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Press Releases

President’s Report by Takayuki Ito

Strong Start into the Year

Mar 27, 2025 — The year 2025 started with a whole bunch of activities for the IFR. In January, we published the top 5 trends in robotics from IFR's perspective and received quite a bit of press attention for this. This was followed by an update of the "World Robotics R&D Programs" that are kindly compiled by Prof. Jong-Oh Park and his team with a corresponding press release in February.

China to Invest 1 Trillion Yuan in Robotics and High-Tech Industries

China’s National People's Congress announced venture capital fund

Frankfurt, Mar 25, 2025 — China’s National Development and Reform Commission has announced to set up a state-backed venture capital fund focused on robotics, AI and cutting-edge innovation. The long-term fund is expected to attract nearly 1 trillion yuan (US$138 billion) in capital from local governments and the private sector over 20 years. This initiative aims to continue China's technology-driven success story in manufacturing: In ten years, the country's global share of industrial robot installations has risen from around one-fifth to more than half of the world's total demand.

Europe’s Employment Rate Hit Highest Level in Twenty Years as Gender Gap Closes

Employment gap between men and women down to 10%

Frankfurt, Mar 04, 2025 — Employment across all sectors in the European Union hit the highest level in twenty years: The employment rate for people aged 15-64 reached 71.7%. At the same time, the employment gap between men and women has narrowed. Since 2005, it has declined from almost 15% to 10% today. However, EU manufacturing is lagging behind.

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Press Photos

Canteen Robot

© KUKA Group

KUKA KR Agilus serves rice dishes in a canteen to employees.

Handcraft Application

© KUKA Group

An articulated robot is sanding a piece of wood in a handcraft joinery.

Laboratory Work

© KUKA Group

A robot moving blood samples in a laboratory.

AI Application

© KUKA Group

AI helps the robot gripping parts out of a box.

Palletizing Liquor

© OnRobot

The Off-The-Shelf system automates the palletizing of 11 kg liquor boxes, easing worker strain and enabling fast, in-house redeployment for new product lines.

Electronics Device Packaging

© Hangzhou Robotphoenix Industrial Robotics

High-Speed Automated Pick-and-Place System for Mobile Phone Protective Glass completed with SCARA and Delta robot.

Food Industry Loading

© Hangzhou Robotphoenix Industrial Robotics

Robotphoenix’s high-speed Delta robots, combined with a precise vision system, ensure accurate picking and placement of egg tarts of various sizes.

Beauty Assembly

© Hangzhou Robotphoenix Industrial Robotics

A SCARA robot picking and placing eyeshadow palettes in the beauty industry, reduces human errors and product damage.

Container Unloading

© OnRobot

An Off-The-Shelf palletizing solution powered by OnRobot’s D:PLOY platform automates the manual unloading of battery containers.

Scara Robot Street

© Epson

Efficient, precise, and reliable – Epson SCARA robots optimize automation processes in the industry.

Solar Park

© Comau

Comau’s patented mobile factory grants better safety and sustainability by automatically installing solar trackers directly in the photovoltaic field

Educating Young People

© Comau

e.DO is a new way of learning and teaching STEM subjects, robotics and coding, a combination of an educational robot and innovative didactic tools.

Body in White

© ABB

Body in White (BiW) line with ABB robots performing spot welding tasks.

Quality control

© KUKA

Sensitive joint torque sensors in all six axes of the LBR iisy enable safe cooperation be-tween humans and robots.

Hospital logistics

© OPPENT

OPPENT EVO Cart mobile robots transporting materials in a hospital, driven by BlueBotics ANT® navigation technology.

Internal Logistic with forklift

© Stoecklin Logistick AG

Eagle-Ant 1 automated forklifts by Stoecklin Logistick AG in operation at a food production plant.

High Payload Transportation

© Stäubli

AGV with a high payload moves automatically 20 tons at once.

Internal Logistics with forklift

© Stäubli

The ultra-compact forklift AGV transports pallets and increases productivity at an automotive OEM.

Logistics

© Mech-Mind

The robot picks and places boxes on palettes.

Material Handling

© ABB

BlueBotics mini™ mobile robots in operation at ABB’s semiconductor manufacturing plant in Lenzburg, Switzerland.

Picking Cosmetics

© FANUC

FANUC robot picking in cosmetics industry by using vision systems.

Picking Cosmetics

© FANUC

FANUC robot picking in cosmetics industry by using vision systems.

Material Handling

© FANUC

Two FANUC LR Mate 200iD-7L robots handle parts between them.

Testing

© FANUC

A FANUC CR-7iA/L collaborative robot supports assembly staff with the testing of control panels.

Handling Ceramic

© FANUC

Handling of ceramic tableware by FANUC robots

Hospital Disinfection

© OMRON

UV Disinfection Robot moves around in a hospital

Assembly and Testing

© Staubli

Assembly and test of smartphones with a SCARA and a 6 axis robot from Stäubli.

Assembly

© Staubli

Assembly application of E-mountainbikes Cube with a TX2-140 robot from Stäubli.

Monitoring

© Staubli

Monitoring of the production with a Stäubli TS2-100 robot.

