According to market intelligence firm Tractica, new use cases are driving the growth of the non-industrial robot market. The firm projects that professional and consumer demand will double non-industrial use of robots over the next five years. Most of that growth is driven by new and expanding use cases in market segments such as agriculture, autonomous vehicles, consumer unmanned aerial vehicles, warehousing, logistics, military robotics, and personal assistant robots.
Most recently the firm found non-industrial robots represented 70 percent of the $39 billion robotics market globally in 2017. That figure grew from the 64 percent share in 2016.
Tractica has identified 110 real-world use cases that comprise the robotics market.
The emergent trend in AI, according to the firm, is the incorporation of AI technologies — deep learning, computer vision, and natural language processing — into robots and the impact they are having on robotic autonomy and UI/UX. This shift to software is also behind the move of the robotic epicenters from Japan and Europe to Silicon Valley and China.
“The key trend emerging in the industry is that AI technologies like deep learning, computer vision, and natural language processing are revolutionizing autonomy and UI/UX capabilities in robots,” says senior analyst Glenn Sanders. “This trend is driving many of the most significant advancements in robotics and is making possible numerous new commercial and personal robotics use cases.”
According to Tractica’s analysis, the opportunity for robotics has a lot of reach across a range of industries and geographies.
“(It) is particularly disruptive in activities that involve repetitive work from transportation to logistics to surgery to cooking cuisine,” Tractica’s wrote. “This growth trend will accelerate further when autonomous vehicles take to the streets, resulting in a dramatic expansion in global robotics market revenues over the next 10 years.”
More information on the report is available here, including a listing of the 110 real-world robotic use cases organized by industry.
