전 세계 협동로봇 판매 1위인 유니버설 로봇(Universal Robots)의 한국 지사장인 이내형 유니버설 로봇 대표이사와 만나 협동로봇의 정확한 사용 사례와 향후 전망에 대해 들어봤다.
“Collaborative robots increase customer productivity through customized installation based on accurate understanding of industrial environments”
Improving worker safety and productivity in work environments where industrial robots cannot be used
In addition to the service, it improves the quality of the robot itself and supports the application of AI in industrial sites.
[Editor's Note] Recently, collaborative robots have been playing a prominent role in large-scale industrial sites such as shipbuilding, rather than small-scale businesses. Collaborative robots bring about improved worker safety and increased productivity in industrial fields where expensive industrial robots cannot be applied due to their low cost. On the other hand, in order to properly install and utilize collaborative robots, an understanding of the industrial site is necessary, but there are increasing cases where appropriate benefits are not obtained compared to the investment cost due to inappropriate installation. Accordingly, our magazine met with Nae-hyung Lee, CEO of Universal Robots, the world's No. 1 seller of collaborative robots, and the head of the Korean branch of Universal Robots, to hear about the exact use cases of collaborative robots and their future prospects.
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“Collaborative robots are not omnipotent. Their purpose is not to literally replace human work, but to assist human work. Therefore, in order to use collaborative robots well, you need to understand the industry and accurately understand the work environment of the company using the collaborative robot so that you can install it in a customized manner.”
In a recent interview with our newspaper, Naehyung Lee, CEO of Universal Robots, said that if you are considering introducing collaborative robots, it is important to first understand the industry and the workers’ working environment.
CEO Lee Nae-hyung cited recent examples of collaborative robots increasing in the F&B industry, such as robot chicken and coffee, and stated that installing collaborative robots that are not suitable for the characteristics of the industry does not help improve productivity or recover investment costs.
CEO Lee Nae-hyung said, “As someone who sells collaborative robots, it is certainly welcome that new demand is increasing, but from a long-term perspective, I don’t think collaborative robots will be helpful in the F&B industry.” He added, “Collaborative robots can only cook chicken and pour coffee, but people can serve and package chicken while cooking it, and they can also calculate the price and clean the store while pouring coffee. In terms of cost, it costs a lot of money for a general self-employed store to purchase collaborative robots, and it may take several years to calculate the total cost and turn a profit. Collaborative robots were installed to reduce labor costs, but there are various inconveniences, so if we hire employees, the cost of investing in collaborative robots on top of labor costs will be even higher.”
He continued, “The problem is especially when it breaks down. Since it is a machine, not a person, it is bound to break down, and if it breaks down, it can take at least several hours or even several days from the time of reporting it to the repair center, and during that time, business cannot be conducted. “Not only the cost of robot repairs, but also the loss due to not being able to do business could be significant,” he said. “It may be an issue for a moment, but it is difficult to say that collaborative robots have been applied correctly from a long-term perspective.”
Accordingly, CEO Lee Nae-hyung stated that in order to introduce collaborative robots, one must first accurately understand the industry to which they are being introduced.
“Collaborative robots are different from general industrial robots. Industrial robots are used in manufacturing industries where conveyor belts are installed to complete tasks that require industrial robots in place of people. For example, you can think of welding or painting car bodies in automobile factories. On the other hand, collaborative robots are robots that work together with people. They can be understood as robots that are used to help people work safely and increase productivity at work sites, such as moving heavy boxes or picking up hot products from workbenches instead of people’s hands.”
Next, he gave an example of how collaborative robots are being widely used in the shipbuilding industry recently. “Unlike the automobile industry, there are many work areas in the shipbuilding industry where it is difficult to apply industrial robots. There are many cases where welding is required in narrow spaces, but it is difficult to apply industrial robots because space must be secured for human safety.” “In these cases, collaborative robots are helpful. In fact, I think the welding process can be done faster with robots, but it is not that fast. If a person were to complete a length of about 80 cm in about 13 minutes, it would take a collaborative robot about 10 minutes. On the other hand, if collaborative robots are introduced to this process, one welder can control two collaborative robots. “Then the work time can be doubled,” he said.
Recently, the company also revealed that it is collaborating with CNC machine tool companies for machine tending.
CEO Lee Nae-hyung said, “When handling machine tools such as CNC, you must load materials onto the machine tools and remove the processed products. Recently, the manufacturing industry has been suffering from a labor shortage. In such situations, the machine tending function of collaborative robots can be used to solve the labor shortage problem and replace unskilled labor. Depending on the work environment, one person can operate one to four or more machine tools, enabling rapid automation and increased productivity.” He added, “CNC machine tool companies are not simply selling their own products, but are also manufacturing customized products so that collaborative robots can be installed. In particular, this aspect is becoming an important element in terms of customer service from the perspective of the machine tool industry.”
Along with this, he mentioned that it is most important to accurately understand the work environment of the demander and design it to determine how to install collaborative robots.
“Universal Robots does not sell directly in Korea, but rather through dealers. The dealers that handle Universal Robots have a high level of technology. “If dealers sell to companies and set up incorrectly, customer complaints will be high, and in this case, the cost and time for after-sales service will increase, putting Universal Robots in a very difficult situation. Fortunately, dealers that do business with Universal Robots have a high level of understanding of industrial processes and are experts in factory automation, so they provide high-level service for setting up collaborative robots that fit the customer’s environment,” he said.
He continued, “After checking recently, we found that there are many dealers that have been doing business for more than 10 years, and the dealer with the most sales has sold over 1,500 collaborative robots. With all this experience, we have the know-how to figure out at a glance how to apply it just by looking at the factory environment.”
He also said, “Good service is important, but the most important thing is product quality,” and “Our Universal Robots is recognized worldwide as the world’s best-selling product, and we are working to improve our products and launch new products by incorporating the latest technology.”
He continued, “Recently, we have collaborated with NVIDIA to support programming that combines NVIDIA’s AI technology and have also introduced an autonomous inspection system utilizing AI. He also mentioned, “We are providing software through AI accelerators so that anyone can easily utilize AI as long as they have a computer.”
CEO Lee Naehyeong said, “We will continue to do our best to supply collaborative robots that can increase productivity in industrial sites and ensure the safety of workers.”

▲Collaborative robot from Universal Robots