10 Ways Robots Will Change Manufacturing in the Next 5 Years

Robotics technology is promising to change just about every aspect of the electronics supply chain, from manufacturing to logistics and right to store shelves. Today’s robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are evolving rapidly to create a category called enabled robotics. Over the next five years, the high-tech industry will leverage this new generation of robotics in new and unexpected way to get business done. 

Dr. Jing Bing Zhang, research director, Worldwide Robotics and IDC Asia/Pacific Manufacturing Insights explained:

The advancement of robotics technology has entered into a new era of robotics with embedded and/or cloud-based artificial intelligence. In this new era of Robotics 3.0, intelligent robots are characterized by their ubiquitous sensing and connectivity, cyber-physical fusion, autonomous capabilities (such as cognition, decision making, and learning and adaptation), and more human- friendly multimode interaction. This development will have a profound impact on industrial robots and service robots (both commercial and consumer). Leading robotics technology vendors are already racing to develop and incorporate artificial intelligence capabilities into their product road map in order to stay ahead of the competition.

Global spending on robotics (including drones) and related services will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.8% from more than $82.5 billion in 2016 to $230.7 billion in 2021, according to IDC's 2H16 Worldwide Semiannual Commercial Robotics Spending Guide, published in June 2017. That figure spans a number of areas purchases of robotic systems, system hardware, software, robotics-related services, and aftermarket robotics hardware.

[ Father Says Robots Will Evolve. ]

We sat down with John Santagate, research director, Service Robotics, at market research firm IDC to get his organization’s perspective on the biggest trends that the industry will see. We wanted to understand the key drivers in this market, and how the development and deployment of robotics over the next five years.

“The capabilities of the technology are expanding and robots have the ability to do more,” Santagate said. “You can do processes that in the past were unable to be performed by a robot.”

The venture funding community, recognizing that trend is funding more robotics companies than ever before. In 2014, $340 million in venture capital went to fund 27 deals, according to the Robot Report. The following year, VCs spend almost a billion dollars on 43 deals, and last year they spent just under $2 billion on 128 deals.

Click on the image below to start a slideshow of IDC’s 10 predictions for robotics for industrial, commercial, and consumer applications in the coming years, from 2018 through 2021.

10 Predictions about Industrial Robots in the Next 5 Years

How do you see robotics changing your business? Let us know in the comments section below.

— Hailey Lynne McKeefry, Editor in Chief, EBN