News

Service Robot Market Share Gains Driven by Pandemic

• By John K. Waters
• 05/05/2020

The global pandemic is presenting providers of service robots—from personal household bots to professional logistics machines—with an unprecedented opportunity to show their value and grow their markets, a new report concludes.

The report ("Global Service Robotics Market and Volume Analysis by Type and Key Players Analysis Forecast to 2025") points to a $17 billion market in which service robots are already increasingly accepted, but one whose growth is sure to be accelerated by new pandemic-oriented use cases.

"The novel coronavirus has increased interest in robots, drones, and artificial intelligence," the report's authors state. "These technologies can help deal with massive staffing shortages in healthcare, manufacturing, and supply chains; the need for 'social distancing;' and diagnosis and treatment."

Covid-19 has provided a unique opportunity for companies to display robots for public applications. public relations, rescue and security, inspection, cleaning, monitoring, and detection—all address some aspect of the process of containing the pandemic. In healthcare in particular, service robotics play a vital role, the analysts say. These devices minimize human intervention at many levels, from patient examination to patient care and drug delivery. Disinfection robots from Danish company UVD Robots have been in high demand since the outbreak.

Robots employed in such industries as defense, agriculture, logistics, inspection and maintenance, rescue and security, construction, and professional cleaning, among others, are considered "professional services" robots; the machines used for domestic, entertainment, and leisure purpose are considered "personal service" robots.

The vast majority of professional services bots are deployed in the logistics industry. Inspection and maintenance robots accounted for the second highest share of the professional service robots sales volume in 2019, the report's authors said. Medical robots accounted for only a 2% share of the professional service robotics volume in 2019, "due to expensive nature of these devices," the said.

So-called household robots accounted for the largest share of the personal and domestic service robotics market, both in value and volume terms. "This segment is likely to lead the personal and domestic service robotics volume throughout the forecasting period," the authors wrote. The household robotics market consists of a range of products focused on single tasks, such as floor care, lawn care, and pool care. While, entertainment and leisure robots are aimed at youth "in the hopes of boosting their interest in robotics and other technical fields."

The report is available now on the Research and Markets site.