market

Last week, the fifth edition of the National Cobot Day took place at Olmia in Tiel. Visitors could network and exchange knowledge about the rapidly growing cobot market in a relaxed atmosphere. ‘We see that robots are not used to replace people, but to enable them to do other, more challenging work.’

The Asia Pacific micro-surgical robot market is expected to grow from US$ 245.19 million in 2022 to US$ 581.11 million by 2028; it is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 13.1% from 2022 to 2028, according to the report “Asia Pacific Micro-Surgical Robot Market Forecast to 2028 – COVID-19 Impact and Regional Analysis – by Component, Application, and End User” by ResearchAndMarkets.com

UK RPA provider The Robot Exchange will enter the automation market in the Netherlands soon. It is a market that is rapidly growing, with already a broad range of providers. But CIO Phil Johnston sees room for Robot Exchange because of some features in the offering, like the Robot-as-a-Service concept and The DeVol Recorder, which substantially speeds up deployment.

Sales of professional service robots rose by an impressive 37% in 2021. By region, the strongest growth came from Europe with a market share of 38% followed by North America with 32% and Asia with 30%. At the same time, sales of new consumer service robots grew by 9%, according to the “World Robotics 2022 – Service Robots” report, issued by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR).

The new World Robotics report shows an all-time high of 517,385 new industrial robots installed in 2021 in factories around the world. This represents a growth rate of 31% year-on-year and exceeds the pre-pandemic record of robot installation in 2018 by 22%. Today, the stock of operational robots around the globe hits a new record of about 3.5 million units.

For the third-straight quarter, robot sales in North America hit a record high, driven by a resurgence in sales to automotive companies and an ongoing need to manage increasing demand to automate logistics for e-commerce. According to the Association for Advancing Automation, of the 12,305 robots sold in Q2 2022, 59% of the orders came from the automotive industry with the remaining orders from non-automotive companies largely in the food & consumer goods industry, which saw a 13% increase in unit orders over the same period, April through June, in 2021.

Universal Robots has reported Q2 revenue of USD 83 million. Universal Robots highlights particularly strong growth in global welding demand as being key to its success in the first half of the year. The company has also increased its revenue from Original Equipment Manufacturer [OEM] channels.

Teradyne, owner of both MiR and Universal Robots has announced its second quarter results. It reported revenue of $841 million for the second quarter of 2022 of which $541 million was in Semiconductor Test, $135 million in System Test, $64 million in Wireless Test and $101 million in Industrial Automation (IA). Collaborative and mobile robots are part of its Industrial Automation offerings, which experienced ‘slowing growth’.

Although America has lagged behind Asia in design and production of manufacturing robots, it is now positioned to catch up and lead in a new global robotics race, according to research by investment bank Strategic Exits Partners The study analyzed the last five years of transactions including 300 exits, and 5000 investments into 3000 global companies.

Sales of industrial robots have reached a strong recovery: A new record of 486,800 units were shipped globally – an increase of 27% compared to the previous year. Asia/Australia saw the largest growth in demand: installations were up 33% reaching 354,500 units. The Americas increased by 27% with 49,400 units sold. Europe saw double digit growth of 15% with 78,000 units installed. These preliminary results for 2021 have been published by the International Federation of Robotics.