Global demand for robotics to surpass $30 billion in 2016

USA: ELECTRONICS.CA PUBLICATIONS announced the availability of a new report entitled "Robotics: Technologies and Global Markets".

Global demand for robotics will reach $21.8 billion in 2011. That value is projected to reach $30.1 billion in 2016, after increasing at a five-year CAGR of 6.7 percent. The global robotics market can be broken down into four regions that account for the sale of virtually all robots – Asia, North America, the European Union, and other markets. The Asian region, valued at $7.7 billion in 2011, is projected to reach $10.9 billion in 2016, yielding a CAGR of 7.2 percent.

The North American region should be worth $4.9 billion in 2011, and in 2016 that value should reach $5.6 billion, a CAGR of 2.7 percent. The region comprised of the European Union will be worth $4.4 billion in 2011 and in 2016 should be worth $7 billion, a CAGR of 9.6 percent. The region made up of other markets, worth $4.7 billion in 2011, should be worth nearly $6.6 billion in 2016, yielding a CAGR of 6.7 percent.

Robotics can be considered to be a subfield of automation. As a field, robotics is multidisciplinary with far-reaching applications in manufacturing, medicine, surgery, planetary exploration, and the handling of hazardous materials, to name a few. It was once an industry that was grounded in a handful of highly specialized types of industrial and space robots, but has now expanded to include new, commercially viable types of domestic and professional service robots, as well as military and security robots.

The global robotics market was promising at the turn of the millennium, but felt the effects of the recent economic downturn. Despite this setback, the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) reports a surge of new and recession-delayed orders. Patent analysis also forecasts a rapidly growing market, but perhaps most encouraging, venture capital is again flowing to robotics-based start-ups. All of these indications point in the direction of a healthy market for robotics in the near future.