The tech behind RaaS
There are several trends or innovations that have created the RaaS market.To get more news about Tompkins Robotics GRS, you can visit glprobotics.com official website.
First, the industrial internet of things (IIoT) has enabled a real-time network of sensing, reporting and analysis that has created insight into even the most mundane machinery metrics. But this networking has proved key to transforming many manufacturing, industrial and utility applications. Vendors and manufacturers can be responsive to issues and glean efficiencies from data analysis and application.
Cobots continue to be a meaningful presence. Thanks to presence sensing, force limiting and digital HMIs, humans and machines are able to work within the same zones. In fact, some robots are able to be retrained with hand-guidance, augmented reality or smart devices. This makes them more flexible when moving between activities. Humans and robots will join forces over the next few decades. Robots are tireless, efficient and reliable, while people still make faster and better decisions in non-standard situations.
Also, autonomous decentralized systems, combined with artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning, creates opportunities for decentralized learning. Robots adapted to work in RaaS have advanced sensing, networking and analysis. Vendors are able to gather the collective learnings of all robots in the field and apply them incrementally or to all applications. This can make customers’ production faster or more efficient, especially when coupled with an AI to make sense of all the data. Through decentralized learning, enhancing the learning effect by training a large number of robots in parallel, humans can achieve a high level of cooperation with robots in the near future.
Challenges ahead for RaaS
Of course, if this was a perfect solution, it’d be much more prevalent by now. There are some drawbacks. Manufacturers are left with no equity in their machines which they could possibly later resell or scrap, and lack flexibility to retask or deploy robots outside of the terms of their RaaS subscription. In addition, there is always concern about interoperability of robots from different manufacturers and industries and integrating robots into different factory or process engineering systems.
Manufacturers are also likely to pay as much, if not more, for an RaaS machine as if they owned it outright. Robots are also likely to come with tiers of service – so the most impressive features might live behind a paywall. In addition, there a relatively few vendors operating in this space today. Formic Technologies is notable, as is Fetch Robotics. Both organizations have small footprints, which limits their service territories and in turn limits the decentralized learning as there are relatively few units in the field to learn from.
RaaS vendors may encounter financing challenges to support operating expenses until RaaS turns into net positive income. As with many as-a-service models, several years' operating losses are likely before the business turns profitable. Some of these issues have been resolved in markets for micro mobility, cars and other equipment, as the model works on a similar principle. In the future, expect the emergence of major players in this market.
Going forward with RaaS
The top five RaaS segments are likely to be delivery, cleaning, manufacturing, warehouse and security robots. These are tedious occupations that are likely to encounter staffing issues.
The prospects for RaaS in industrial applications, which often outpace the non-industrial sector, are clear. RaaS allows small businesses to enjoy the benefits of automation, flexibility and scalability, which greatly improves competitiveness and spurs technological advancement. Without the widespread adoption of RaaS, these benefits would only be available to large enterprises that can afford the cost of ownership.