Editorial: “One Robot is Robotics, Ten Robots is Automation”

Abstract

Automation has come of age. As Raja Chatila aptly summarized in the quote above, automation addresses the challenges that arise when robots scale beyond proof-of-concept. Germany approved a $5B sale of Kuka to Midea Corp in China to provide robots for assembly automation. General Electric Corporation is now focusing on automation algorithms and data analytics and predicts this will be a $225 billion market within five years. These developments build on ongoing research in Big Data, Cloud Computing, Deep Learning, Open-Source Software, and Government/Industry initiatives, such as The "Internet of Things," "Smarter Planet," "Industrial Internet," "Industrie 4.0," and "Made in China 2025." Automation is playing an increasingly central role in the global economy and in our daily lives.