Despite barriers such as high potential costs and significant planning, deployment, and training time, the global collaborative robot (cobot) market will reach revenue of US$9.7bn (£7.5bn) by 2025, according to a new report from Tractica.
The report, titled Collaborative Robots, examines the market issues surrounding cobots and presents eight-year revenue forecasts for the industry. It discusses the market drivers, challenges, and industry applications, in addition to assessing important technology issues that may influence market development.
It states that, while “a gap exists in understanding what these robots are as well as the implications for businesses”, the increasing implementation of smart factories means more companies are becoming aware of the growing importance of and uses for cobots.
According to Tractica, large company adoption of cobots is already occurring and benefits such as lower costs, increased safety, flexibility, and personnel efficiencies are cited in the report as key driving factors for cobot demand in small and medium enterprises as well.
The report also claims that “more startups are entering the industry with new user-friendly cobot offerings, making the market increasingly competitive and diverse”.
Glenn Sanders, senior analyst at Tractica, said: “New opportunities are opening in the market as makers develop cobots with higher payload capacities and speed. The integration of cobots with the industrial Internet of Things opens new possibilities for the coordination of cobots doing smart manufacturing with the rest of the automation processes.
“Humanlike abilities of perception, object recognition, gripping and manipulating objects, and dual grippers present the potential to drive greater demand in the coming years.”
The top 17 industry players, organised by pure cobot suppliers, industrial robot suppliers, end-of-arm tooling suppliers, and software framework providers are profiled in the report, along with an information bank of 82 key and emerging companies.
An executive summary is available for free download on the firm’s website.
