World 2002 ROBOTICS – Statistics, Market Analysis, Forecasts, Case Studies and Profitability of Robot Investments
World 2002 ROBOTICS – Statistics, Market Analysis, Forecasts, Case Studies and Profitability of Robot Investments
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, co-authored by The International Federation of RoboticsUnited NationsNew York, Geneva2002xi + 368 pp.ISBN 92-1-101047-0ISSN 1020-1076paperback (Price on application – Palais des Nations – Geneve)
This compilation contains an enormous fund of information about world robotics. The first line of the editorial by Stefan Mueller (Executive Committee Member of the International Federation of Robotics (IFR)) sums it up very neatly. He writes:
Statistics sometimes make good reading!
If you are interested in Robotics you will immediately recognise from the title that this is the annual publication on world robots that carries the important international source of industry statistics for suppliers, robot manufacturers, systems integrators and robot users. The main sections are I-VII with the titles:
Introduction.
Worldwide diffusion of industrial robots.
Prices and wages.
The structure of the diffusion of industrial robots in individual countries.
Forecast of worldwide investment in industrial robots in the period 2002-2005.
The profitability of industrial robots: analysis of case studies.
Industrial robotics servicing the pharmaceutical industry and life sciences.
Service robots.
There are also Annex A-D which provide even more data on sources sales,employment and assumptions made in the robot world statistics presented in the compilation.
This is obviously not a text to be read cover-to-cover as a continuous read,but rather provides the pertinent “headlines” and details of “trends”that are backed by lucid and carefully formatted figures, tables, histograms and even photographs of robots. After an initial browse it becomes an “on-shelf”reference book. It has also to be remembered that apart from the forecasts and discussion of future trends in the robotics world all the basic data is for the year ending 2001. The title World Robotics 2002 presumably refers to the analysis of the data in 2002 and of future predictions based on the statistics of 2001. There is, of course, no alternative to this unless reports were compiled based on each quarter of 2002, as they are terminated.
Busy executives have the chance to read only pages 1-10 of the book. This is the Executive Summary, which in a mere 10 pages covers the whole text in précise form. Executives with even less time in hand can simply read a half-page summary of the 2001 World Robot Market. It tells us, for example, that in this period the world total multipurpose robots (excluding Japan and Republic of Korea) is 45,700 units, a decrease of 3 per cent over 2000.
Section Editor’s Note:Reports are included to acquaint readers with the titles of some of the latest published books. Full reviews may be included in future issues of this journal.
C. J. H. MannBook Reviews and Reports Editor
