Rent-a-robot business ready to take off?

Hirebotics, a Nashville start-up, is bringing automation to small companies that lack the budget and expertise to go it alone. The firm not only rents out small robots, but also installs them, programs them, maintains them and tracks their productivity. 

Hirebotics makes the investment to buy the right robot for the client. It then bills the client by the hour for the time, down to the second that the robot works. The rate? About $15 an hour. 

If the customer decides the robot isn’t working out, Hirebotics can be “fired” with 30 days’ notice.

TRENDPOST: Robotics is becoming a necessary element to cut costs in even small manufacturing operations. But small companies lack the budgets to buy robots. Robotics as a service – the “rent-a-bot” approach – will find a ready market for customers wanting turn-key services.