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Bloomberg
In Burgos, a province in central Spain better known for archaeological digs and blood-sausages than for innovation, engineer Veronica Pascual is building automated vehicles. Not cars though, but fork-lifts, stackers and pallet trucks.
Pascual, a 38-year-old aeronautical engineer, owns Asti, a company that produces so-called AGVs, or automated guided vehicles — mobile robots used in factories and warehouses that don’t require human intervention to move.
While tech companies from Alphabet Inc. to Uber Technologies Inc. are scrambling to make self-driving cars, far less attention is paid to other, other types of vehicles, opening a niche for companies like Asti, whose vehicles are used for moving a range of goods, from large packs of food boxes to 30 ton airplane parts.
The robotics service market is growing fast. Bank of America Merrill Lynch expects robots to be performing 45 percent of all manufacturing tasks by 2025, compared to 10 percent in 2015. The bank also estimates the industrial logistics, packaging and materials market will be valued at $31 billion by 2020.
Despite the opportunity, there are few firms trying to take over the factory floor. “Most robotics investments still go on industrial equipment,†said Mehdi El Alami, a partner at consultancy Roland Berger, noting that only 2 percent is spent on logistics. Caterpillar
Inc. and General Electric Co. are among the few that have invested, having both backed Clearpath Robotics, a Canadian startup focused on developing autonomous vehicles that move goods around factories. Nissan Motor Co.and BMW are among the carmakers testing and using autonomous vehicles in their factories.
For El Alami, the ever-growing competition for the ultra-fast delivery of goods will speed up the emergence of robotization as the only means to capture more profitable revenue. Asti hopes to cash in on the trend. Operating in 15 countries, it counts the likes of PSA Group Ltd., the manufacturer of Peugeot and Citroen cars, drug-maker GlaxoSmithKline Plc. and Spanish food-maker Campofrio Food Group SA among its clients.