European Robotics Forum 2016 opens in Ljubljana
The capital city of Slovenia, Ljubljana, is the picturesque setting for this year’s European Robotics Forum. Considered to be one of the most important events in the European robotics industry calendar, it is attended by around 700 European robotics experts, politicians and business people.
The event, which started earlier today (March 21), was opened by the representatives of European institutions and the Slovenian Government, who pointed to the importance of digitised industry, the smart specialisation strategy, research investment and innovation in robotics. Robotics has a tremendous impact on our economy and society.
Robots are known to save costs, to improve the quality of products and working conditions, and to minimise resources and waste. From today’s €22bn worldwide revenues, according to some estimates, robotics industries are set to achieve annual sales of between €50bn and €62bn by 2020. In the field of industrial robotics, which is currently growing at 8 per cent per annum, Europe’s share of the world market is about 32 per cent.
Delegates attending the event spoke of how important it is that Europe maintains its strong position in the robotics industry, and outlines ways it could be done. Here, we convey some of their comments. [Read more…] about Europe needs to maintain its leading position in robotics, say experts attending the European Robotics Forum 2016