Ep. 47 | Universal Robots CEO Kim Povlsen on Collaborative Robots for the 98%

“I think you're going to see a world where people work side by side with robots,” says Povlsen. Collaborative robots, like those made by Universal Robots, will take care of the “3D” tasks - dull, dirty, or dangerous. This will allow people to “take on more fulfilling tasks” and use their creativity.

In this episode, Povlsen discusses the early years of Universal Robots and the ambitious goal to create collaborative robots that would be easy to install and fun to program. 

“They wanted to change that entire paradigm of how to program robots into something that pretty much anyone can do with just minimum training.”

Before joining Universal Robots, Povlsen spent some of his early years at Schneider Electric working on embedded IoT devices “where I think we could all see the great potential of connecting devices in general,” but “back then it was a pain in the neck to connect anything.” 

Povlsen’s father was an electrical engineer whose workshop was filled with interesting equipment and project. This early exposure created his passion for technology; even though his first project as a young boy was less than a success.

“I thought I could build this new fancy program and I totally failed..But, I thought it was great.” 

In this lively Moore’s Lobby interview, the charismatic Povlsen also expounds on: 

• The IKEA of cobots 
• From ship building to robotics - how a Danish community transitioned from world leadership in one industry to a completely different one
• The conceptual connection between noise-canceling headphones and better cobots
• And, why he doesn’t want to play squash with a robot