Mobility, energy, environment, health, autonomy, education, but also maintenance of industrial employment and relocation are societal and economic issues for which mechanics and robotics develop solutions. The industrial stakes are also considerable: industrial competitiveness (issues of innovation and productivity), upgrading the skills of managers and workers, customization of products requiring new design and manufacturing processes, management of raw materials, eco-design, additive manufacturing. Another challenge is to maintain specialty engineering skills that are uncommon in the major engineering schools.
France has nearly 30,100 companies and 608,000 employees with a turnover of 114.8 billion euros in this sector. Mechanics and robotics are France’s largest industrial employer (21%).
The sectors of activity are very broad and include :
- automotive
- aeronautics
- defence
- spatial
- transport
- energy
- structural engineering
- manufacturing output
- home automation
- health technologies.