Competing market research reports agree: Expect double-digit growth for most robotics segments

The number of research reports covering the robotics industry has grown exponentially in the last few years. Eighty-one have been previewed on The Robot Report thus far in 2015. The latest batch of 28 — shown below — brings the total to 109.

GLOBAL INDUSTRIAL AND SERVICE ROBOTICS (3)

• Robotics 2016-2026, published December 2015, 120 pages, IDTechEx, $4,718
  The existing and emerging robotics market sectors, which amounts to $25bn today, will grow to $123bn by 2026.
• Global Robotics Market, September 2015, 86 pages, TechNavio, $2,500
  Forecasts the global robotics market to grow at a CAGR of 29.11% over the period 2014-2019.
• Robotics Market Forecasts, November 2015, 22 pages, Tractica, $4,200
  Forecasts that the global robotics industry will grow from $28.3 billion worldwide in 2015 to $151.7 billion by 2020.

INDUSTRIAL ROBOTICS (4)

• Industrial Robots: market shares, strategies and forecasts, July 2015, 973 pages, Wintergreen Research
  Forecasts that markets are expected to rise 11.5% annually through 2021. Industrial robot markets at $22 billion in 2014 are anticipated to reach $48.9 billion by 2021.
• Global Automotive Robotics, November 2015, 167 pages, BIS Research, $3,600
  Key drivers of demand for robots include ongoing investments in new production capacities in emerging markets, modernization in major vehicle producing countries, reduction of the time needed to market of the products, lack of skilled labor/ rising labor costs, and high demand for precision and quality control, among others.
• Global Food and Beverage, November 2015, 81 pages, TechNavio, $2,500
  Forecasts the global industrial robotics market in the food and beverage industry to multiply at an incredible CAGR of 29% to 2019.
• Machine Vision Systems and Components, August 2015, 245 pages, IndustryARC, $5,250
  Expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.6% with total revenue of $8.6 billion by 2021.

MILITARY, CONSUMER AND PROFESSIONAL SERVICE ROBOTICS (10)

• Global Service Robotics, November 2015, Accuray Researcy, $3,780
  Forecasts the Service Robotics market to grow at 19% CAGR for next 5 years and reach $25bn by 2020.
• Global Service Robotics, December 2015, 158 pages, Markets and Markets, $4,650
  Forecasts Global Service Robotics Market to grow from $6.97bn in 2014 to $18.02bn by 2020 at a CAGR of 17.36%.
• Professional Service Robots, December 2015, 101 pages, Grace Market Data, $1,600
  Forecasts global professional service robot sales revenue is expected to grow by 11.9% annually in the coming 2015-2020 years
• Global Professional Service Robotics, December 2015, 57 pages, TechNavio, $2,500
  Technavio expects the global professional service robotics market to multiply at a rate of nearly 16% for the remainder of the decade.
• Military Robots, December 2015, 150 pages, Markets and Markets, $4,650
  Forecasts the Military Robot Market to grow from $13.55bn in 2015 to $21.11bn by 2020 at a CAGR of 9.27%.
• Law Enforcement Robots, November 2015, 582 pages, Wintergreen Research, $4,000
  Forecasts law enforcement, first responder and homeland security robots and technologies will reach $4.3 billion by 2021.
• Consumer Robotics, November 2015, 63 pages, Tractica, $3,500
  Forecasts annual shipments of consumer robots will increase from 6.6 million units in 2015 to 31.2 million units worldwide by 2020, with a cumulative total of 96.7 million consumer robots shipped during that period.
• Worldwide Consumer Robotics, December 2015, Juniper Research, $2,950
  Forecast that over 1 in 10 American households will own a consumer robot by the end of the decade, up from under 1 in 25 this year.
• Telepresence robots, November 2015, 42 pages, Tractica, $3,200
  Tractica estimates telepresence robot shipments to be 100,000 units by 2020.
• Industrial Cleaning Robot Market, October 2015, Markets and Markets, $4,650
  Forecasts the cleaning robot market, valued at $1.04bn in 2014, to reach $2.5bn by 2020 at a CAGR of 15.3% from 2015 to 2020.

