Preface
In today’s rapidly evolving global economic and trade landscape, the technology wars ignited by the trade tensions have intensified industrial competition among countries. This impact has resulted in market fragmentation and triggered many supply chain shifts. Europe and the U.S. are increasingly focused on developing their manufacturing bases, while many companies are exploring alternative production platforms outside of China. There are also some innovative manufacturing models.
However, as Europe and the U.S.return to manufacturing, a series of challenges have emerged. Rising raw material costs, labor shortages, an aging workforce, environmental pollution, climate change, and anti-globalization sentiments have introduced unprecedented uncertainty into the manufacturing industry. Among these, the issue of labor shortages is particularly acute.
Labor Shortage as the Global Crisis in the New Normal
According to a report by Korn Ferry, a global management consulting firm, the world is expected to face a labor shortage of more than 85 million people by 2030, equivalent to the entire population of Germany. In response to this crisis, the U.S. logistics company UPS has had to offer delivery drivers salaries as high as $170,000 per year to attract workers.
Asian countries are not immune to this crisis either. In Japan, the elderly population accounts for 24% of the total population. South Korea has the lowest fertility rate in the world, and Taiwan’s population has entered a phase of negative growth. Even in ASEAN and South Asian countries like Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and India, managing the labor force is becoming increasingly challenging.
In response to this global labor crisis, many countries have started relaxing visa requirements to attract overseas talent. Some governments have even adjusted regulations to extend the retirement age in an effort to utilize an older workforce. For example, in Japan, as many as 40% of companies are employing individuals over the age of 70—twice as many as a decade ago.
In Taiwan, the Ministry of Labor projects there will be 396,473 migrant workers in the manufacturing sector by the end of 2023. Despite this, there are still more than 80,000 job vacancies across the manufacturing sector. Most of these vacancies are in the so-called“3K” jobs: Kitanai (dirty), Kiken (dangerous), and Kitsui (hard). If the manufacturing industry continues to rely on migrant workers and the expertise of older workers, the quality and efficiency of manufacturing will eventually be at risk.
These challenges, combined with the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, have prompted the industry to consider how to build a more resilient production system. One of the key solutions is the development of smart manufacturing. In this strategy, robots play a crucial role. They can automate high-risk processes, minimize occupational hazards, and help fill the gaps created by underemployment in the industry.
ITRI’s 2035 Technology Strategy and Roadmap Fosters Taiwan’s Productivity Resilience
ITRI emphasizes the development of a resilient society in its 2035 Technology Strategy and Roadmap. This concept spans a wide range of areas and combines mature technologies with emerging research and development. It focuses on intelligence, diversification, decentralization, and substitution to strengthen society’s ability to warn, respond to, and recover from unexpected risks and long-term stressors.
In planning for a resilient society, ITRI focuses on three areas: infrastructure resilience, resource & energy resilience, and productivity resilience. Productivity resilience particularly addresses the development of manufacturing labor, production equipment, and components to help Taiwan respond proactively to future labor shortages caused by a shrinking and aging workforce.
ITRI’s plan on productivity resilience technologies is focused onintegrating robotics into manufacturing systems. By developing intelligent robotics applications and leveraging AI technology, ITRI aims to streamline robot operations, facilitate digitalization of manufacturing processes, and overcome the barriers to robotics adoption in manufacturing. The Institute has established short-, mid-, and long-term goals: elevating production efficiency in the short term through human-machine collaboration, labor scheduling, AI technology, and employee enablement; strengthening manufacturing agility in the mid-term by focusing on building digital domain knowledge, multi-robot collaboration, and AI-powered operating platforms; and enhancing productivity resilience and multinational collaboration in the long term by developing self-repairing robots and AI adaptive learning technologies.
ITRI’s Detachable Joint Robot System, an R&D 100 Awards Winner
Under the 2035 Roadmap, ITRI has developed theDetachable Joint Robot System. This technology integrates the motor, speed reducer, drive, encoder, and brake into a single unit, simplifying the sophisticated wiring and improving the oversized electronic control boxes commonly found in existing robots. It also adheres to international industrial network protocols, facilitating lightweight and integrated robot designs.
This technology stands out with its high flexibility and adaptability. It can be tailored to meet the various needs of industries, allowing for robot arm configurations based on cost and demand. Its modular design permits adjustments to degrees of freedom and arm length, significantly enhancing mobility. Additionally, its quick-change mechanism for robot joints reduces maintenance time and costs. Users can easily replace defective modules.
Moreover, this technology features a visualized programming system that greatly simplifies operation. It includes a compliance teaching function, enabling users to move the arm to target positions through simple drag-and-drop actions. High-precision lifting technology also increases positioning accuracy.
What sets this robot solution apart is that it empowers collaborative robots worldwide to assemble and reconfigure their hardware setups for various operational modes. This flexibility considerably saves the costs associated with system rebuilds. Whether used in the processing industry, for material inspection in electronics, as a surgical aid in healthcare, or even as part of a humanoid robot, it demonstrates distinct advantages.
Thanks to these advantages and technological innovations, ITRI's Detachable Joint Robot System has won the R&D 100 Awards. This recognition underscores Taiwan’s technological prowess and marks a new milestone in the global smart manufacturing arena.
Conclusion
As AI technology continues to advance, ITRI’s robot technology, combined with Gen AI, will become easier to operate, enabling employees in traditional small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to quickly adapt to using robots.
Looking ahead, ITRI will continue to work on technology development programs to guide Taiwan’s manufacturers to develop precision machinery applications, assist in mass-producing robotic products, accelerate the advancement of key technologies, and establish Taiwan as a leader in the international arena for intelligent, high-precision, and hybrid robotic products, thereby boosting the industry’s global competitiveness.
