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Print Edition StoriesWednesday, February 25, 2009
MassTLC report: Robotics growing in Mass.
By Mass High Tech staff
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A new study on the state of the robotics industry in Massachusetts highlighted innovation around industrial automation, medical applications of robotics and local university programs, and was released this morning by The Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council.
More than 80 robotics companies have their headquarters in the commonwealth, the report said, with about 40 percent of those companies considered startups or are younger than 6 years old. With 2,500 residents employed in robotics in Massachusetts, the industry’s 47 percent average annual growth rate is poised to add jobs. The report highlighted robotics’ statistics citing 70 percent of robotics companies planning to hire in the next year or two, with 90 percent of all hirings coming from local talent.
Massachusetts hosts 13 robotics research laboratories through 10 universities — Boston University; Brandeis University; Harvard University; MIT; Northeastern University; Olin College of Engineering; Tufts University; University of Massachusetts, Lowell; University of Massachusetts, Amherst and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
The industry is defined in the report as including three types of products: industrial robots, service robots and components. Industrial robots, the largest robotics sector that claims an $18 billion market size, include stationary robots intended to help automate functions in the food, pharmaceutical, manufacturing and semiconductor-fabrication industries, for example. The service sector includes mobile robots that function autonomously or semi-autonomously, such as underwater robots, defense robots or vacuum robots for consumer use. Components, another growing robotics sector, according to the report, includes servers, processors, sensors and man-machine interface operations.
Each robotics firm has its specialty too. Bedford-based robotics firm iRobot Corp. has an increasingly firm grasp on defense-related robots, with the company reporting U.S. military orders on a continual basis. Bluefin Robotics LLC, along with researchers at MIT, have created a number of autonomous underwater vehicles to claim a stake in underwater robotics. And DigitRobotics LLC, founded by UMass Amherst researchers, has a hold on robots that automate the building of other robots.
Mass High Tech will be publishing its Robotics Directory, due out on May 8, with a comprehensive guide to robotics companies in New England.
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