On their Unchained Robotics platform, the founders broker cobots to smaller companies.
Munich The market is confusing for medium-sized companies who want to buy their first robot. New manufacturers are constantly being added. “There is now a solution to almost every problem – you just have to find it,” says Mladen Milicevic, CEO and founder of Unchained Robotics.
As an independent consultant, the start-up provides collaborating robots on a digital platform. Companies that already have some experience can put together their own robot and combine gripper, arm and camera using a configurator. In addition, Unchained Robotics also offers sample solutions that companies are already successfully using in practice.
The start-up has around 50 manufacturers in its program. The robots are now quite affordable. “It starts at around 20,000 euros for a robotic arm that does a simple job,” says Milicevic.
A complete robotic cell that is integrated into production currently costs around 70,000 euros. For more complex and larger solutions, it is 120,000 to 130,000 euros. “The purchase usually pays for itself within a year and a half,” says Milicevic.
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So far, it has not been easy for companies to combine products from different providers because the individual systems differ from one another. “We want to bring in transparency here,” says Milicevic. Because solutions to most problems already exist: One company ordered a cobot from the world market leader Universal Robots and taught it how to grind with the help of the appropriate teaching kit from Nordbo Mimic, also available on the platform.
In four weeks to your own robot
The installation should be significantly accelerated. From the order to the finished robot in the factory, including training, it only takes four to eight weeks, says Milicevic.
Medium-sized companies are the key target group for the new robotics providers because the potential market is huge. According to the German Robotics Association, less than five percent of all work steps in the manufacturing industry in small and medium-sized companies are automated. “95 percent is still done manually.” The market is therefore still at the very beginning of the growth curve.
There are now a number of companies that rely on ease of use and integration to overcome the reservations of medium-sized companies. “Many are afraid of the complexity and costs of a robot, that the robots are underutilized and not profitable,” says Roman Hölzl, CEO and co-founder of RobCo.
The Munich start-up has developed a kind of “Lego kit for industrial robots”. This consists of robot modules that can be flexibly combined and easily programmed for new tasks.
The Coboworx company, on the other hand, develops ready-to-use robot cells that are particularly easy to install. For a palletizing task, for example, there is an app with which the robot can be easily switched to the activity. The gripper on the robot arm can also be exchanged in one easy step.
Another digital platform similar to Unchained Robotics is Waku Robotics. The Dresden-based company offers more than 250 mobile robots from around 200 manufacturers on its “Lots of Bots” digital platform and advises customers on choosing the right solution.
Entrepreneurs see “huge potential” in the cobot market
The market is growing rapidly. The clear market leader in the cobot segment is still the Danish industry pioneer Universal Robots. “There is potential for around nine million cobots,” said CEO Kim Povlsen in an interview with Handelsblatt. The industry is on the way to billions in sales.
Milicevic therefore also sees great potential for Unchained Robotics. According to industry estimates, the company is currently generating seven-digit sales. “We can become a company with sales in the hundreds of millions,” the founder is convinced. In the long term, the market has “huge potential”.
Investors such as the future fund Heilbronn and the technology fund OWL have joined Unchained Robotics. “We are financed by medium-sized companies for medium-sized companies,” says Milicevic. Funding is secured for the next year and a half. “But we are already convinced that we can grow strongly even with a black zero.”
More: How Universal Robots wants to maintain the world market leadership.