Inside the Robot Kingdom: Japan, Mechatronics, and the Coming Robotopia by Frederik L. Schodt

Author:Frederik L. Schodt [Schodt, Frederik L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Japan, Technology & Engineering, Business & Economics, General, Robotics, Mechatronics, Science
ISBN: 9780870119187
Publisher: JAI
Published: 2011-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

First the World, Then Japan

In January 1986, there occurred a little-noticed but highly symbolic event in the history of the world robot industry. Among the swimming pools and tall saguaro cacti of the wealthy city of Scottsdale, Arizona, the U.S. Robotic Industries Association crowned Eric Mittelstadt as its new leader. The president of the RIA is usually the head of one of the largest American robot firms, and Mittelstadt was no exception. He is president and chief executive officer of GMF Robotics, which currently ships over 30 percent of all robots sold in the U.S. and is sometimes called the largest robot maker in America, even in the world. Yet nearly all of GMF's robots are bright yellow, and save for one painter robot, all the arms and the controllers are actually made by Fanuc in Japan. Mittelstadt, moreover, technically reports to Dr. Inaba, who is in fact the chairman of GMF.

GMF Robotics stands for General Motors-Fanuc Robotics, and was formed in 1982 as a joint venture uniting GM—at the time the world's largest auto manufacturer—and Fanuc, the world's largest maker of NC controls. It was a convenient marriage for both. GM, like other American auto manufacturers, had suffered badly in competition with the Japanese, and robotics was seen as a means of restoring competitiveness, both in quality and price. It had also developed in-house a highly sophisticated painter robot, but had not yet brought it to market. With plans for the introduction of over 14,000 robots into its factories by the end of the decade, GM needed a source of high-volume, low-cost, reliable robots, and it needed it in a hurry.

For Fanuc, the arrangement provided a chance to tap the software expertise that Japan lacks in artificial intelligence and machine vision. It was also a chance to absorb General Motors' new manufacturing automation protocol—MAP—a communications standard that allows different makes of automated equipment on the factory floor to all "talk" to each other. Most of all, though, the deal meant an entry into the huge, just-now-awakening market for robots in America. Unlike other equipment, robots require so much on-site adapting that sales are almost impossible without a strong local presence for service and engineering.

Eric Mittelstadt, president of GMF, describes the relationship between GM and Fanuc as "an elegant strategy" and a "beautiful synergism." A tall Scandinavian who spent most of his life working in management for General Motors, Mittelstadt differs from many heads of robot firms in the United States in that he has no background in robotics. Relaxing beside the pool after his inauguration in Scottsdale, he could savor the satisfaction of GMF's—and his own— stellar ascendancy in the industry. Scarcely making any of its own robots, GMF danced to the top of the US. robot market in a mere four years, while traditional U.S. robot firms stumbled and steadily lost share and money. In terms of dollar sales, GMF did more business, he claimed, than Fanuc itself, and even more than ASEA, the Swedish robot firm sometimes said to be the world leader.

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