According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), the wild west of innovation and integration that comprises today’s robotics industry is due for a serious boom.
The market research firm’s recent tell-all on the present and future of robotics,Worldwide Commercial Robotics Spending Guide, recognizes the space as “one of six Innovation Accelerators that will drive digital transformation by opening new revenue streams and changing the way work is performed”–perhaps making it capable of achieving a compound annual growth rate of 17% over the next five years.
Dr. Jing Bing Zhang, a Robotics Research Director for IDC, described the rising industry as ”[among] the core technologies that is enabling significant change in manufacturing,” accounting in major part for the industry’s reasonable bulk in 2015 of around $71 billion. As semi-autonomous and finely dexterous robots seemingly becoming expert in more tasks by the minute, however, there’s also ”an increasing adoption of robotics in sectors like electronics, retail, healthcare, logistics, agriculture, services, education, and government,” Zhang said, that may deliver this rather self-sufficient industry to the neighborhood of $135.4 billion.In addition to its predictions, the guide outlines purchase stats for areas such as robotic systems, software, and after-market robotics hardware across regional markets in various industries. Receiving nods as current runaway leaders in the industry are ”the discrete and process manufacturing industries” with their respective 33.2% and 30.2% claims on total spending in 2015, while transportation, resource management, and healthcare round out the top five.
When it comes to potential for serious growth, the industry’s ever-broadening range of applications and track record to date wouldn’t seem to suggest otherwise–especially considering Bank of America BAC +1.14% Merrill Lynch’s report from November 2015, which imagined (based on 2014′s robotics tab of $10.7 billion) that the industry could look forward to hitting something more like the $83 billion mark by 2020. Zhang noted,
Such broad-based growth in robotic adoption is being driven by increasing labor costs, shortage of skilled labor, and an increasing emphasis on repeatable quality in conjunction with a reduction in prices of robotic systems and strategic national initiatives.
[“Source-forbes”]
