The collaborative robot, often known as a cobot, is designed to work alongside people in a shared workspace. The primary factors driving development include increasing usage among Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and investments in manufacturing process automation. In addition, the rise in demand for automation, the availability of affordable and energy-efficient industrial cobots, and increased investment in R&D activities are driving the expansion of the industrial cobot market.
While a human worker conducts higher-value upstream or downstream manual tasks, industrial cobots do repetitive or injury-prone jobs like machine tending or palletizing. The introduction of robots that operate alongside people in fields such as smart part assembly and electronics product assembly is fueling the demand for cobots even further.
- Robots are predicted to have a favorable impact on the industry due to their low cost and strong return on investment. The automotive, electronics, packaging and assembly, logistics, and machine tooling industries are believed to adopt cobots sooner than expected.
- Retailers and e-commerce giants like Amazon, where logistics plays an integral part in the entire supply chain, are embracing robotics to help their warehouse workers. However, due to their fundamental architecture, collaborative robots repair payload and speed restrictions are impeding industry growth.
The demand for greater accuracy and precision in repetitive tasks to fuel the market growth
Material handling, assembly, and pick-and-place are the three most common uses of collaborative robots (cobots). The cobots are utilized in pick-and-place applications across verticals to reduce inventory shrinkage and improve accuracy. Pick and place robots are compact, lightweight, and may be deployed in tight spaces.
Pick-and-place and assembly processes are typically low-payload but necessitate greater accuracy and precision. The collaborative robotics market is divided into three categories based on payload capacity up to 5 kg, up to 10 kg, and above 10 kg.
The flexibility, lightweight, and capacity of the machine to optimize low-weight collaborative activities such as placing, picking, and testing account for the 5 kg payload capacity segment’s share. Because of their potential to handle larger jobs demanding precision, reliability, and cooperating heavier-weight operations, cobots with payload capacities of more than 10 kg are projected to see significant expansion.
The major aspects such as lowering the cost of production downtime and saving floor space, the automotive and transportation category is expected to have a significant market share based on end-user. The automotive industry’s growing shift toward automation for materials handling to save time and money will fuel the rise.
Low upfront costs and ease of installation to appeal to the end-users in Asia-Pacific and Eastern Europe
Collaborative robots are used by small and medium-sized businesses to improve automation efficiency, particularly in labor-intensive industries like electronics. Due to an increasing focus on the quality and precision of cobots in the area, Asia Pacific is anticipated to expand at a considerable pace.
With the increasing deployment of cobots in the region, the implementation of maximum standards is required. Because of the aging population and labor shortages in Japan and South Korea, the potential of collaborative robots (cobots) to work alongside humans is a unique selling advantage. In terms of robotics adoption, the North American region is among the leading inventors and pioneers.
The increasing usage of these collaborative robots (cobots) across a variety of industries is the key driver for the market’s rise. The government in the region is also taking steps to encourage the development of cutting-edge robotics technologies.
The US Federal government launched The National Robotics Initiative (NRI) program to improve the country’s ability to develop domestic robots and encourage research in the subject. The presence of key industry players in Western Europe is a major factor driving cobots market expansion in the region.
Furthermore, the German automobile sector is one of the leading markets for automobile manufacture and production, which is driving demand for cobots as they can operate in a more precise time frame than manual activities. Increased government support, as well as increased investments in various R&D projects, such as “COLROBOT” (2016-2019), are all helping to propel the Europe cobots market forward.
Market Structure and Competitive Landscape
Previously, industrial cobots were only used in the automotive and manufacturing industries however, industrial cobots are now used in industries such as food and beverage, metals, chemical and material industries, aerospace, and electronics. The prominent players in the global collaborative robot (Cobot) market are ABB Group, AUBO Robotics Inc, DENSO Robotics, Energid Technologies Corporation, EPSON Robots, F&P Robotics AG, Fanuc Corporation, KUKA AG, MRK-Systeme GmbH, Precise Automation, Inc, Rethink Robotics, Inc, Robert Bosch GmbH, Universal Robots A/S, and Yaskawa Electric Corporation.
Manufacturers of collaborative robots (cobots) are working to develop technologies that may be used in a wider range of manufacturing environments in order to boost the cobot market’s development potential. Mergers and acquisitions are also common among market vendors.
- In April 2020, HAHN Group, an automation company, purchased DAHL Automation, a robotics integrator that specializes in collaborative robot arms. The company will grow its foothold in intralogistics and autonomous mobile robots as a result of this acquisition.
- In March 2020, the HC20XP Human-Collaborative Robot was released by Yaskawa. It comes with precise hand-guided education for a quick robot system setup. The first IP67-rated collaborative robot in the industry is designed to work in wet or splashy settings for extended periods of time.
Key Market Segmentation
- Global Cobot Market Value (US$ Million) and Volume (‘000 units) Analysis By Payload Capacity
- Up to 5 kg
- 5-10 kg
- More than 10 Kg
- Global Cobot Market Value (US$ Million) and Volume (‘000 units) Analysis By Application
- Material Handling
- Pick and Place
- Assemble
- Palletizing and De-palletizing
- Positioning and Welding
- Packaging
- Painting & Spraying
- Machine Tending
- Quality Testing
- Others (Stocking, Transporting, etc.)
- Global Cobot Market Value (US$ Million) and Volume (‘000 units) Analysis By End User Industry
- Electronics
- Automotive
- E-Commerce
- Retail
- Healthcare
- Logistics
- Food & Beverage
- Manufacturing
- Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals
- Other Manufacturing and Industrials
- Global Cobot Market Value (US$ Million) and Volume (‘000 units) Analysis By Region
- North America
- US
- Canada
- Latin America
- Brazil
- Mexico
- Rest of Latin America
- Western Europe
- Germany
- UK
- France
- Spain
- Italy
- Rest of Western Europe
- Eastern Europe
- Russia
- Poland
- Rest of Eastern Europe
- Asia Pacific
- China
- Japan
- India
- South Korea
- Australia
- ASEAN (Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, etc.)
- Rest of Asia Pacific
- Middle East & Africa
- GCC
- South Africa
- Turkey
- Rest of the Middle East & Africa
- North America
Research Methodology
RationalStat has developed a state-of-the-art research methodology to crunch numbers and provide the best possible real-time insights to clients. We combine a varied range of industry experience, data analytics, and experts’ viewpoint to create a research methodology for market sizing and forecasting.
RationalStat combines a mix of secondary sources as well as primary research to assess the market size and develop a forecast. Key steps involved in accurately deriving the market numbers are:
- Defining the problem by understanding the type of market and data required by the client.
- Data gathering and collection through relevant paid databases, publicly available sources, company reports, annual reports, surveys, and interviews.
- Formulating a hypothesis to create market numbers, forecasts, influencing factors, and their relevance.
- Evaluating and analyzing the data by referring to data sources utilized and leveraged.
- Validating, interpreting, and finalizing the data by combining the details gathered from primary and secondary sources with the help of experienced analysts.
Why Buy this Report?
The report is intended for robot manufacturers, battery providers, sensors manufacturers and companies, robotics associations, industrial automation providers and companies, robotics firms, government organizations, market healthcare organizations, regulatory agencies, and market research firms, among others. The report provides an in-depth analysis of market size, consumption patterns, ongoing market trends and challenges, and future market opportunities. The report will serve as a source for a 360-degree analysis of the market thoroughly delivering insights to clients to find the right answers to their business questions.