How/where/when/why/what does R&A continue/stop to develop?

During the last 30 years robots became a widely used and well accepted technology. Despite of relatively large robot distribution figures within the production sector, no market saturation is in sight. Even for industrial applications new application areas are identified. According to many experts robots will additionally conquer completely new application areas in the service sector. As a pre-condition for the use in this sector, especially in the field of sensor, driving and control technology, further research must be conducted. Robotics and automation will continue to develop into applications with more sensors and in totally new application areas. R&A will continue with new ideas for cheaper, faster, and more economical solutions and new control systems. Only a disaster in our economically oriented world, a total lack of ideas or extremely cheap labour can stop the development of R&A. The paper discusses new robot applications within the industrial production sector.