been out of the ordinary. He emphasized the interaction between collaborative robots and people. He believes that the goal of the robot is to be like a worker, push it to the production line for simple teaching and start using it, and it does not need to be like a traditional robot. programming. Therefore, he did not hesitate to highlight differences in various aspects such as internal structure, external organization, programming, etc., and adopted a design that was very different from traditional industrial robots.

Baxter, the first product launched by Rethink Robotics in 2011, not only adopts a dual-arm design, but also is equipped with a display screen that can display expressions on the robot's head, which is very similar to the human form. This also makes Baxter very popular in the education and service industries. Moreover, the product uses a plastic shell, and creatively uses the spring deformation to develop a series elastic actuator (SEA), which attaches great importance to the protection of people in collisions.

But because of this, Baxter has sacrificed in terms of structure, stiffness, precision, etc., but its cost remains high. There are even user reactions that Baxter's robotic arm will have "visible shaking" after it stops in place. In addition, the speed of this generation of collaborative robots is too slow to meet the standards of industrial production. Users are convinced how much productivity such a collaborative robot can bring.

Not only that, Baxter didn't consider its own positioning in terms of programming. The original dual-arm design was to better collaborate and complete some complex movements; however, Rodney Brooks placed too much emphasis on dragging and teaching and recording the trajectory through the buttons on the arm, which made it difficult for the robot to record complex tasks before upgrading the programming mode later. Action, the double-arm design is useless, and many users simply use Baxter's arms as two separate parts, or even activate only one of them.

The over-advanced concept and unrealistic application scenarios make Rethink Robotics' collaborative robots have a mediocre response in the market. Although Sawyer, a single-arm robot with greatly improved precision, was launched, it still did not reach the industrial level, and it was powerless to face the decline of Rethink Robotics. By the time of its collapse in 2018, the company had sold a total of 2,500 units in the 10 years, many of which were sold to university labs for research purposes.

The steady and steady progress of Universal Robots

Contrary to Rethink Robotics, Universal Robots has been steady and steady all the way. Following the UR5 with a payload of 5 kg, it launched the more powerful UR10 in 2012. It is aimed at large missions, increasing the payload to 10kg. After entering the Asian market, in view of the booming electronics industry in China, Singapore and other countries, in 2015, it launched the desktop robot UR3 suitable for light assembly operations.

In addition to products, Universal Robots also expands its influence to the entire industry and its upstream and downstream. Universal Robots participated in the drafting of the ISO/TS15066 technical standard in 2016. In addition to traditional industrial robots, the standard adds relevant content of collaborative robots, and proposes the concept and detailed requirements of human-robot collaboration, laying the foundation for the vigorous development of the industry.

In the same year, Universal Robots also launched the ecosystem UR+ to take advantage of R&D outside the company. Universal Robots admits that it is impossible to be proficient in all aspects of the robotic arm manufacturing industry, so the development of end effectors and add-on components for robotic arms is handed over to third parties, hoping that these development partners will develop solutions for industries and specific applications, giving customers rich end tool selection. There are now 201 certified UR+ products and more than 400 approved commercial development companies in the ecosystem. In 2018 alone, more than 500,000 unique visitors visited the UR+ online showroom to find solutions.

As a complement to the UR+ ecosystem, Universal Robots launched free online training on collaborative robots in 2017, including end-effector installation, I/O connection, basic program creation, and application The use of procedural safety features to further improve understanding of robotics knowledge.

Find the right market, but also need to use the right method

Both are innovative companies with core technologies, and they also enter the collaborative robot market, which can be called a blue ocean. Why are these two companies Fate takes the opposite direction?

The reason is that the two companies have different focuses on providing solutions after discovering the pain point that traditional industrial robots do not match the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises.

The French INSEAD business school professors Jin Weican and Renee Mauborgne who once proposed the concept of "Blue Ocean Strategy" pointed out that some business leaders can identify new problems or seize new opportunities, they often follow the following Three steps:

The first step is to think deeply about some urgent but neglected problems in the world or the industry;

The second step is to clarify the reasons for the neglected problems , that is, why some companies or industries are reluctant to solve these problems or seize these opportunities;

The third step is to seek new technologies, new platforms and new methods to solve problems or problems in a high-value and low-cost way. Seize the opportunity.

In the first step, Universal Robots and Rethink Robotics reached the same goal. Both discovered the problems of traditional industrial robots and found the neglected small and medium-sized enterprise, a potential user group.

But in the second step, the paths of the two companies diverged. Rethink believes that the problem lies in the fact that the target group fails to understand the value of collaborative robots, so it has mistakenly adopted the policy of cutting it with traditional industrial robots. of industrial robot users have not yet generally accepted the concept of collaborative robots, and the primary need is to increase productivity. Even if I have long sleeves and dance well, what do I do with a robot without the power to tie a chicken? Products with relatively low performance finally fell into the embarrassing situation of "research teaching aids".

And Universal Robots has made helping users be more productive from the start. Dr. Esben Østergaard, its chief technology officer and one of its founders, said the cobot was designed to be a tool similar to a wrench and a screwdriver. From this, he believes that collaborative robots should have the characteristics of tools, such as portability, easy to change positions, and easy to change applications. Therefore, Universal Robots' robots are developing in the direction of being lighter in weight, more suitable for flexible production, and easier to operate at the design stage. Therefore, we can see that Rethink is huge, with a Baxter payload of 74 kilograms only weighing 2.2 kilograms, while the UR5 payload of about 18 kilograms has a payload of 5 kilograms. Who is more suitable for flexible production and can better meet the production needs of small and medium-sized enterprises, the answer is clear at a glance.

Secondly, at the beginning of each new industrial product's introduction to the market, it tends to be applied in more profitable industries (such as automobiles). Then in the early stage of promotion, in order to speed up the market's recognition of the product, it is necessary to take into account the needs of such enterprises. The case of Universal Robots' cooperation with Continental Motors in Spain can prove this point.

At that time, Continental Motors needed a collaborative robot to perform the tasks of loading, unloading and inspecting PCB boards and components during the manufacturing process. This was a rather monotonous and repetitive task for humans, but at the same time Again a high degree of precision is required. Universal Robots launched a second-generation product with a larger payload (UR10) in time to meet market demand, which improves the strength of the robotic arm while still maintaining high precision. Continental's engineers had no previous experience in robotics, but within a few weeks they mastered the ability to program Universal Robots. The arrival of cobots frees up Continental's operators to perform laborious tasks, such as handling components, so they can focus on improving productivity. As a result, the changeover time in this link has been reduced by 50%, reducing operating costs. Cyril Hogard, factory manager of Continental Motors, pointed out: "The company operates in a highly competitive industry, and one of the main challenges is to increase productivity." Universal Robots' products let them see the advantages of collaborative robots - easy integration and no maintenance. cost and higher productivity.

In the third step, the attitudes of the two are also different. Due to concerns about intellectual property and other issues, even if the per capita price of American factories was more than 20 times that of Chinese factories, Rethink Robotics insisted not to put production in China, but rather put it in high-cost American production, which in vain pushed up the cost of its own products. After Universal Robots entered the Chinese market, even if the Chinese market accounts for less than 10% of its global sales, it is still willing to establish service centers in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen to jointly develop solutions suitable for the local market with customers. Coupled with the UR+ ecosystem mentioned above, Universal Robots actively tests and certifies the products of local UR+ developers. With its own products as the core, it has effectively formed a strong R&D system, which ultimately helped Universal Robots become the global collaborative robot shipments. The leader of the first provides a powerful impetus.