The future of industrial mobile robotics is taking shape in Switzerland
Founded in 2004 by four start-ups from the Lake Geneva region, the Swiss Mobile Robotics Consortium is growing with the addition of Neuronics and GCtronic.
Sylvie Gardel — Lausanne
"There is no doubt that domestic robots will invade our daily lives tomorrow," declared Olivier Michel, founder and director of Cyberbotics, in December 2004 in L'Agefi. Since then, household robots, security androids, and companion and leisure robots have indeed become an increasingly familiar presence. But this is still only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the industrial mobile robotics market and its growth prospects.
It was his conviction in the economic potential of new technologies — and in Switzerland's particular strengths in microtechnology and its higher education institutions — that led the Lausanne start-up's CEO to launch the idea of a platform bringing together regional talent. As early as September 2004, three other start-ups, two of them also based at the Ecublens Science Park (PSE), joined the mobile robot simulation software developer: Bluebotics, a specialist in autonomous navigation technology; FiveCo, active in embedded electronics and image processing; and K-Team, based at the Yverdon Technology Park and known notably for its jockey robot designed for camel racing in Qatar. Thus the Swiss Mobile Robotics Consortium was born.
Towards a closer human-machine collaboration
Together, these four young companies pool the skills needed not only to advance the field of mobile robotics, but also to offer a straightforward interface for mandates of any size and complexity, as engineer Antoine Lorotte, founder and CEO of FiveCo, explains: "This consortium is all the more important because robotics is currently entering the service sector — meaning closer human-machine collaboration. Just as computers transformed the 1980s and the Internet the 1990s, a new revolution is taking shape. Forecasts suggest that demand for 'personal' robots will grow to USD 11 billion by 2010, and reach a level comparable to the automotive industry by the end of the 21st century."
This year, the consortium took an important step forward with the arrival of two new members: Neuronics, a Zurich-based company that has produced one of the rare robotic arms validated for use in human environments, and the very young GCtronic from Mendrisio, designer of the autonomous mini-robot Alice, measuring barely 1 cm³. With these new capabilities, the consortium is hoping to make its mark at Go Automation, Switzerland's most important automation trade fair, to be held in Basel in September. "Our stand space will be almost equivalent to that of ABB," says Nicola Tomatis, founder and CEO of Bluebotics, with evident pride.
Mobility will become a crucial argument
But beyond sheer size, it is above all its credentials that the Swiss Mobile Robotics Consortium has just acquired — credentials essential to its mission: promoting new technologies at the industrial level and raising awareness of the current and future mobile robotics market. Mobile robotics distinguishes itself from "classic" industrial robotics by the near-autonomous operation of the robot, carried out with respect for the human being. "From 2010 onwards, mobility will become the key," adds the Bluebotics CEO. Yet it is today that the technical and legal framework of this service-robot-populated world is being established. Evidence of this shift: "Whereas for years the dividing line between large and small players was very clear, the groups that dominate the European market — such as Kuka (Germany), ABB (Switzerland-Sweden), and Coman (Italy) — are increasingly talking to small companies like us."
Switzerland, often a test market for these industrialists, clearly has the expertise to aspire to a locomotive role in this revolution that is generating such excitement in mobile robotics. "As long as we keep innovating, we stay ahead," asserts FiveCo's CEO. The consortium also harbours a more ambitious goal: to demonstrate that mobile robotics is a means of avoiding the offshoring of production, and of safeguarding competitiveness — not only for Switzerland, but for Europe as a whole.
