Bergur Thormundsson
Research expert covering technology in the Nordics, AI and smart cities
Industrial robots worldwide - statistics & facts
Despite the frightening, almost Terminator-esque, way the phrase “there are robots everywhere” might sound, the increased use of robotics has been a boon to both consumers and enterprises worldwide. The industrial robot market has seen steady growth across the globe and is expected to continue growing as automation becomes ever more vital to businesses. This stems largely from mechanical automation, reducing production costs and improving efficiency. This increased demand due to greater automation, especially in the United States and Europe, is likely to mean that the price increase per robot unit will remain modest.
Robots of all shapes and sizes
The most commonly deployed types of robots in manufacturing include gantry robots, systems that move along a single axis, and SCARA robots, machines that are capable of moving along three axes. Among the newest robots, both autonomous mobile robots and collaborative robots are designed to work close to humans. While autonomous mobile robots often require demarcated avenues of mobility, collaborative robots share a workspace with human workers and help them with tasks that are better suited for robots, such as assembly or quality inspection.Robots industrializing the home
This is not as ominous as it might sound, simply because it is expected that domestic tasks will likely be increasingly automated in the coming years. Robots of all shapes and sizes will play a part there. This category of robots is called service robots and has been growing considerably in use and installation for the last few years. These range from the small but popular robot vacuum cleaners, that many already own, to the exotic and futuristic-looking bipedal robots popularized in science fiction. This latter category has become more realistic as of early 2024 with the unveiling of Tesla’s robot in late 2022 and with the development of bipedal robots by Boston Dynamics in cooperation with the United States military in 2023. Other startups like Figure.AI are working on generative AI-driven service robots, a potential revolution for the robot market.Robot evolution a question of when, not if
For the most part, with the significant developments in the field, robots appear to be here to stay. At nearly all levels of society, enterprises are investigating how they might utilize this technology to improve their business. Industrial sectors are looking to robots to replace workers, while in healthcare, specialist care robots are being explored for the same reason. In general, filling positions of specialist skills, accounting for labor shortages, and improving efficiency will demand robotic solutions for various problems.
