Robotic equipment has become more popular due to advancements in performance, flexibility, speed, ease-of-use, low maintenance and costs.

The concept of robotic aids have gone beyond Rosie the maid in the cartoon series “The Jetsons” and been embraced by modern households in everyday solutions, such as the Roomba brand of automated vacuums. For beverage-makers and distributors, robotic solutions have come to embody reliable, flexible and safer options for their operations. Within the industry, installation of robotic equipment continues to grow with new applications for manufacturing and distribution, experts say.

According to the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI), companies continue to make capital investments in packaging machinery. Shipments for packaging machinery in the United States increased 12 percent in 2010 compared to 2009, bringing shipment totals to $5.5 billion versus $4.9 billion the prior year, according to a PMMI report released in November.

In 1977, George Lucas introduced robots R2-D2 and C-3PO to the world in “Star Wars.”