Robotics research: How Asia, Europe and America invest

The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) has published its 2023 update paper ‘World Robotics R&D Programs’, which looks at how countries around the world invest in robotics to support developments in industry and society.

“The third version of ‘World Robotics R&D Programs’ report covers the latest funding developments including updates in 2022,” said Prof Dr Jong-Oh Park, Vice-Chairman IFR Research Committee and member of the Executive Board. The overview shows that the most advanced robotics countries in terms of annual installations of industrial robots — China, Japan, USA, South Korea, Germany — and the EU drive very different R&D strategies.

In China, the 14th Five-Year Plan for Robot Industry Development, released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) in Beijing on 21 December 2021, focuses on promoting innovation. The goal is to make China a global leader for robot technology and industrial advancement. Robotics is included in eight key industries for the next five years. In order to implement national science and technology innovation arrangements, the key special program ‘Intelligent Robots’ was launched under the National Key R&D Plan on 23 April 2022 with funding of US$43.5 million. The recent statistical yearbook World Robotics by IFR shows that China reached a robot density of 322 units per 10,000 workers in the manufacturing industry, making the country rank fifth worldwide in 2021 compared to 20th (140 units) in 2018.

In Japan, the New Robot Strategy aims to make the country the world’s number one robot innovation hub. More than US$930.5 million in support has been provided by the Japanese Government in 2022. Key sectors are manufacturing (US$77.8 million), nursing and medical (US$55 million), infrastructure (US$643.2 million) and agriculture (US$66.2 million). The action plan for manufacturing and service includes projects such as autonomous driving, advanced air mobility or the development of integrated technologies that will be the core of next-generation artificial intelligence and robots. A budget of US$440 million was allocated to robotics-related projects in the ‘Moonshot Research and Development Program’ over a period of five years from 2020 to 2025. According to the IFR statistical yearbook World Robotics, Japan is the world’s number one industrial robot manufacturer and delivered 45% of the global supply in 2021.

The Third Basic Plan on Intelligent Robots of South Korea is pushing to develop robotics as a core industry in the fourth industrial revolution. The Korean Government allocated US$172.2 million in funding for the 2022 Implementation Plan for the Intelligent Robot. From 2022 to 2024 a total of US$7.41 million is planned in funding for the Full-Scale Test Platform Project for Special-Purpose Manned or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. The World Robotics yearbook showed an all-time high of 1000 industrial robots per 10,000 employees in 2021. This makes Korea the country with the highest robot density worldwide.

Horizon Europe is the European Union’s key research and innovation framework program with a budget of US$94.30 billion for seven years (2021–2027). Top targets for the program are strengthening the EU’s scientific and technological bases, boosting Europe’s innovation capacity, competitiveness and jobs, and delivering on citizens’ priorities as well as sustaining socio-economic models and values. The European Commission provides total funding of US$198.5 million for the robotics-related work program 2021–2022.

Germany’s High-Tech Strategy 2025 (HTS) is the fourth edition of the German R&D and innovation program. The German Government will provide around US$69 million annually until 2026 — a total budget of US$345 million for five years. As part of the HTS 2025 mission, the program ‘Shaping technology for the people’ was launched. This program aims to use technological change in society as a whole and in the world of work for the benefit of people. Research topics are: digital assistance systems such as data glasses, human–robot collaboration, exoskeletons to support employees in their physical work, and also solutions for the more flexible organisation of work processes or the support of mobile work. According to the report ‘World Robotics’ by IFR, Germany is the largest robot market in Europe — the robot density ranks in fourth place worldwide with 397 units per 10,000 employees.

The National Robotics Initiative (NRI) in the USA was launched for fundamental robotics R&D supported by the US Government. The NRI-3.0 program, announced in February 2021, seeks research on integrated robot systems and builds upon the previous NRI programs. The US Government supported the NRI-3.0 fund to the sum of US$14 million in 2021. Collaboration among academics, industry, government, non-profit, and other organisations is encouraged. The ‘Moon to Mars’ project by NASA, for example, highlights objectives to establish a long-term presence in the vicinity of and on the moon. The projects target research and technology development that will significantly increase the performance of robots to collaboratively support deep space human exploration and science missions. For the Artemis lunar program, the US Government is planning to allocate a budget of US$35 billion from 2020 to 2024. The IFR statistical yearbook World Robotics shows that robot density in the United States rose from 255 units in 2020 to 274 units in 2021. The country ranks ninth in the world. Regarding annual installations of industrial robots, the USA takes third position.

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