UNMANNED AERIAL AND MARINE SYSTEMS (6)

• UAV Market Analysis, October 2015, 215 pages, Markets and Markets, $4,650
  Global Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Market estimated to be $10.1bn in 2015 and to grow to $14.9bn by 2020 at a CAGR of 8.12%.
• Drones: Consumer and Commercial, October 2015, Juniper Research, $6,000
  Forecasts  consumer drone sales to reach 4M in 2015 and rising to 16M annually by 2020.
• Commercial UAV Market, November 2015, Grand View Research, $4,700
  Forecasts the global commercial UAV market at over $500 million in 2014 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of approximately 17% to 2022.
• Global Autonomous Unnderwater Vehicles (AUV) market, August 2015, 120 pages, Markets and Markets, $4,650
  Forecasts the total autonomous underwater vehicles market to reach $343.4 million by 2020, at an estimated CAGR of 13.42% between 2015 and 2020.
• Global UAV Flight Training and Simulation Market, November 2015, 57 pages, TechNavio, $2,500
  Forecasts the global UAV flight training and simulation market to grow at a CAGR of 6.06% over the period 2015-2019.
• Global UAV Multirotor Market, November 2015, 61 pages, TechNavio, $2,500
  Forecast the global multirotor UAV market to grow at a CAGR of 21.62% over the period 2014-2019.

HEALTHCARE AND SURGICAL SYSTEMS (5)

• Robotic Exoskeletons, December 2015, ABI Research, $5,000
  ABI predicts the robotic exoskeleton sector to reach $1.8 billion in 2025, up from $68 million in 2014, for a CAGR of 39.6%. This is particularly timely because the US Dept. of Veterans Affairs announced that it will cover the cost of ReWalk’s powered exoskeleton.
• Cardiac Surgical Robots, December 2015, 223 pages, Wintergreen Research, $4,000
  Wintergreen forecasts that the market, at $72.2 million in 2014, will grow to $2.2 billion by 2021.
• Global Specialty Surgical Endoscopy Products, November 2015, Life Science Intelligence, $4,995
  The report says that the trend toward minimally-invasive surgery has driven rising sales of endoscopy products in a growing range of applications and that surgical robots are being developed for the purpose of enabling endoscopic surgeries.
• Wearable Robots and Exoskeletons, October 2015, 161 pages, WinterGreen Research, $4,000
  Although the market was only $16.5 million in 2014, this report anticipates sales to reach $2.1 billion by 2021.
• Dispensing systems Market, October 2015, 272 pages, Markets and Markets
  The report forecasts the global dispensing systems market to grow at a CAGR of 5.1% from 2015 to 2020.

BOTTOM LINE

The fact-based backbone for many of these research reports is the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) annual World Robotics Industrial and World Robotics Service reports. These two books represent the official tabulation from all the robot associations around the globe. The 2015 reports cover 2014 activity. The two 2015 reports can be purchased for $2,425. The IFR industrial robots report forecasts a 15% CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) for the next 4 years and, for the same period, the service robots report forecasts a 19% CAGR for professional and field service robots and 27% CAGR for household, consumer and personal service robots.

​These 109 reports are costly but can be valuable to VCs, companies and their engineering and marketing research departments, and academia. Many of the reports duplicate the coverage of others and frequently differ on forecasts. Some are marginally useful; others are chock full of valuable information. But the bottom line is that all the reports are forecasting positive double-digit growth for most segments of the robotics industry.

Frank Tobe is the owner and publisher of The Robot Report, and is also a panel member for Robohub's Robotics by Invitation series.

Frank Tobe is the owner and publisher of The Robot Report, and is also a panel member for Robohub's Robotics by Invitation series.