Alessandro Piscionero is Global Head of Strategic Marketing Advanced Robotics and Digital Segments at automation multinational company Comau. In the latest in a series of introductory messages from newly-elected directors of euRobotics, we invited Alessandro to share his personal perspective on challenges and opportunities as he takes up his new role.
Dear members of the euRobotics community,
I am really honoured and grateful to be appointed as one of the new members of the Board of Directors (BoD) of euRobotics. My background is in computer science, automation and robotics, and during my career I have experienced robotics technology applied to different markets (having lived and worked in Europe, Asia and North America) and several industrial sectors (from space robotics to traditional robotics applied to automotive, logistics, etc.).
My main goal as a member of the euRobotics BoD is to push the growth of the European robotics industry, strengthening the relationship between academia and research, industrial players (both system integrators, product suppliers and technology startups) and most importantly with end users.
We have seen in the past decades how robotics has been embedded and is now a fundamental piece of the automotive production system, representing around one third of the total robotics market worldwide. We are now entering a new era where robotics and automation are required by different markets that today rely on a lower level of automation. This technology-driven transition facilitates the shift from high-volume / low-mix production to low-volume / high-mix production, enabling concepts such as batch-size one production, automation in unstructured environments and distributed productions, concepts that will represent a big chunk of the growth in robotics in the near future.
To succeed, and see the European robotics economy flourish, euRobotics and the European Union must facilitate a proper transfer of research results into real industrial applications. This is a fundamental piece, realizable only with the right incentives and legislation that facilitates investments and creates a tighter relationship between universities, research centres, startups, and large industrial players, working all together in close contact with final users. And especially the involvement of the end users is fundamental, and in my opinion, it represents the key success factor.
I am sure that together with the other board member colleagues of euRobotics we can work in this direction and put the European robotics ecosystem in a leading position at worldwide level especially applied to these new industries eager to increase their automation level.