Another day, another robotics market research report. Robotics is an immensely important engineering industry that has the power to influence many other industries. Robotics has forever changed the industrial world. BCC Research, an industrial research firm, has published their latest investigation into Robotics: Technologies and Global Markets.
The report focuses on six different industries that robotics have been most prominent in:
- Industrial robots
- Professional service robots
- Military robots
- Domestic service robots
- Security robots
- Space robots
The researchers say the robotics market reached $24.9 billion in 2015 and is expected to earn up to $25.9 billion by the end of 2016. In 2021, the researchers estimate that robotics would have earned $31.5 billion, which would translate into a compound annual growth rate of 4%. The biggest market, that will hold $12 billion of the $31.5 billion will be the Asia-Pacific market. Not surprising, seeing as though China is actively seeking to purchase robotics companies as recently seen with Midea Group buying stakes in Germany's Kuka Robotics.
Professional service robotics made up 30% of the global robotics market in 2015. Of that 30 percent, the industries that had the most service robots were:
- Healthcare: More than 50 percent
- Aerospace manufacturing: 10%
- Education and research: 6%
- Governmental service robots: 6% The rest: Food, pharmaceutical, agricultural, construction, consumer products, fuel processing etc
James Wilson, a BCC Research analyst attached to the report, said: "In the most generic sense, collaboration is when multiple workers perform tasks on the same work piece. Collaboration is familiar to those who create information products, the most common of which are financial instruments including car loans and mortgages in which computers, not comptometers, calculate payment schedules. A machine capable of sharing workspace with humans and simultaneously working on the same work piece represented the opening of a new industrial era in which robots were seen less as tools and more as a co-worker."
According to a recent report by the International Federation of Robotics, the sales in industrial robotics were also published, representing the other 70% of the robotics market:.
The industries that reported the most sales in industrial robotics were:
- The automotive industry: 95,000 units purchased in 2015
- Metal industry: 63% more purchases than 2014
- Plastics and rubber industry: 40% more robots purchased in 2015
- Electronics industry: 16% rise in industrial robot purchasing
