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Teradyne Inc. said in an earnings call today that its robotics group generated $375 million in revenue in fiscal 2023. The North Reading, Mass.-based company owns Energid (which produces motion-planning software), Mobile Industrial Robots (autonomous mobile robots) and Universal Robots (collaborative robot arms). The group generated $404 million in revenue in 2022.

Universal Robots (UR) generated $304 million in revenue in 2023. While its sales were down 7% year-over-year from the record $326 million generated in 2022, the cobot maker ended the year on a high note.

The fourth quarter of 2023 was UR’s largest revenue quarter ever. This represented 21% growth from Q4 2022 and 47% growth from Q3 2023, which the company attributed to demand for its the UR20 and UR30 cobots.

Here is a breakdown of Universal Robots’ revenue by quarter:

• Q1 revenue = $72 million
• Q2 revenue = $58 million
• Q3 revenue = $71 million
• Q4 revenue = $103 million

Overall, Teradyne’s robotics group generated $129 million in revenue in the fourth quarter. UR generated $311 million in revenue in 2021, which was up 41% on 2020 and 23% on pre-pandemic results in 2019.

“2023 was characterized by a difficult economic and business environment for many of our core customers, with global industrial activity slowing in the first half of the year,” stated Kim Povlsen, president of UR. “Nevertheless, we saw growth in our focus accounts and key segments, including palletizing, and in our strategically important OEM channel. We ended the year strong and enter 2024 with a great foundation for further growth.”

Bigger cobots yield profits

Universal Robots said 30% of its revenue in the fourth quarter came from the UR20 and UR30. The company said it experienced strong demand for its UR20, especially for palletizing and welding applications.

Unveiled in 2022, the UR20 is the company’s first heavy-duty cobot arm. It has a 1,750 mm (5.7 ft.) reach and 20 kg (44 lb.) payload capacity. And in late 2023, UR had to increase production of the UR20 to meet growing demand from its customer base.

In November 2023, UR launched its second heavy-duty cobot arm, the UR30. Built on the same architecture as the UR20, the UR30 offers more payload capacity in a compact footprint.

With a 30 kg (66.13 lb.) lifting capacity, 1,300 mm (51.2 in.) reach, and weight of 63.5 kg (139.9 lb.), the UR30 can tend larger machines, palletize heavy products, and support high-torque screw driving, said the company.

“We are already shipping UR30s and have ramped up production in the fourth quarter to more than 1,200 units to meet sustained demand for the UR20,” Povlsen added. “Ultimately, though, our success depends on our strength as a platform. It will be our continued software excellence and ease of use, on top of our hardware innovation, that creates value for our partners and end customers.”

During the fiscal 2023 and fourth-quarter earnings call, Teradyne President and CEO Greg Smith noted that UR has a “record backlog” for the UR20 cobot. He also said UR continues to have success growing its channel strategy, adding that it now has more than 50 OEM partners and that its OEM sales grew nearly 10%.

Teradyne said its robotics portfolio has penetrated less than 5% of its market opportunity and that it expects robotics revenue to grow between 10-20% in 2024.

Ujjwal Kumar, president of Teradyne’s robotics group, is delivering a keynote at our Robotics Summit & Expo, which takes place May 1-2 in Boston. The event is designed for robotics developers and will attract 5,000-plus attendees.

Over his 25-plus-year career, Kumar has scaled businesses at major multinationals including General Motors, General Electric, and Honeywell. In his keynote on May 2 from 9:00 to 9:45 a.m. ET, Kumar will share some lessons he has learned and how they can be applied to accelerate the transformation of industry with robotics.

MiR also ends 2023 on high note

Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR) generated $71 million in revenue in 2023. This marks an 8% decrease from the $77 million in revenue in 2022. However, MiR also ended 2023 strong by generating $26 million in revenue in the fourth quarter. 

Here is a breakdown of MiR’s 2023 revenue by quarter:

• Q1 revenue = $17 million
• Q2 revenue = $14 million
• Q3 revenue = $14 million
• Q4 revenue = $26 million

In October 2022, Teradyne merged its autonomous mobile robot (AMR) subsidiaries, MiR and AutoGuide Mobile Robots, into a single company. At the end of September 2022, the integrated AMR supplier officially became known as Mobile Industrial Robots.

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MiR leadership changes

Søren E. Nielsen then stepped down as president of MiR at the beginning of 2023. He had stepped into the role in August 2020, taking over the role from founder Thomas Visti Jensen. Nielsen was previously MiR’s chief technology since January 2018.

On May 1, 2023, MiR named Jean-Pierre Hathout its new president. Hathout replaced interim CEO Walter Vahey, who will remain with the company as an advisor until his planned retirement in 2024.

Hathout came from a role as president of SIT Controls USA. Prior to this, he built a 17-year career at Bosch, including several international management roles. Hathout has a doctoral degree in mechanical engineering from MIT, and he has technological expertise and global leadership skills, including management of operations in the U.S., Germany, the Netherlands, Turkey and China.

MiR celebrated its 10-year anniversary in 2023. It also introduced its MiR Insights cloud software that provides fleet owners with actionable insights to improve performance. MiR also received certifications for 13 safety functions on its MiR600 and MiR1350 AMRs in accordance with the ISO 13849-1 industry standard.