On 4 May, ACCIÓ presented its report “La robòtica a Catalunya” (Robotics in Catalonia), with figures confirming the sector’s strong momentum: 311 companies, double the number recorded in 2020, €974M in turnover and 4,634 jobs. Catalonia has also become the 2nd European region for foreign direct investment projects in robotics.
At PAL Robotics, we’ve been part of this ecosystem for more than 20 years, practically since it began to take shape. Founded in 2004, headquartered in Barcelona with offices in Toulouse and Bari, we’re now a team of more than 100 professionals, with involvement in over 25 European R&D&I projects across healthcare, industry and logistics.
A position built over time
Our CEO, Francesco Ferro, was appointed President of euRobotics this year, after several years on its board, the association representing the robotics industry and research community across Europe. It’s a responsibility we value as a reflection of our commitment to the sector’s development at European level, beyond our own activity as a company.
“Seeing this data confirms that the sector is moving in a direction we’ve been working towards for some time: towards increasingly capable and intelligent service robotics,” says Francesco Ferro, CEO of PAL Robotics.
TIAGo Pro: the result of years of applied research
ACCIÓ’s report features TIAGo Pro, our next-generation mobile manipulation platform, as one of the sector’s success stories in Catalonia. Its elastic actuated arms, which enable safer and more adaptable manipulation in environments shared with people, together with its enhanced non-verbal communication system, are the result of years of research into human-robot interaction and applied artificial intelligence. These are precisely the areas gaining traction across the sector: the report shows that 51.8% of Catalonia’s robotics ecosystem (161 companies) already integrates AI into their robotic solutions, whether in computer vision, machine learning or motion planning.
Alexandre Saldes, our Director of Innovation and Business Development, presented these developments during the ACCIÓ event, sharing how we approach mobile manipulation and human-robot interaction in real-world settings today.
A growing ecosystem, a commitment we maintain
The growth of Catalonia’s robotics sector is good news for the whole ecosystem, and for us too: the more the community of research centres, suppliers, integrators and talent we collaborate with grows, the faster we can move forward ourselves. We continue working in the same fields that have always defined us, healthcare, industry and logistics, with the same drive we had when we started 20 years ago.
Watch the full session
The full presentation of the “La robòtica a Catalunya” report, including our contribution alongside ACCIÓ, LabORA and other ecosystem companies, is available.
