How to profit from the rise of robots
Bots can provide you not only with tea, transport, surgery and sex, but with healthy investment profits
THE idea that one day robots will fly our planes, fill our dishwashers and write our newspapers might sound like science fiction – but it’s not. Robots are already being brought in to do the everyday tasks we loathe, such as tidying up, gardening and washing the car.
Companies are trialling self-driving cars and increasingly using drones to deliver parcels. Scientists last week even predicted that sex robots – so-called pleasure bots – would become commonplace in the next decade.
Big businesses are waking up to the power of robots and investing billions in new technologies in the hope it will boost profits.
Companies across the world spent £55 billion on robotics in 2015, and this is expected to double to nearly £105bn by 2019.
By 2030, up to a third of British jobs could be done by robots, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Jeremy Gleeson, manager of AXA World Funds Framlington Robotech, says: “There is a huge range of uses for robots and automation. Markets are really starting to open up to the idea.
“Technology has improved significantly in the past five years. Robots can now sense the environment they are in and detect what is around them.”
So how can you cash in on the robot revolution?
Honda, the Japanese motoring giant, has been developing robot technology for more than 30 years. In 2000, it created a human-looking robot with arms and legs called Asimo, short for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility.
It is 1.3m tall and looks like someone wearing a spacesuit. But not only can it walk and climb stairs, it can also recognise faces, gestures and even understands commands.
It is not on sale to the public, but some of Honda’s robotics technology is currently being trialled in Japanese hospitals.
For example, its Walking Assist belt that straps around your thighs and waist is used to help people struggling to walk by themselves – such as someone recovering from a stroke.
For savers looking for a fund investing in Honda, Laith Khalaf, of stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown, tips the Man GLG Japan Core Alpha fund. It invests £5.47 of every £100 in Honda and has turned a £10 000 (R172 000) pot into £22 190 over the past five years.
Sophie Muller, of adviser EQ Investors, recommends Baillie Gifford Japanese to savers wanting to profit from robotics. One of the companies it invests in is SoftBank, the £67bn Japanese mobile phone giant that last month bought worldleading robotics firm Boston Dynamics from Google for a reported £79 million.
Boston Dynamics creates robots with names such as BigDog and Spot that walk on all-fours and pick up rubbish, put plates in the dishwasher and tidy away books and CDs.
After buying the US firm, the boss of SoftBank, Masayoshi Son, said robotics would come to the fore as devices such as fridges, TVs and even cars were hooked up to the internet.
Robotics have been used in factories for more than 30 years, with managers looking for ways to automate unskilled or dangerous jobs.
Cognex makes vision systems for robots on production lines. One of its key uses is in quality inspection. For example, its robots are used to check if labels are stuck on to bottles properly.
Intuitive Surgical is a firm which makes robotic arms that allow surgeons to carry out complex, invasive surgery using tiny incisions. Its multi-armed Da Vinci Surgical System has been used in more than three million operations and has reduced recovery times in patients.
Ryan Hughes, of broker AJ Bell, recommends Polar Capital Global Technology. The fund has a big stake in Google.
Google, which has its own robotics lab, recently gave the Press Association a grant of £630 000 to trial “robot journalism” through a scheme called Reporters And Data And Robots (Radar).
As part of this, machines will write up to 30 000 news stories for local news outlets, which have been struggling due to falling revenues.
While robots can’t carry out detailed investigations the way experienced journalists would, they can write basic stock market and sports reports.