The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) today released its World Robotics R&D Programs 2025 report that analyzes strategies in Asia, Europe, and the U.S. While economies worldwide are increasingly investing in robotics, each government research and development program follows different strategies.
“The 4th edition of the World Robotics R&D Programs covers the latest funding developments, including updates in 2024,” Dr. Jong-Oh Park, vice chairman of the IFR Research Committee and member of the Executive Board, said. “A total of 13 countries are in the list, with Singapore and Canada being presented for the first time in this publication.”
Chinese investment strategies
China will be wrapping up its “14th Five Year Plan” for the development of the robotics industry this year. The program, published by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) in Beijing in December 2021, focuses on promoting innovation. The aim is to make China a world leader in robotics technology and industrial development.
To reach this goal, the plan outlined five tasks for improvement:
- Improve industrial innovation capabilities
- Consolidate the foundation for industrial development
- Increase the supply of high-end products
- Expand the depth and breadth of applications
- Optimize the industrial innovation structure
More recently, China updated its “Key Special Program on Intelligent Robots” in July 2024. The budget of about USD 45.2 million (about CNY 329 million) promotes the development of independent key sectors of the national economy. Key targets include Fundamental Frontier Technologies e.g. training of generative AI models.
China’s investments in recent years seemed to have paid off. The IFR’s latest data shows that China reached a robot density of 470 units per 10,000 workers in the manufacturing industry. This means the country ranked third worldwide in 2023. China only entered the top 10 in 2019. It has managed to double its robot density within four years.
The operational stock of industrial robots in China. | Source: IFR
Japan’s plans to become the world’s top robot innovation hub
Like China, Japan has a national “New Robot Strategy” to help it become a top robot innovation hub in the world. The country’s key sectors remain unchanged from past reports. These include manufacturing, nursing and medical, and agriculture.
In 2020, it launched the “Moonshot Research and Development Program.” This program will run until 2050 with a budget of USD 440 million (JPY 25 billion). Japan set 10 moonshot goals in the areas of society, environment, and economy to achieve “human well-being.” These include issues facing society in the future, such as an aging population and global warming.
Additionally, the program promotes the realization of AI robots that learn autonomously, adapt to their environment, evolve in intelligence, and act alongside humans.
According to the IFR, Japan is the world’s number one industrial robot manufacturer. The country globally ranked in fifth place in implemented automation, with 419 units per 10,000 workers installed.
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Korea’s National Robot Plans
The Korean government announced its “4th Basic Plan on Intelligent Robots” in January 2024. The plan will run until 2028 and includes an investment of KRW 180 billion (USD 128 million).
This investment supports the development of the robotics industry as a core industry for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, as well as innovation in manufacturing and services. The country’s key targets include improving technology, manpower, and corporate competitiveness which constitute the foundation of the Korean robotics industry.
Korea aims to strengthen strategic inter-company, international, and interregional cooperation in the robotics industry. The IFR lists Korea as the world’s number one adopter of industrial robots with 1,012 robots per 10,000 employees. Robot density has increased by 5% on average each year since 2018.
Europe’s investments in robotics
The number of annual robot installations in Europe over the past 10 years. | Source: IFR
Horizon Europe is the European Union’s key research and innovation framework program. The program’s budget is set to EUR 95.5 billion ($100 billion) and runs until 2027. The program’s top targets include strengthening the EU’s scientific and technological bases and boosting Europe’s innovation capacity and competitiveness.
The European Commission provides total funding of EUR 174 million ($183.5 million) for the robotics-related work program 2023-2025 which was partly updated in April 2024. The focus is on industrial leadership in AI, data and robotics, clean energy transition, and innovative health initiatives, to name but a few.
According to the IFR, the EU has a robot density of 219 units per 10,000 workers, with Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and Slovenia in the world’s top ten.
Germany is Europe’s most automated country, with 429 robots per 10,000 employees. This puts the country fourth worldwide, according to the IFR. Germany’s R&D and innovation program “High-Tech Strategy 2025 (HTS)” runs until 2026 with a total budget set to USD 369.2 million (EUR 350 million).
Additionally, Germany’s “Robotics research action plan” will support the cross-connection of research centers, support skilled labor, and bring robotics research results into application.
U.S. robotics R&D efforts to keep up
A photo of NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter taken by the Perseverance Rover. | Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS
Robotics R&D programs managed by the U.S. include research on Intelligent Robotics and Autonomous Systems by the National Science Foundation (NSF), “Space Robotics” by NASA, and “Military Robotics and Autonomous Vehicles” by the Department of Defense (DoD).
Following the Mars exploration program, NASA launched the Artemis project to send astronauts to the surface of the moon and to develop promising capabilities for Mars missions after 2024. The total budget for Artemis is USD 53 billion for fiscal years 2021-2025.
The NSF’s research programs support the development and use of robotics in workplaces, hospitals, communities, and homes. The budget requested for 2024 is around USD 70 million. The DoD‘s 2023 budget includes USD 10.3 billion for autonomy and robotics technologies.
Additionally, the U.S. recently announced a joint venture with OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank to invest in AI infrastructure. The organizations committed to invest an initial USD 100 billion and up to USD 500 billion over the next four years. While this project isn’t directly about funding robotics initiatives, investments in AI could also result in progress for robotics.
The IFR’s data show that robot density in the U.S. hit 295 units in 2024. The country ranks tenth in the world. Regarding annual installations of industrial robots, the U.S. is third in the world.
Good stuff, thanks for curating the strategies of the different players!