Report scopes robot market

As it rides the second big wave in the development of robotics, Korea needs to create more realistic strategies to meet the demands of a rapidly growing market, a Samsung Economic Research Institute report said yesterday.
The institute’s report offered its observations on the current robotics industry and what Korea must do to stay one step ahead of competitors.
Korea is now undergoing a second robotics “boom,” the report said. The first one was in the early 1980s, when robots were employed to automate factories.
The institute asked related organizations for their estimates on the size of the global robotics markets by 2020. Although the numbers differed, the lowest estimate was $53.5 billion. At the high end, the Commerce Ministry predicted the market would reach $1.5 trillion.
The research institute said Korea was in danger of falling behind in the robotics industry even though it has the fifth largest robot market in the world for industrial robots used for manufacturing.
The problem, however, is that most companies that have the technology to make robots or those that are investing in developing related technology are small or medium firms that are short on capital.
Moreover, those that have been developing robots have only focused on making industrial robots and lack basic technology in making other types.
In the past few years, start-ups have begun developing robots for other purposes such as education, entertainment, and vacuum cleaners, but their sales are very low. As of 2003, Korean robotics sales, excluding the industrial, amounted to a mere 10 billion won.
“Less than 20 percent of core parts are made in Korea, and technology does not live up to consumers’ demands,” said researcher Shin Hyun-am.
Technology is not the only problem. Especially with high growth expected in the household robotics market, there are no laws regarding safety standards or for compensation in case of accidents.
The institution presented several ideas that Korea would have to adopt to create a successful robotics market: more general research that could lead to several applied functions instead of one particular function, raising social recognition of robots through exhibitions, using more robots in public services, and conducting studies in a broad range-such as design, psychology, and marketing.

by Wohn Dong-hee