Exciting new research from the market intelligence firm Interact Analysis shows some surprising results regarding mobile robots. Robot revenues and shipments grew quite a bit compared to the previous year. This comes even with pandemic delays in commissioning and postponed projects. Let’s take a closer look at what this could mean for the logistics industry.
Record Numbers Across the Board
By the end of 2025, at least 2.1 million mobile robots will be shipped. However, mobile robot orders did fall in the first half of 2020. But it picked right back up, and then some, in the second half of the year. Since the fourth quarter was especially strong, some vendors reported receiving 50% or more of their usual total yearly orders in just the last two months of the year.
Even More Growth to Come
More exponential growth is on the horizon, despite low short-term projections. Interact Analysis’ managing director had this to say on the subject: “At the end of 2020, mobile robots had been deployed in just over 9,000 separate customer sites, mainly warehouses and factories. By the end of 2025, this will have increased to over 53,000 deployments, which will still be far from the point of market saturation. Goods-to-person robots will account for 37% of shipment volume over the next five years, though only 18% of revenue. But person-to-goods robots are growing at an impressive rate, and we forecast huge room for growth in all areas of the mobile robot market.”
Now that’s a lot of growth! As autonomous platforms are adopted in warehouses and logistics centers throughout the region, the market should experience even more growth. These autonomous systems could help to keep even more deliveries on time. We’ll keep an eye on these exciting developments as they progress.