A study completed by AER-ATP, the Spanish Association of Robotics & Automation of Production Technology, has disclosed that the number of robots installed in Spain increased by 18.4% in the course of 1995 to reach a total of 5,346 units. Nevertheless, Spain still lags behind many other industrialized countries with respect to the implementation of this technology in production processes, with 20 robots per 10,000 workers. In other European countries such as Germany and Italy there are three times as many, and in Japan there are some 600 robots per 10,000 workers. The car industry accounts for 58% of the total number of robots installed in Spain, while the ratio is growing in the food and drink sector, the report noted. There are no manufacturers of industrial robots in Spain, but there is a handful of engineering companies that are capable of setting them up and programming them to perform their particular tasks. According to the study’s report, the Spanish robotics market currently moves some $370m a year.
