Mitsubishi Electric has delivered its 1000th robot to schools in Germany. The new 5-axis arm has a reach of over 400mm and is part of Festo Didactic's training system used to emulate an automated production cell. Mitsubishi reports robot installations in industry are up 20% over last year and the growth is expected to continue. This growth is fuelled in part because robots cost only EUR 1.64/h to run and outperform humans in the consistency department. They've also noticed that companies which transferred manufacturing to low wage areas a few years ago are bringing it back home because robots are reducing costs and local manufacturing is easier to manage.