Robotics Industry Navigates Pandemic Challenges to Achieve Record Growth
The robotics industry experiences significant growth in 2020 despite global disruptions, with service robots surging 32% and industrial robots reaching 2.7 million units worldwide.
The robotics industry experiences unprecedented change in 2020 as developers navigate a global pandemic, economic shifts, and political turmoil. Engineers and business leaders step outside their usual laboratory focus to address real-world challenges, transforming these obstacles into new opportunities for automation and robotic integration across multiple sectors.
Industrial automation shows solid progress with global factory robot counts reaching 2.7 million units, marking a 12% increase. Service robots see even more explosive growth, with sales surging 32% worldwide as disinfection robots, legged systems, and supply chain automation meet urgent new demands created by the health crisis.
Massive investments continue to flow into autonomous vehicle ventures like Waymo, Cruise, and Tesla despite fully self-driving passenger cars remaining years away. As the industry looks ahead to 2021, innovators and investors prepare for shifting regulations, emerging applications, and community-driven technological advancements like ROS 2 and beyond-visual-line-of-sight drone deliveries.