MUNICH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--With around 1.8 million industrial robots, the number of robots has reached a new record in factories around the world. Workers around the world rate the fact that "colleague robots" can take over work that is detrimental to health or handle hazardous materials positively (64 percent on average). However, employees are worried about how their own training can keep up with the pace of the working world 4.0. These are the findings of the automatica Trend Index 2018. 7,000 employees in the USA, Asia and Europe in a representative survey of the population were interviewed by a market research institute on behalf of automatica, the world's leading trade fair for robotics and automation.When it comes to their own country, only about one in four employees is convinced that training and development already plays a key role in the workplace of the future. This new collaboration with robots is regarded by the majority of all seven countries (average 68 percent) as an opportunity to master higher-skilled work. Particularly in China (86 percent) and in the USA (74 percent), people expect that robotics automation will provide added impetus to further their vocational training.