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Company overview
qbrobotics was founded as a spin-off between the University of Pisa and the Italian Institute of Technology. The company and its team of 11 people are based in the Polo Tecnologico of Navacchio near Pisa. Their soft-robotics technology is implemented in products, such as robotic hands, grippers, and actuators. The company’s in-house production process comprehends research, lab testing, programming, and the implementation of hardware. The performance and durability testing takes place in the company’s “qblab”, following the highest standards set by the European certifications. Currently, qbrobotics has global partnerships in the following markets: the EU, United States, Japan, Korea, China, ASEAN, and South America.
qbrobotics has three business units:
- Industrial Robotics & Automation: the industrialized version of the qb SoftHand and the qb SoftClaw are aimed at companies that use collaborative robots in their production and testing lines.
- Service robotics: qbrobotics provides robotic hands for companies and robot labs that produce and commercialize humanoid robots.
- Educational & Research: this unit includes modular VSA actuator robot hands (qb SoftHand) and grippers (qb SoftClaw). The products are aimed at, e.g., research institutes, universities, schools, and R&D departments.
The challenge
qbrobotics lacked sufficient data about the market in Europe
qbrobotics had a challenge: they had to determine which European markets to target. This information was essential to the company’s business development and their current and future investors. Tommaso Gualtieri, the General Manager of qbrobotics, briefly summarizes the company’s aims for the data need: “We wanted to get an improved outlook of the European collaborative robot market and see the possibilities out there. We firmly believed that understanding these aspects would grow our business in the right direction.”
Data was needed to find the most suitable industry applications
The company’s industrial robot hand – the qb SoftHand – is aimed for product testing, and it is compatible with collaborative robots. This robot hand can be used in many industrial applications. For instance, automotive businesses could implement robot hands to find out whether the car seats are easy to adjust to fit each passenger. Likewise, fashion brands selling high-end handbags might want to find out how users find the comfort and usability of the products.
Undoubtedly, there were numerous ways to implement their robot hand in industrial testing, but which application would bring them the most revenue? That is where qbrobotics needed data about the target market. In addition, the suitable application also had to fit the robot hand’s speed and accuracy range.
Therefore, qbrobotics needed to acquire the following data about the global and European collaborative robot market:
- Market size
- Growth
- Applications
- Components
- End-user industries
- Payload capacities
Results
Statzon’s database saved time and helped qbrobotics seize new possibilities in the market
The company was very content with Statzon’s database, and a large amount of information available there. According to Gualtieri, the website made finding and cross-comparing data very easy. Retrieving data from the system was fast, and instantly ready to be used for the company’s calculations. All things considered, using Statzon’s database saved lots of time, provided that all required information was available in a single database.
“We had two main purposes for the data gained from Statzon. Our tactical purpose was to verify the everyday opportunity for the company – to improve the knowledge about the target markets and specific applications. Moreover, our strategic purpose was to be able to plan well into the future. Fortunately, Statzon’s data helped us with both objectives.” - Tommaso Gualtieri, General Manager, qbrobotics
Last, Gualtieri was very pleased to witness the reliability of the data and believes that Statzon can benefit companies beyond the robotics industry. Hence, he recommends professionals of different industries access good-quality data found on the platform.
Conclusion
qbrobotics is a company producing several types of soft-tissue robot hands, grippers and, actuators. Their industrialized qb SoftHand is compatible with collaborative robots, service robots, and humanoid robots. qbrobotics wanted to identify the company’s opportunities in the European market and find out the most suitable applications for the qb SoftHand. The company also wanted to gain more information about the global collaborative robot market.
Statzon’s database gave qbrobotics access to finely detailed and reliable industry data. They were using collaborative robot industry data about the global and European markets, including: the market size, growth, applications, components, end-user industries, and payload capacities. With Statzon’s subscription, an unlimited amount of data and information could be viewed and compared on the database, as well as downloaded from the system, while simultaneously saving personal work time.
The data obtained from Statzon helped qbrobotics profoundly improve the company’s understanding of the European and overall collaborative robot market. The gained information helped the company to execute strategic planning, seize new data-supported opportunities in the market, as well as conduct calculations for long-term investments that could be used to appeal to investors.