Welcome to Odense, the Danish robot capital
Denmark's third-largest city launched into robotics in the 1980s while seeking to automate its shipyard. Today, Odense no longer builds ships, but industrial robots and drones, notes the American bimonthly "MIT Technology Review."
Tourists come to Odense to discover a particularly rich history and culture: it was here that Canute [IV], the last Viking king of Denmark, was assassinated in the 11th century. It was also here that Hans Christian Andersen, the author of the famous fairy tales, was born some 700 years later.
But today, with its 210,000 inhabitants, the city is also known for the 150 or so robotics, automation, and drone companies it hosts. It is particularly famous for its collaborative robots, or “cobots.” designed to work alongside humans, usually in industrial settings. Robotics is Odense's "industry of choice ," says Mayor Peter Rahbæk Juel, and its residents are proud of it.
This specialization grew out of the more traditional shipbuilding sector. In the 1980s, faced with increased competition from Asian countries, the Lindo shipyard, owned by the AP Moller-Maersk group, asked the University of Southern Denmark for help developing robots to improve productivity on its production lines. Niels Jul Jacobsen, a student at the time, remembers jumping at the chance. Since
Courrier International
