Government support needed
Advanced industries develop in places where an integrated set of academic knowledge, industry and people with experience is created. From an analysis conducted by the Israeli Robotics Association headed by Prof. Zvi Shiler, it appears that government assistance is needed to promote a limited number of issues in the field of smart robotics in which Israel has a relative and/or unique advantage. Such an approach can lead to the promotion of the Israeli robotics industry and position Israel as a leader in fields that are still in their infancy. The Israeli industry has an advantage in a unique combination of knowledge infrastructures in the fields necessary for the development of systems Smart robotics, along with the culture of innovation and initiative that characterizes the Israeli high-tech industry. This combination holds the potential to reach world-class leadership in the fields of smart robotics such as health, agriculture, smart factory and more.
The union proposed to government officials, industry and users to establish a center, which will promote the issue of smart robotics. This center will sprout ventures that will become dozens of leading industrial companies, and as a result will bring a general benefit to the labor market. With a budget that is lower than the current budget for individual companies, it is possible to advance the Israeli robotics industry to a world leading position. Also, it is worth mentioning that in the field of robotics there is a departure of highly skilled proffesionals abroad and there is almost no return of experts to Israel. A world-renowned robotics center will be a force of attraction for existing and future experts.
One of the relevant examples for us is Denmark, whose number of inhabitants is smaller than that of Israel. Denmark made a decision about 20 years ago to invest in the field of robotics. Its government budgeted projects at the University of Odense (Odense), a medium-sized city, to establish an integrated and inclusive system of academia and industry. Within a decade or two, the system has become a world center in the field of Autonomous Mobile Robots. Today there are hundreds of companies with thousands of engineers that are a center of knowledge and excellence known to the whole world.
The field of robotics fits well into the Israeli high-tech industry. It utilizes human capital and existing research and development infrastructure in the industry, which has reached a certain level of exhaustion and is looking for new avenues of growth to help the Israeli economy yearning to renew growth. Therefore, the field of robotics is a natural candidate for renewing growth in the economy, but there is an essential need to create an integrated and inclusive system (ecosystem) of academia, industry and users to create real and fruitful synergy and cooperation. A robotics center can serve as a catalyst for product development and their continued commercial development by old and new companies. Such activity may preserve the advanced industries as the engine that drives the Israeli economy and allow the employment of thousands of workers, the increase of the gross product and the expansion of exports by billions of dollars. Israel can be among the leaders in the world in the field of smart robotics.