“We have been here for almost 50 years and no one has ever noticed how much work we have given, the government’s Golden Power has arrived on the operation with our Chinese partner, and we are suddenly in the spotlight.”
Roberto Montorsi is the president and founder of Robox, the electronics company from Castelletto Ticino that creates the “brain”, the control systems of industrial robots, for which the Draghi government has vetoed the transfer of technology and software to China in an agreement involving the Chinese industrial robot manufacturer Efort Intelligent Equipment and the Lake Maggiore company. With him his children Lea, in the board of directors and marketing manager, and Marzio, at the helm of the Chinese “rib” of Robox.
If Draghi has exercised this power, does it mean that you are one of the most strategic companies in the Peninsula?
“It means that we are one of the few left who know how to do a certain job very well, which has been abandoned over the years. I am an electronic engineer, I trained in that extraordinary construction site-laboratory that was the Fiat research center and I started dealing with this sector since 1975 when it was only talked about in America and no one was thinking about electronics yet. The giants were only interested in the mechanical part, the hardware, then they realized that electronics were a fundamental added value and wanted to deal with it, so there are very few small companies left in this sector. We have developed and we have grown ».
What can you get robots to do today?
«Infinite operations, in the most disparate fields: from laser cutting to polishing, from palletizing operations to those related to the automotive industry».
Why is roboticization destined to make its way more and more and replace humans?
“Because the machine is more precise, it doesn’t distract itself. Because if he makes a mistake it is always the same, easy to identify and correct ».
What will the robots of tomorrow be like?
«Much more flexible and autonomous, able to carry out practically all serial operations; the real turning point will be the application of artificial intelligence, just as the first revolution came with microprocessors ».
Let’s go back to the Chinese: when did business with them start?
«We started in 2014 to look out on the Chinese market, which was very promising and structured and subsequently we entered into a partnership with Efort Intelligent Equipment that brought our Chinese partner to 40% of the stake. We have always worked very well, which is why they asked to increase the share to 49%, so the majority remains ours. Also for this reason we are unable to understand the decision to stop the government on an entrepreneurial operation that would bring important resources to Robox to invest in Italy ».
What are you going to do now?
«We are preparing all the documentation to make it clear how useful this operation is for Italy. Our source codes, that is the core of the software, we give them only for use, the property remains ours ».
How do you see 2022?
«Very uncertain, because the instability does not favor either research or markets. We have returned from two years of record turnover (ed. 7.5 million euros), this year we will have to content ourselves with playing in defense. And to say that we have all the credentials to increase turnover and jobs ».