There’s an old saying that necessity is the mother of invention. Whilst the past two years have certainly forced business to be adaptable, the changes we’ve seen in robotics have been centred as much around diversification as they have on pure invention. Business managers enlisted robots in greater numbers than ever before to create safer, more productive and robust workplaces during the Covid pandemic, but these same robots have multiplied their uses in the face of new challenges.

Faced with a perfect storm of operational headaches, ranging from rising costs to staff shortages, businesses have automated like never before in the past two years. Working with this automation surge, robotics companies have rapidly diversified their products to make their existing technologies work beyond their original scope. This has led to the phenomenon of multi-purpose robotics, in which robots fulfil numerous applications whilst at work.

Against rising business costs...