KUALA LUMPUR (April 6): Danish manufacturer of smaller flexible industrial collaborative robot arms Universal Robots (UR) has urged Malaysian automotive manufacturers to explore new opportunities for the use of robotic solutions, namely collaborative robots (cobots) in automotive manufacturing facilities.

This comes on the heels of the Malaysian Automotive, Robotics, and IoT Institute (MARii) expecting the automotive industry, including Mobility as a Service (MaaS), to contribute up to 10% of gross domestic product.

MARii has forecasted the industry to produce 1.47 million vehicles annually, offering 323,000 employment opportunities.

In a statement today, UR regional director of Asia-Pacific James McKew said cobots are gaining traction in automotive production due to their flexibility, small footprint, rapid return to investment and consistent performance.

McKew called on local manufacturers and suppliers to embrace cobots to complement automotive production processes, as the assembly side of production still revolves around manual labour.

He said that in highly regulated sectors such as automotive manufacturing, traceability is key, adding that cobots help manufacturers control and track key production processes such as ensuring precise torque is applied to screws when mounted to a car key.

The Odense, Denmark-headquartered and Teradyne Inc-owned UR was founded in 2005 to make robot technology.