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(Editor's Note: The following report provided by the International Federation of Robotics gives potential, first-time and current users of robotics a concise overview of the worldwide robotics industry. For more information on the full 350-- page report, contact Kerstin Teglof Delgado of the IFR in Sweden at 46-8-782-- 0843 or [email protected].)
By 2003, nearly 900,000 multipurpose robots will be in use worldwide, compared with 750,000 today, according to "World Robotics 2000," a survey published by the U.N. Economic Commission for Europe in cooperation with the International Federation of Robotics. Multipurpose robots are those that may be reprogrammed easily to perform another task, as distinct from dedicated robots built into automated systems.
Between 1998 and 1999, the world market for industrial robots increased by 15 percent, mainly as a result of a sharp upturn in sales in the United States (up 38 percent) and the European Union (16 percent). The highest growth was recorded in France, with almost 90 percent over the 1998 level.
"Never before have the European Union and the United States invested in so many industrial robots in a single year," said Mike Wilson of Meta Vision Systems, chairman of the International Federation of Robotics. "Since 1994, annual robot investment has doubled."
Activity in the Far East is slower. After a small decline the previous year, there was hesitant recovery in Japan (up 5 percent), where the investment climate for automation equipment is still depressed. Even allowing for...