Robots are changing our world
They're revolutionising the way we collaborate the way we think the way we work and the way we create
Robots, helping people work smarter and businesses grow stronger
So imagine a place where robotics companies are collaborating instead of competing
where the ecosystem is capable of commercializing startups and new technologies where you will find an
International test Centre for drones and where the university is so good it won the unofficial world championship in robotics
That place is the Danish City of Odense
It all started at Odense steel shipyard brought life by A.P. Møller the founder of maersk
Academia, and highly educated people were not dominant. It was a production city to be able to compete with low-cost shipyards
They had to rethink their manufacturing process. So the owner of the shipyard decided to donate some money to the local university to
Stimulate more robot research and it was so successful that actual working robots for shipyard welding were produced
despite their many efforts
The steel shipyard had to close
They were not competitive because of the high wages and the technology at that time was not ready yet
The shipyard was not the only one that was closing at that time
It was really a point where there was a lot of the large companies that was closing
So there was some kind of bad years. It was a major blow for the city
I'm happy to say that there were quite a number of people who were visionary so  there was a new hope
a new team of innovative people had some great ideas
Maybe you've heard of something called
Universal robots? We wanted to make a robot that it's more like a tool that helped them do their work
more than this big machine behind a fence  - that steal people's jobs. The team created what today is known as
collaborative robots or cobots
In 2015 everything changed
Universal robots was acquired for 285 million dollars
It actually opened the eyes for the world at large
Everybody was started talking about the future is collaborative robots
Prior to UR there was a lot of talk about all the things that never worked in Odense
And now people talk about all the things that are possible. So everybody suddenly realized there's something special going on in Odense
And this was only the beginning because it wasn't just Universal Robots
there's a whole string of
equally great companies in the making. Companies that are also growing at phenomenal rates of more than 50 percent a year
Ranging from startups to large corporations. Odense now houses dozens of robotics companies and a total of several thousand employees
I have not seen any denser cluster of robot technology anywhere else
We have the university with the world-class research
We have technological Institute
which brings technology out to the industries and then we have the local government which is all for robotics and all for robots
people see each other as colleagues more than
Competitors companies are building their own business on other companies also.  And they need each other
So they exchange information
They even exchange people and we have some extremely exciting jobs here that you cannot find in other cities
limiting factor on
High-tech industries is usually talent and talent is attracted by talented and the critical mass of talent is in Odense
There's a huge interest in investing in Odense now and it's been a lot easier
for startups to to raise funding. When you come out and say that you are part of the Odense robot cluster you get an ear
with the customers, but Odense needs more, it needs you!
We are already one of the leading cities in the world, but I think that Odense aa s Robotics city can grow even further
It's probably one of the best places in the world to start building robot businesses.
and that's why Odense has become a rising star and the robot scene in the world. If you are able to
succeed in robotics, then it's here!
 
