International Federation of Robotics

Service robots grew globally by over 30 per cent in 2019

The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) has published the yearbook “World Robotics 2020 – Service Robots”. source: Thomas Plettenberg for Messe München
The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) has published the yearbook “World Robotics 2020 – Service Robots”. source: Thomas Plettenberg for Messe München
29.10.2020

The sales value of professional service robots rose globally in the year 2019 by 32 per cent to USD 11.2 bn (EUR 9.53 bn). This has been reported by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) in their yearbook "World Robotics 2020 - Service Robots". According to the organisation, the market has received further boosts from the Covid-19 pandemic: they state that this is shown, for example, in the strong demand for disinfection robots, logistics robots in factories and warehouses or for robots for the delivery of goods to house doors.
The market value of sold or leased logistics robots rose globally, according to IFR, by 110 per cent to USD 1.9 bn (EUR 1.62 bn) in 2019. Thereby, virtually all sales were generated by logistics robots which are intended for interior areas. In trend are business models by Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS), which lower the hurdles for customers when it comes to automating with robots, writes IFR. The advantage lies in not having to invest in hardware. This means that customers are burdened by neither fixed capital nor fixed costs or additional personnel requirements.
The overall figures for service robots for personal and domestic use rose sharply in 2019: their number increased by 34 per cent to more than 23.2 mio sold units in the year 2019. The sales value rose by 20 per cent to USD 5.7 bn (EUR 4.85 bn). Three quarters of service robots for domestic use - i.e. vacuum cleaning robots and floor cleaning robots, lawn mower robots and other household robots - were manufactured in 2019 by American companies. Asian companies had a share of 19 per cent - the Europeans of six per cent.
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