The cost of collaboration - prices on the market for cobots

Summary: Collaborative robots offer a number of advantages over industrial robots, but they also have their disadvantages. One of these disadvantages is the cost. They are often significantly more expensive than similar industrial robots. This means that cobots that compete on cost do so in a premium market segment, leading to a number of surprising results.

Table of contents

1. Collaborative robots
2. Why do people buy collaborative robots?
3. Are there affordable brands that offer collaborative robots?
4. Is price a deciding factor when buying a collaborative robot?
5. Don't forget the industrial robots!
6. Conclusion

Since Unchained Robotics was founded in 2019, our platform has grown into one of the largest online platforms for collaborative robotics in Europe. Over the past three years, we have built a platform consisting of more than a dozen brands. These brands range from industry giants to young start-ups targeting small niches.

By working with, promoting, selling and supporting collaborative robots from a wide range of brands, we have been able to get to know many different customer segments with very different needs. From this relatively unique perspective, we have found that a common assumption of many vendors and manufacturers does not really match reality.

Namely, that price is a very important factor when buying a collaborative robot.

What do we mean by collaborative?

According to Wikipedia's definition, a collaborative robot is a"robot designed for direct interaction between humans and robots in a shared space or in close proximity to humans and robots". The standards for such robots are defined in ISO standards(ISO/TS 15066 etc.).

In order to work in a shared space, collaborative robots require accurate monitoring of the forces acting on the various joints (this allows them to detect collisions and reduce their severity). Compared to conventional industrial robots, these requirements lead to costly hardware and significant limitations in terms of working speed.

Collaborative robots, but for non-collaborative applications

On the face of it, it may seem a little surprising that collaborative robots are rarely used in truly collaborative applications. Even with all these built-in safety features, applications where robotic arms and humans work together in the same space are still extremely rare. From experience, at least in Europe.

So who is buying all the collaborative robots? And why?

In our experience, it is primarily the user-friendliness, simple programming, intuitive interfaces and comparatively easy reusability that attract people to collaborative robots. All of these things come as standard with modern collaborative robots (to varying degrees, of course) and are the main reasons why companies and users prefer them to industrial robots.

And that's the point: if low price was one of the three most important factors when choosing a robot, then you would probably choose a small industrial robot over a collaborative robot.

Collaborative robots are expensive

The price difference between a good industrial robot and an entry-level collaborative robot with similar basic specifications (payload, reach) is often enormous. This difference is not in favor of the collaborative robot.

So when customers opt for a collaborative robot, they are already choosing the more expensive product class. If you opt for a Porsche rather than a Toyota, price is obviously not the main factor in choosing the exact model. It does play a role, but it is not as important as for other buyers.

This is exactly the phenomenon in the field of collaborative robots!

Inexpensive collaborative robots - a small niche with many players

The number of collaborative robot companies is large and seems to be getting larger - and a not insignificant number of new players have decided to compete on price in particular.

Experience shows that these collaborative robots are generating a lot of attention. Inexpensive collaborative robots generate a lot of traffic and views on our platform and are often the first products to really catch the attention of a potential customer.

However, we find that when it comes to the final decision, buyers tend to choose at least one quality level higher in terms of features and price. They relatively rarely buy the cheapest collaborative robot that first caught their eye.

And why? As described above, we believe this is because:

1. They don't have an application that requires collaboration
2. So if they are really price conscious, they would probably buy an industrial robot
3. The price difference between an inexpensive and an average collaborative robot is often not very big

From these aspects, it is clear that the demand for budget collaborative robots is lower than both customers and companies often assume. Companies may initially look at cheaper robots, but if they have already decided to invest more money in a collaborative robot, they cannot justify accepting an often large drop in functionality for a comparatively small saving.

It's the whole package that counts

If a company needs a complete solution or package, the difference between a low-cost and a mid-range collaborative robot is often very small at the project level. When discussing savings of EUR 5,000 on a six-figure project at the expense of the main usability of the main component (the robot), it quickly becomes unattractive.

Lower cost collaborative robots often have less optimized software, a more limited ecosystem, lower quality mechanical components, lower repeatability, etc. If the overall savings are small, it often doesn't make sense to take the risk that it's not "good enough".

Obviously, low-cost cobots usually only cut corners in some, not all, of these areas. For example, there are some low-cost cobots with excellent software interfaces and others with impressive component ecosystems.

So where do low-cost collaborative robots make sense?

Just as there is a market for low-cost luxury goods, there is also a market for low-cost collaborative robots. While low-cost collaborative robots may not steer buyers away from established brands and proven models, they do have their place.

Low-cost collaborative robots are being purchased, but to a much lesser extent than "mainstream" collaborative robots. In this respect, the trend among manufacturers, especially among market entrants, to promote low-cost collaborative robots cannot be reconciled with the demand in the field.

Low-cost collaborative robots generate a lot of interest, but in the end, the math doesn't work for most customers. The savings aren't worth what they give up.

(Pictures: Universal Robots)