Universal Robots (UR) has hired more than 20 Rethink Robotics staff members, merging its Boston office with Rethink’s former headquarters in Boston’s seaport area “with immediate effect.”

UR says that Rethink’s personnel brings “extensive” collaborative robotics experience in engineering, product development, and customer applications. This experience, combined with UR’s expertise, will help UR continue to develop new and innovative collaborative robotics platforms.

“Our new colleagues from Rethink have extensive expertise, knowledge and know-how not only about the technology but indeed also about the market conditions and what the customers’ pain-points are,” says Universal Robots’ President Jürgen von Hollen.

“All of this will benefit our customers and partners as we face an increase in competitors due to the huge market potential for collaborative robots.”

Via Universal Robots, collaborative robots are now the fastest-growing segment of industrial robotics, and this segment is poised for even more growth over the coming years according to BIS Research, which forecasts this segment to grow from $283 million last year to $3.26 billion in 2022.

UR says that the addition of key Rethink Robotics staff members will help expedite its strategic ambitions and actions.

“Rethink Robotics – along with Universal Robots – has been a pioneer in driving and developing the collaborative robotics market globally,” von Hollen adds. “The company was always a good competitor, which helped us drive cobot awareness worldwide, and we want to make sure its customers can continue to fulfill their collaborative automation initiatives.”