Osterøy municipality has one robot for every 70 inhabitants – NRK Vestland

Earlier this year, a new Robot Technology Competence Center was inaugurated in Osterøy by the Minister for Industry.

The center is the only one of its kind in the country. The special feature is the collaboration between several private and public participants.

One of the goals is to train new operators of several robots.

Kristin Meeking Sognsand (17) and Celje Novdal (23) are two of the “robot students” at Osterøy High School.

– I think it’s very beautiful. And no matter how much you know, there’s always something new you can learn, says Celje Novdal.

teaches programming

Students learn to program a robot that moves metal parts in and out of a lathe. Accuracy is important to get the twist arm to do exactly what you want it to.

Now new metal parts must be brought into rotation, after which everything must be installed again. Otherwise, the claw is unable to grasp the part.

– Now we have set up the robot to pick up the new parts that we are going to put into the machine. Christine explains that the robot was set up with the others, who were bigger and thinner.

Five local companies give students practice one day a week. Here they can try different robots in regular production.

No random placement of the center

It is no coincidence that the new robotics center ended up in Osterøy.

The neighboring municipality of Bergen has an impressive list of robots:

• Lonevåg Beslagfabrikk: 60 bots – 80 years old
• Mjøs Metallvarefabrikk: 11 robots – 60 years old
• Tysse Mechanical Workshop: 5 robots – 70 years old
• K. Lerøy Metalworking: 5 Robots – 60 years old
• Gunnebo Industries: 4 bots – 60 years old
• Fjellskålnes Smed- og Mechanical. Workshop: 2 robots – 7 year old man
• Jon Solberg BislagFabric: One Robot – 15 years
• Osteroy High School: 18 bots – 180 students
• 12 dairy farmers: 12 robots

In total, Osterøy has 117 bots. There is one robot for every 70 inhabitants. The public presentation has been prepared by the Competence Center for Robotic Technology.

– Osterøy is therefore one of the municipalities with the most robots per inhabitant, FrProject manager for the Vidar Tufteland Center.

It is difficult to confirm whether the municipality is in the all-Norwegian station.

Tufteland says the business world can benefit greatly from investing in a competency center.

– In Osterøy, we have many companies that are very advanced in using new technology. They need experienced young people who know about robotics and digitization. “Now we see that companies are competing for these young people much more than before,” says Tufteland.

The center is a collaboration between, among others, the Osterøy business community, Osterøy Municipality, Osterøy High School and Vestland County Municipality.

Decisive for the future

The competence center was opened by the Minister of Industry Jan Christian Vestre, is very excited about what they have achieved at Osterøy.

– This shows how we will make changes in practice. They are now making a model that I think the whole country will enjoy.

He believes this is the way to go to ensure that Norwegian companies will be competitive in the coming years.

– We are a high-cost country, and the fact that we are constantly increasing productivity, that we are using new technology and robotics is very crucial for us to be able to compete, says Pfister.

The knowledge from Osterøy is also set to spread beyond the municipality’s borders. In the fall, the Competence Center was visited by 70 secondary school teachers across Westland, who wanted to learn about robotics technology.