Robotics research forecasts upward growth

A flurry of recent costly robotic analyses are offered by a variety of vendors. 10 are robotics-related – most show steady growth rates; a few project spectacular growth.

UPDATED 2-11-15 to add ABI Research robotic home care research report.

TechNavio, a British technology research company, was the company with the most reports – four, each of which costs $2,500:

• The Global Exoskeleton System Market, a 56-page report, forecasts the global exoskeleton market, in three markets (military, factory and rehab/healthcare), to grow at a 72.5% CAGR from 2014 through 2019. Key companies reviewed in the report include Cyberdyne, Ekso Bionics, ReWalk Robotics, Rex Bionics, Hocoma, Honda, Interactive Motion Technologies, Lockheed Martin and Sarcos.
• The Global Pharmacy Automation Market, an 84-page report, forecasts the global pharmacy automation market to grow at a steady 7% CAGR from 2014 through 2019. Central-fill systems, telehealth, robotic prescription dispensing systems and automated kiosks are expected to drive market growth during the forecast periodKey companies reviewed include CareFusion, McKesson, Parata Systems, ScriptPro, ForHealth Technologies, Health Robotics, Omnicell and Yuyama.
• The US Residential Robotic Vacuum Cleaner Market, a 101-page report, forecasts the residential robotic vacuum cleaner market in the US to grow at a 6.43% CAGR over the period 2014 to 2019. Key vendors selling in the US include iRobot, LG Electronics, Monaural, Neato Robotics and Samsung. Global vendors that plan to begin sales in the US include Bosch, Dyson, ECOVACS, Miele, Panasonic and Philips.
• The Global Mobile Robotics Market, a 90-page report, forecasts the mobile robotics market to grow at a 12.63% CAGR over the period 2014 to 2019. Apart from the Aerospace and Defense industries, these robots are beginning to be used in industries such as Automotive, Warehouse, Healthcare, Energy, and Agriculture and Mining. Key providers analyzed in the report includes: Adept, Honda, iRobot, KUKA, Aethon, John Deere, Seegrid and also GeckoSystems, Bluefin and Bossa Nova Robotics.

ABI Research, a subscription-based pay-for research firm, announced their Robotic Home Care: Vacuum Cleaners, Floor Cleaners, Lawn Mowers, and Pool Cleaners. They predict that the home care/lawn care robotics market will surpass US$2.9 billion by 2019, up from US$1.2B in 2014 and that approximately 7M robotic home care/lawn care products will be sold in 2019, up from 3.4M in 2014, representing a CAGR of 15.6%.

Strategic Defence Intelligence, also a British company, produced The Global UAV Market 2015-2025, a 218-page report selling for $4,800. Focused on the hi-ticket defense and security industries this report doesn’t reflect the growing civilian use of UAS. The report projects the global UAV market to grow at a 5.66% CAGR from 2014 to 2025 with North America and Europe the largest markets and the military drone segment (UCAV – unmanned combat aerial vehicle) to dominate the UAV market. Companies mentioned include AAI Corp, AeroVironment, BAE Systems, BlueBird Aero, Boeing/Cassidian Dassault Aviation, Elbit Systems, General Atomics, Northrop Grumman, Saab, and the Israeli and Korean aerospace agencies.

Frost & Sullivan, a UK company, has produced a report that analyzes the US DoD subset of the global UAV market in their 111-page $7,000 US DoD Unmanned Aerial System Market report. The Department of Defense (DoD) unmanned aerial systems market is transitioning from new systems to providing support and upgrades for existing systems consequently there is a diminishing market with intense competition between vendors. The report shows the various segments, constraints and challenges to get limited contracts and funding for the period 2014-2019.

IndustryARC, an Indian firm, is offering Global Warehouse Robotics Market 2015-2020, a $4,250 180-page report, includes robots used for palletizing, replenishment, assembling, disassembling, consolidation, sortation, packaging, labeling, inspection, storage etc. and includes vendors that provide robotic arms, gantry robots, picking carousels, Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGV), robotic forklifts, and palletizers. The report projects a steady growth rate of 11.3% CAGR between 2014 and 2020. Vendors include ABB, Siemens, Kuka, Fanuc, ATS, Adept, Gudel, Kawasaki, Nahi Fujikoshi, Rockwell, Schunk Toshiba, Kiva and Yamaha.

Occam Research, another Indian firm, has the Global Medical Robotics Market by Application and Segment for 2014-2020, a 100-page $5,500 report, which provides analysis by segment: surgical robot, rehab robot, telemedicine, assistive robots, orthotics, prosthetics, radio surgery and exoskeletons. Vendors profiled in the report include: Intuitive Surgical, Accuray, MAKO, Mazor, Hansen, Titan Medical, Health Robotics, Agilent, Siemens and Carefusion.

Wintergreen Research, a Boston-based analysis and forecasting company, has also authored a UAV report but this 973-page report is entitled “Commercial Drones: Highways in the Sky, UAS, Market Shares, Strategies and Forecasts, Worldwide, 2015 to 2021” (whew!) and sells for $3,900. Wintergreen projects growth at 34.3% CAGR over the period from 2014 to 2021. Vendors analyzed in the report incude: AeroVironment, Boeing, Draganflyer, Lockheed, Northrop, Textron, Aurora, BAE, Google, Parrot, Schiebel and Textron.

According to Susan Eustis, leader of the team that prepared the study, “Police departments, the oil and gas industry, border patrol, and utilities are all using commercial drones. Units are used for agriculture.  Vendors continue to improve the capabilities of these drone aircraft.Their ability to support the commercial endeavors is increasing. Unmanned aircraft have fundamentally changed the accuracy of utility and oil and gas inspections. They are set to fundamentally change how agriculture is conducted.”

And finally, QY Research, a Beijing-based firm, is offering a $3,600 208-page report called Global Vision Guided Robotics Industry Report which is a study of the current state of the vision guided robotics industry. The report includes 21 profiles from vendors such as ABB, Bastian Solutions, Denso, Kuka, Siasun, Yaskawa Motoman, Kawasaki, Yaskawa and Teledyne.

NOTE: Most paid-for research reports use data provided by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR.org) and their annual ‘World Robotics Service Robotics 20XX’ and World Robotics Industrial Robotics 20XX’ reports. Both reports can be purchased and downloaded for roughly $625. Each report recaps significant statistical inputs from industry-based robot associations and their member companies around the world and each provides invaluable detail.