Report

The Collaborative Robot Market is expected to register a CAGR of 20.5% during the forecast period.

As robots work even more closely with humans, they must respond to the users and adapt their behaviors. Over the next few years, researchers are expected to recognize basic human behaviors and adapt these robots' actions to respond to them. Over the next few years, this would develop into much more advanced programs that could adapt to the needs of complex tasks.

Key Highlights
- Robust growth in advanced technologies, such as digital twins, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and developments in offline programming and simulation software, enables companies to optimize robot performance. It also helps them develop and test different configurations to find the best solution for their requirements.
- Edge computing is an interesting new approach to network architecture that helps businesses break beyond the limitations of traditional cloud-based networks. As innovative machines like autonomous robots and medical sensors become more common, edge computing will significantly impact society.
- Rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) enable them to execute tasks accurately in a continuously changing environment. AI-integrated cobots help manufacturers in various applications that make operations run efficiently, smoothly, and productively. AI-driven cobots recognize the orientation and presence of materials, perform testing and inspection, dynamically pick and place tasks, read results post-inspection, and derive decisions accordingly.
- Longer training and onboarding, increasing benefits and compensation rates, and labor shortages are significant factors driving the deployment. More and more warehousing, distribution, and fulfillment facilities are investing in automated solutions. As technology improves and the applications become broader and more flexible, robotics is being adopted by a more significant number of manufacturing operations across regions.
- The robots integrated with advanced technologies cost high as compared to traditional robots. The costs of robotic systems are associated with robust hardware and efficient software. Automation equipment involves the usage of advanced automation technologies that require high capital investment. For instance, an automated system may cost millions of Dollars for design, fabrication, and installation.


Collaborative Robots Market Trends

Automotive End-User Segment is Expected to Hold Significant Market Share


- The automotive sector is witnessing significant growth in the number of units produced per day. The machinery on the production floor requires proper maintenance to shorten production cycles and increase production output. Cobots can easily achieve lower direct unit production costs. Moreover, depending on the assembly process considered, the throughput can be higher than in traditional robotic systems. These cobots are used in the automotive industry, where they can be applied to auto part manufacturing (assembling significant parts of a vehicle) and finished vehicle assembly.
- Collaborated robotics used for automotive applications are experiencing a massive upsurge in recent times owing to the proliferation of automotive plants in eminent Asian nations, including China, India, and Vietnam, and growing demand for automotive robotics from automakers in North America. Various prominent automakers, including BMW, Mercedes Benz, and Ford, have been deploying cobotson on their production floors to carry out myriad functions such as welding, car painting, and assembly line activities.
- The automotive industry has utilized robots in its assembly lines for various manufacturing processes for the past few years. Automakers are researching the use of robotics in even more processes, as cobots are accurate, flexible, more efficient, and dependable on these production lines. This has allowed the automotive industry to remain one of the most automated supply chains globally and one of the largest robot users. According to IFR, global industrial robot shipments will amount to about 518,000 in 2024.
- In April 2022, an automotive manufacturing company, Fiat, a subsidiary of Stellantis NV, invested EUR 700 million (USD 750 million) at its Mirafiori factory to produce 500 electric vehicles using state-of-the-art technology, such as collaborative robots. The company aims to automate its complex assembly line operations and quality controls, installing 11 cobots from Universal Robots A/S.
- The cobots used by Fiat would perform various assembly tasks, including quality control, screwdriving, dispensing, and visual inspection. In line with these initiatives, the company would use collaborative automation robots to free the operators from physically demanding and repetitive manual tasks so that they can be employed on processes with greater added value. Such initiatives by the companies in the market are expected to further fuel the demand for collaborative robots in the automotive industry.


Asia Pacific is Expected to Hold Significant Market Share


- The market for collaborative robots in the Asia Pacific is expanding significantly due to the growing number of industries in the region and their integration with automation to increase the ROI. The Asia Pacific collaborative market is predicted to be dominated by China with the growing production, sales, and trade of cobots in China.
- The Chinese market for collaborative robots is leading over the EMEA and Americas regions as the country continues to take industrial automation as the primary focus goal. For instance, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) in Beijing released the "14th Five-Year Plan" for Robot Industry Development on 21st December 2021, focusing on promoting innovation to make China a global leader in robot technology and industrial advancement by including it in 8 critical industries for the next five years. As a result, the essential unique program "Intelligent Robots" was launched under the National Key R&D Plan on 23rd April 2022 with a funding of USD 43.5 million.
- In India, the collaborative robot market is significantly observing steady growth as many processes in the Indian market are not clearly standardized, and a large number of businesses still run in an unstructured way with lower levels of digitization compared to other developed markets.
- Moreover, India has a proven track record of implementing Industry 4.0 in small and medium enterprises through regional and national initiatives by the Government of India and MSMEs themselves. These enterprises have spearheaded the implementation of Industry 4.0 through digital MSME schemes by converting the existing infrastructure into digital, cloud-based technologies. With the industries getting digitized, one of the powerful technologies that evolved in Industry 4.0 is collaborative robots, which have paramount importance in contributing to Industry 4.0 and have made significant breakthroughs by creating an intelligent manufacturing environment.
- Japan is rapidly moving toward "Society 5.0", thus introducing the fifth chapter to the four major stages of human development in this new ultra-smart society. All things are connected through IoT technology, and all technologies are getting integrated, dramatically improving the quality of life. To realize this new era, the Government of Japan is taking various suitable steps to encourage numerous players, including start-ups and "hidden gems" among small- and medium-sized organizations, to come up with brand-new and innovative ideas for facilitating the world with solutions with problems such as labor shortages owing to population.


Collaborative Robots Industry Overview

The collaborative robot market is highly fragmented, with the presence of many major players like Universal Robots AS, Fanuc Corp., TechMan Robot Inc., Rethink Robotics GmbH, AUBO Robotics USA, and ABB Ltd, among others. These players in the market use partnerships, mergers, innovations, investments, and acquisitions to improve their products and gain a competitive edge over others.


- February 2023 - Rapid Robotics announced a new collaboration with Universal Robots (UR), in which UR would supply collaborative robot arms for Rapid Robotics' deployment of cobot work cells across North America. Through this agreement, the company will be able to remove further obstacles to automation by using a robotic workforce to fill positions that manufacturers are unable to fill.
- November 2022 - TechmanRobot introduced its TM AI Cobotseries of collaborative robots, which combines a powerful and precise robot arm with a native AI inferencing engine and smart vision system. It is an intelligent robotic arm series with a comprehensive AI software suite, including TM AI+ Training Server, TM AI+ AOI Edge, TM Image Manager, and TM 3DVisionTM, facilitating companies to train and tailor their system to precisely meet their application.


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