The Detroit area is a magnet for all things industrial, and all things automation, and that includes robots. It was recently announced that Teradyne Robotics (North Reading, MA) will open a new U.S. operations hub in Wixom, MI in 2026. (Teradyne Robotics comprises Universal Robots and MiR or Mobile Industrial Robots, both based in Odense, Denmark.)
Initially the facility will manufacture Universal Robots cobots, with the future capability to include MiR autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). It will be a customer training center, service hub, and visitor experience center too. It will expand Teradyne Robotics’ presence in the Detroit area, eventually creating more than 200 jobs.
Perspective on the news
Universal Robots made a splash in the U.S. market several years ago by being one of the biggest advocates for cobots (collaborative robots that could work with people). They successfully created a niche for their cobots, showed technical acumen with a reboot of the technology (aiming toward fewer parts) and eagerly rolled out partner plans and now have hundreds of developers and distributors.
What about the market they are entering? As a man with some significant miles on my personal odometer, it surprised me to learn that while the large automakers remain in Detroit, and Michigan is still the largest producer of automobiles in the nation, it has 19% of the share in the country. In the 1950s, the Big Three (Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler) had market share in the 90 percents, so the overwhelming majority of cars came from Michigan. By the end of the 1960s it was 34%, and is 19% now. Today, the top 50 percent of auto producers in the nation are in 10 states: Michigan at 19%, and then 31% split between Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Alabama, California, Texas, Missouri, New York, and Mississippi.
The auto industry accounts for a little less than 40 percent of all industrial robots sold, so Teradyne picked a good location.
Just as there is/was a Big Three in autos, there is a Big Four in industrial robotics: ABB, Fanuc, KUKA, and Yaskawa. Together they own 75% market share of the U.S. industrial robot market. Not surprisingly, these companies either have their U.S. headquarters near Detroit or have their industrial robotics headquarters there: ABB (Auburn Hills), Fanuc (Rochester Hills), KUKA (Shelby Township), and Yaskawa (its Motoman Robotics is based in Miamisburg, OH, but has a large installation in Rochester Hills, MI).
Doing some quick math, the U.S. bought 34,200 industrial robots in 2024, 6.3% of the global market of 542,000 (the overwhelming majority of those were installed in Asia). The year before that we bought 44,300. We’re likely due for an upturn.
It turns out that welding accounts for about half of all industrial robot sales, so last year there were about 17,100 robots sold into welding applications. It has always been said that there is no way to replace the retiring welders with young welders just starting out. The young people are not there. Robots (more specifically and more often, cobots) were proffered as a solution to this problem.
The problem looks like this. Depending on whose numbers you believe, either 45,000 – 50,000 jobs per year in welding are open (Bureau of Labor Statistics) or 82,500 per year (American Welding Society). Either way, it’s a lot of unfilled jobs, and even if those are a little high, still there are not enough robots sold into welding to fill the gap: 17,100 sold last year into welding and minimally 45,000 open jobs. Were these jobs eventually filled? Did they find young people to take the positions? We don’t know at this point but I will be following this story and I will report on it during 2026.
This I know for sure: there will never be a better time to make strides in the robotics industry. Have a great New Year, everyone.