ABB bets on Shanghai for robotics mega factory
ABB officially opened its fully automated robotics factory in Kangqiao, Shanghai, China. The 67,000m2 production and research facility represents a USD150 million investment by ABB
ABB predicts that the global robot market will grow from USD 80 billion today to USD 130 billion in 2025, while China the world’s largest robotics market, accounted for 51 percent of global robot installations in 2021, surpassing the one-million-unit mark of operational robots in 2021.
“This manufacturing and R&D facility brings to life our vision for the factory of the future – where flexible automation makes production and intra-logistics more resilient, faster and more efficient. It embodies our commitment to the latest in flexible, modular, intelligent manufacturing and it represents our focus on AI learning technologies for smarter robotics. At our new R&D facility, we will co-develop new solutions with businesses to prepare them for a new age of automation in the world’s largest robotics market,” said Marc Segura, President of ABB Robotics.
The site’s R&D center, covering an area of 8,000m2, will focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI), digitalisation and software, such as autonomous mobility, digital twin, machine vision and low-code programming software, to make robots more intelligent, flexible, safer and easier to use, a press release states.
The factory is the latest ABB Robotics and Discrete Automation facility to open this year following a new global innovation and training campus for machine automation in Austria in July and the Learning Factory 4.0 in Berlin in September.
