A new report from the International Federation of Robots (IFR) - has shown a record number of industrial robots operating in factories around the world. The report also found the continuation of strong sales figures, offering some signs of hope the robotics industry may have been left relatively unscathed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Human-robot collaboration
The World Robotics 2020 Industrial Robots report found 2.7 million robots already working across the world. Sales of new robots remain high with 373,000 units shipped globally in 2019, a drop of 12% from the previous year - but still the third highest volume ever recorded.
“The stock of industrial robots operating in factories around the world today marks the highest level in history,” said Milton Guerry, President of the International Federation of Robotics.
“Driven by the success story of smart production and automation this is a worldwide increase of about 85% within five years (2014-2019). The recent slowdown in sales by 12% reflects the difficult times the two main customer industries, automotive and electrical/electronics, have experienced.”
“In addition to that, the consequences from the coronavirus pandemic for the global economy cannot be fully assessed yet. The remaining months of 2020 will be shaped by adaption to the ´new normal´," he continued.
Top 15 markets - World Robotics 2020
The report found that Asia remains the strongest market for industrial robots with new installations there accounting for around two-thirds of global supply.
China is still by far the region largest adopter with robot numbers reaching 783,000 in 2019 - a rise of 21% - and while sales that year were below the record years of 2017 and 2018, it still doubles the number sold five years ago. Japan ranked second with 355,000 - up 12 %, and India rising by 15% to 26,300.
In Europe, Germany remains the main user with around 221,500 robots, which is three times as many as Italy (74,400 units), five times that of France (42,000 units) and about ten times that of the UK (21,700 units).
The adoption of human-robot collaboration is also on the rise, with cobot installations growing by 11%. With more suppliers than ever offering collaborative robots and the range of applications widening, the market share reached 4.8% of the total of 373,000 industrial robots installed in 2019, making it a fast growing but still infant market.
The report also gave an outlook for the future, post-coronavirus, concluding that the heavy impact the pandemic had on 2020, it did offer a chance for modernisation and digitalisation of production as the world recovers.
"In the long run, the benefits of increasing robot installations remain the same," said IFR in a press release.
"Rapid production and delivery of customised products at competitive prices are the main incentives. Automation enables manufacturers to keep production in developed economies - or reshore it - without sacrificing cost efficiency."
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