Robotics Tech Consortium doubles membership

Membership in the Robotics Technology Consortium is gaining momentum, more than doubling membership numbers in its second year.The non-profit’s membership has gone from 88 organizations last year to 179 this year. Those numbers are expected to grow as firms specializing in robotics increasingly try to break into the defense sector.”It has really sprung up and is really taking off,” says Phil Callihan, executive director of the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences.The Ann Arbor-based Robotics Technology Consortium spun off from the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences to help guide companies through doing business with the U.S. Dept. of Defense. The idea is to clear a path so technology can make it to the battlefield in an expedited manner.More and more local manufacturing and robotics firms are breaking into the defense/homeland security sectors as a way to diversify their client portfolio as the domestic automotive industry continues to shrink.”The area of robotics is growing so exponentially,” Callihan says. “We think the sky is the limit.”Source: Phil Callihan, executive director of the National Center for Manufacturing SciencesWriter: Jon Zemke