Asia, Europe and America are adapting their funding programs for robotics research (R&D) with the gradual opening of the economy after the pandemic. But what are the goals of official government programs today? The International Federation of Robotics has done the research and published the results with the 2021 update of the "World Robotics R&D Programs".
"The first version of our 'World Robotics R&D Programs' report was presented in June last year. Since then, dozens of countries have updated their robotics R&D programs," says Prof. Dr. Jong-Oh Park, Vice Chair of the IFR Research Committee and member of the Executive Board. "The five most advanced robotics countries - South Korea, Japan, Germany, the USA and China - have a very different strategic focus."
Research & development in robotics - official government programs
The "Made in China 2025" strategic plan serves as a blueprint for improving the manufacturing capacity of Chinese industry. In order to promote the rapid development of intelligent robot technology, the important special program "Intelligent Robots" has been launched, which includes the innovation chain. The focus is on basic advanced technologies of intelligent robots, new generation robots, common key technologies, industrial robots, service robots and special robots. The development goals focus on the continuous growth of industrial application. China aims to develop at least three leading enterprises with international competitiveness and create more than five clusters of robot supporting industries. The statistical yearbook "World Robotics" published by the International Federation of Robotics shows that China has already achieved a robot density of 187 units per 10,000 workers in the manufacturing industry - putting the country in 15th place worldwide.
In Japan, the "New Robot Strategy" aims to make the country the world's number one in robot innovation. The rate of robotization in the manufacturing sector is to be increased by 25 percent for large companies and 10 percent for SMEs. Another important performance indicator is to expand the market for system integrators - they act as intermediaries between manufacturers and users. The action plan covers important areas of service robotics such as agriculture, infrastructure and healthcare. The care & medicine sector alone has a budget of 997.3 million US dollars and supports healthcare data reform through practical robot applications and the use of artificial intelligence. According to the statistical yearbook "World Robotics" published by the International Federation of Robotics, Japan is the world's leading manufacturer of industrial robots and covered 47% of global demand in 2019.
With the "Intelligent Robot Development and Supply Promotion Act", South Korea is pushing the development of the country's robotics industry as a core industry of the fourth industrial revolution. The focus areas are manufacturing companies (with a special program to increase the competitiveness of SME manufacturing sites), certain areas of service robotics (including healthcare and logistics) and key components and software for robots. The government is planning a budget of USD 1.07 billion (KRW 1.2 trillion) for the cross-government project "Full Cycle Medical Device Development" from 2020 to 2025. The statistical yearbook "World Robotics" published by the International Federation of Robotics shows a new record of around 319,000 industrial robots in South Korea in 2019 (+13%). Within five years, the country has doubled the number of industrial robots in operation. In 2019, the country ranked third after Japan and China.
The new European framework program Horizon Europe will support research and innovation from 2021 to 2027. Building on the results and successes of Horizon 2020, the new edition supports cutting-edge research, innovators and the general public in developing knowledge and solutions for a green, digital and healthy future. The Robotics work program is embedded in Cluster 4 "Digital, Industry and Space". Robotics R&D&I projects focus on digital transformation in manufacturing and construction, autonomous workforce support solutions, enhanced cognition and human-robot collaboration. The robotics-specific work program 2021-2022 in Cluster 4 will provide a total of 240 million US dollars (198.7 million euros).
The High-Tech Strategy 2025 in Germany is the fourth edition of the German research and innovation program. The aim is to quickly turn good ideas into innovative products and services. The largest part of the framework program promotes partnerships between companies, universities and research institutions in order to bring together institutional research and entrepreneurial expertise. By 2025, 3.5 percent of GDP is to be invested in research and development each year. Under the mission "Technology for People", the "Together through Innovation" program was launched in 2020 to promote interactive technologies for health and quality of life. With this research program, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is providing around 84 million US dollars (70 million euros) annually until 2026.
In the USA, the National Robotics Initiative (NRI) was launched by the US government to support research and development in the field of robotics. The NRI-2.0 promotes collaboration between academic, industrial, non-profit and other organizations to achieve a better connection between basic science, engineering, technology development, deployment and use. A key sector is space robotics with the "Artemis" lunar program. The aim of Artemis is to return astronauts to the surface of the moon by 2024 and to develop promising resources for Mars missions in the period after 2024. Artemis is a joint space program between NASA and international partners such as ESA (consisting of 22 countries), Canada, Japan and Russia. The US government is planning a budget of 35 billion US dollars for the years 2020 to 2024. The largest donor for the development of unmanned systems, including robotics, is still the US Department of Defense (DoD) with a planned budget of USD 7.3 billion in 2020 and 2021. According to the statistical yearbook "World Robotics" by the International Federation of Robotics, the robot density in the US manufacturing industry grew by 7 percent (CAGR) from 2014 to 2019 with 228 robots per 10,000 employees - 9th place worldwide. The country ranks third in terms of annual installations of industrial robots.
