Meet Denmark's robotics companies of the year

The Spin Robotics team (left) and Capra Robotics team receiving their awards. | Source: Odense Robotics

Odense Robotics, Denmark’s national robot and drone cluster, handed out awards for company and startup of the year during its recent conference. Capra Robotics, which is developing outdoor mobile robots, won Robotics Company of the Year 2022, and Spin Robotics, a company that offers a collaborative screwdriving tool, won Robotics Startup of the Year 2022.

Odense Robotics’ approximately 300 members, made up of robot, automation and drone companies, nominated and voted for finalists for the awards.

Capra faced strong competition from other finalists, beating out Blue Ocean Robotics and Universal Robots. The Capra Hircus outdoor mobile robot can handle different types of loads and be used for a variety of applications. Hircus runs ROS 2 and allows third-party tools and applications to be attached either to its top or via a trailer. It also has an I/O connector plate with standard connectors, so applications mounted on the robot can use the battery supply (24V with 23-29.4V range) and Ethernet provided by the robot through their respective M12 connectors.

“This award is testament to Capra Robotics’ strong foundation created by the company founder Mads Bendt and the team we’ve built up together over the past couple of years,” said Capra CEO Niels Jul Jacobsen, who also founded Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR). “Capra Robotics aims to revolutionise the use of outdoor mobile robots in inspection and surveillance, urban service and maintenance, and logistics. The potential is huge and we’re humbled that Denmark’s robotics, automation and drone industry has chosen to recognise Capra Robotics with this award.”

Competition was also tight for Robotics Startup of the Year 2022. Spin faced off against Aim Robotics, ARIS Robotics, Uniwelco and Weldingdroid. Spin launched its screwdriving end effector for collaborative robots in 2021 and is now scaling the solution. The startup hopes to begin in Europe and expand to North American and Asian markets by the end of 2022.

“It’s a real honor to be awarded Robotics Startup of the Year 2022. We have had a strong focus on our tech development and now we have a strong product that can perform strenuous screwing tasks, which are done manually in many companies,” Teit Silberling, CEO at Spin, said. “We are a good team with big, global growth ambitions. Scaling up in Europe is what we’re focused on now. This award is a fantastic recognition of the growth potential that lies in our company and our product.”

Spin’s all-in-one screwdriving solution is able to insert six screws in less than a minute, the company claims. Its products are used across numerous industries, including automotive, logistics, medical appliances and more.

Odense Robotics has five hubs in Aalborg, Aarhus, Copenhagen, Odense and Sonderborg. The goal of the cluster is to accelerate sustainable development among robot, automation and drone companies. The organization opened its fifth and final hub in Aalborg in January 2022.

Denmark has long been home to one of the strongest robotics clusters worldwide. According to the Odense Robotics Insight Report 2022 (PDF), Denmark’s robotics industry grew 12% in 2021. Denmark’s robotics, automation and drone industry generated EUR 2.8 billion (DKK 21.1 billion) in turnover in 2021, including EUR 1.5 billion (DKK 11 billion) in exports.