It started around 50 years ago with just a narrow range of applications for the first robots. Since then, they have been growing ever more flexible and cheaper. Robotics applications and market volumes are rising steadily. With the service robots that will soon be on sale, the mechatronic helpers will have finally arrived on the mass market.
The robot market is in a period of change. As personal assistants, autonomous vehicles, surgical assistants or flying drones, robots are now also invading areas beyond their original industrial applications. According to the market research organisation Tractica, in 2016 for the first time more money was earned from non-industrial robots than robots working in factories.
That does not mean, however, that fewer industrial robots are being used. The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) forecasts global growth of at least 13 per cent a year on average through to 2019. By then, more than 1.4 million new industrial robots in total will have been installed in factories around the globe. Market analyst MarketsandMarkets forecasts that the industrial robot market will be worth 79.58 billion US dollars by 2022. According to IFR, the strongest driver of growth in the robotics sector is China, which is forecast to account for 40 per cent of global industrial robot sales alone by 2019.
Alongside industrial robots, service robots are conquering the market. According to IFR, their sales for professional applications such as in medicine, agriculture and logistics totalled 4.6 billion dollars in 2015. Further dynamic growth in demand is forecast for the period from 2016 to 2019. The cumulative value will rise to 23 billion dollars. In addition to the established market for professional service robots, the consumer segment – from vacuum cleaners to technical entertainment artistes – is now also growing steadily. According to IFR, sales of such personal-use service robots increased by 16 per cent in 2015, reaching a cumulative value of 22 billion dollars. An interesting question in relation to this comparatively new market segment is how the start-up scene will develop – given that it offers unique opportunities for innovative new businesses to conquer a market on which no major robot manufacturers are yet established.
Tractica predicts that the robotics industry in general – including autonomous vehicles and aircraft – is going to see a real boom, with global robot sales rising from 34.1 billion dollars in 2016 to 226.2 billion dollars by 2021 – representing an impressive 46 per cent average annual growth rate.