Robotics

The total number of so-called "industrial robots" shipped worldwide has reached to 73,900 in 2005. They are fully utilized in a wide range of industrial fields ranging from welding, handling, assembling, painting, to handling and transfer in clean rooms for LCD and plasma display and semiconductor manufacturing.

Robot is not a novel concept and actually a derivative technology which was originally born from motion control items that control movements of objects in the conventional manufacturing industry.

 The moving components for moving objects (e.g. ones of motors and syringes), amplifiers and controllers are representative robot components. Their motions are becoming more three-dimensional, smooth and flexible.
This, combined with the development of sensors that control complex movement and determine fine motion, allowed the birth of multiple integration "Robot".
Robots have enjoyed a wide variety of applications ranging from welding and painting in automobile manufacturing lines to a recent application such as delivery of large-size LCD panels.

There are two directions that robotics technology goes into in the future. One is to pursue more complex motion. The other is to expand its application to everyday life. Robots may come to play an active role in waiting on us in the-not-so-distant future.