Programming

© Staubli

Programming of a Stäubli TS2-100 SCARA robot.

Internal Logistics

© Mobile Industrial Robots A/S

Autonomous mobile robots transport pallets from the depot to the warehouse, manned hightrucks take over.

Hygiene Logistics

© Mobile Industrial Robots A/S

KEN Hygiene has developed a fully automated sterile center using autonomous mobile robot that works as the logistical link.

Warehouse Logistics

© Mobile Industrial Robots A/S

Automous mobile robot transports finished products from assembly lines to the warehouse - optimization of internal logistics

Cobot Palletizing

© YASKAWA

Safe palletizing with Yaskawa collaborative robot

Deburring and Chamfering

© YASKAWA

Robot deburring cell with the Yaskawa handling robot deburring and chamfering all types of gearing components.

Car Measurement

© YASKAWA

Turn-key complete cell MANTIS with Yaskawa handling robot enables measurement of a car side door in a matter of minutes.

Collaborative Robot Programming

© Photoneo

Programming and working with a collaborative robot.

Robot Vision

© Photoneo

Adjustments on an industrial robot and the vision system

Robot getting Eyes

© Photoneo

Mechanic setting up the vision system on an industrial robot.

Aluminum Welding

© OTC Daihen

Robot twin system of two robots and a positioner - fully automated aluminum welding with high-speed welding process AC/MIG.

Aluminum Work

© HSD

The HSD electrospindles are used for robotic milling applications on aluminum frames.

Marble Work

© HSD

HSD electrospindles working even on rigid surfaces like marble.

Milling Application

© HSD

The HSD electrospindles are used for robotic milling applications

Total Freedom of Movement - 7 Axis

© Duerr

The robot with a seven axis reaches every spot in the car body. This can eliminate the need for a linear displacement rail.

Overspray-free Paint Application

© Duerr

EcoPaintJet is an innovative system for automated, highly defined paint application without any overspray.

Sealing Application

© Duerr

Robot EcoRS 30L16S with shortened arm 1 is particularly suitable for sealing applications inside car bodies.

Logistics

© OMRON

Automous mobile robots safely and efficiently transport different payloads in manufacturing and warehouse logistics operations.

Cobot Application

© OMRON

Collaborative robots can work side-by-side with humans in many applications, e.g. closing CNC machine.

Scara Production Line

© OMRON

Seamless integration of robots and machine control allows flexible manufacturing of fixed industrial robots

Assembly

© YASKAWA

YASKAWA robots assemble robots for automation of the factory

Digital Supply Chain

© KUKA

The body-in-white plant KUKA Toledo Production Operations set new milestone in terms of digital supply chain and Industrie 4.0.

Soft Hand Gripper

© qbrobotics srl

SoftHand grasping a trolley handle with ability changing the angle of the wrist

Food Packaging

© OnRobot

Heavy and monotone tasks can be taken from the employees with a collaborative robot and special gripper.

Laboratory

© OnRobot

The OnRobot RG6 gripper is changing tests quickly by simply clipping and unclipping at L'Oréal.

Primary Packaging

© OnRobot

Two sets of dual gripper stack plastic molded containers, making them ready for packaging.

Smart Production

© KUKA

Smart Production in a factory

Cobot mounted on AMR

© NEURA Robotics GmbH

LARA (Lightweight Agile robotic assistant) mounted on MAV (Multi-Sensing Autonomous vehicle) palletizing products

Wire Cutting

© FANUC

A FANUC Robot LR Mate 200iD is loading a WireCut EDM machine

Collaborative Robot

© ABB

YUMI is ABB's collaborative robot on the market

Electronics industry

© ABB

Robots at assembly line in the electronics industry

Automotive welding

© ABB

Robots welding car chassis in the automotive industry

Automotive welding

© ABB

Robots welding parts in the automotive industry

UR5 - A highly flexible robot arm

© Universal Robots

UR5 robots (payload 5kg) carry out machine tending on CNC machines

UR3 - ultra-flexible table-top robot

© Universal Robots

UR3 robots (payload 3kg) to screw drive the caps on consumer goods at MARKA.

Cheese Handling

© Staubli

Cutting and Handling of Cheese

Automotive

© Staubli

Automotives - Automation

Programming

© YASKAWA

Using the teach pendant for programming, or touch up of previously made offline programs.

Printing

© CoolGraphics/Yaskawa

MOTOMAN dual arm robot in a co‐worker robot cell separates, airs and moves stacks of printed paper sheets.

Labrobot

© YASKAWA

The MOTOMAN dual arm robot in a biomedical cell where it performs all the necessary tasks in a laboratory environment.

Cleanfix

© BlueBotics 2017

Cleanfix - RA 660 - ANT driven cleaning a floor

ANT driven AGV

© BlueBotics 2017

AGV Scandinavia - ANT driven forklift

Contact

Press Contact IFR

Carsten Heer

IFR Press Inquiries

Phone: +49 40-822 44 284
E-Mail: press(at)ifr.org

Dr. Susanne Bieller

IFR General Secretary

Phone: +49 69-6603-1502
E-Mail: secretariat(at)ifr.org