It’s a robot’s world
Broken down by industry, the automotive industry continues to lead the global demand for industrial robots with the largest volume: in 2017, around 125,200 units were sold in this segment – a growth of 21 percent. In 2017, the metal industry (+54 percent), the electrical and electronics industry (+27 percent) and the food industry (+19 percent) will be the strongest growth sectors.
In terms of sales volume, Asia is the strongest single market: In 2017, China installed a total of around 138,000 new industrial robots, followed by South Korea with around 40,000 units and Japan with around 38,000 units. In the Americas, the US are the largest single market with around 33,000 industrial robots sold, and in Europe it is Germany with around 22,000 units sold.
In the course of digitalization, real production is becoming more and more closely interconnected with the virtual data world and thus opens up new possibilities for analysis – including machine learning. Robots will acquire new skills through learning processes, the IFR experts predict.
At the same time, the industry is working on simplifying the handling of robots. In future, industrial robots will be easier and faster to program using intuitive processes. Such a technology is not only interesting for established users, but also for small and medium-sized companies, for example, who can introduce automation without particularly experienced specialist personnel. This development also paves the way for the third major robotics trend:
The cooperation of humans and robots without safety fences offers new perspectives for flexible production processes. The machine sensors and intelligence required for this have recently reached market maturity and are now one of the growth drivers. For manufacturers, it is particularly important to be able to produce individualized, highly complex products profitably, even in small quantities, using machine intelligence and the flexible human-robot collaboration made possible by it.
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