Originally published in Assembly Magazine
Written by: Austin Weber

Traditionally, some manufacturers have avoided robots because of the cost. However, a new robots-for-hire business model is changing that misperception and enabling many types of companies to benefit from automation.

Large and small manufacturers in a wide variety of industries are now beginning to treat robots as “temp workers.” It’s part of a new trend called Robotics as a Service (RaaS).

Rental companies act like a staffing agency for robots, handling all programming, deployment and maintenance. By renting a robot, manufacturers can free up capital expense budgets.

Hirebotics is among the pioneering companies in the robot rental space, allowing manufacturers to hire collaborative robots by the hour without upfront capital investment.

The Nashville, Tennessee-based company deploys robots at customer sites, monitors them remotely via a cloud-connected platform, and charges only for the productive hours the robots work. Customers sign simple employment-style agreements with no long-term commitments.

Robot rental is becoming popular with both large and small manufacturers, providing a new way for companies to automate without the traditional barriers of high capital costs and specialized programming expertise.