Mar 7 2011
Several U.S. companies will be displaying their robotic innovations alongside Germans, Japanese, and South Koreans at the global robotics conference that will be held in Chicago from Mar. 21-24 for Automate 2011.
According to the Frankfurt-based International Federation of Robotics (IFR), the two companies that continue to top the list of companies manufacturing industrial robots are the Swiss-based ABB (ABB) and Fanuc of Japan.
IFR estimates that a huge market awaits companies that manufacture service robots at $13 billion worldwide. Companies manufacturing service robots will find business in industries such as space, health care, defense, business logistics, and consumer products and other markets. U.S. companies based in Silicon Valley, Boston, and Pittsburgh, are very much in competition for this fast-growing market.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) funded $23 million on three in-house robotic projects. DARPA also funds projects like the development of a pack robot, called the Legged Squad Support System (LS3), from Boston Dynamics. Aethon now manufactures, the TUG, a mobile robot that is useful for automation of movement of medicines, machinery, and food in more than 100 hospitals.
Source: http://www.ifr.org/