Suddenly and unexpectedly the cost benefit equation that has historically driven the growth of the robotics industry, has become unbalanced. When industries see such rapid declines, the cause is typically an industry wide unwillingness to modernize in order to meet changing customer needs. Very much the opposite has happened with the robotics industry. Here is an industry that, by all appearances, has done everything correctly. Robot makers have introduced new products that meet customer needs.

They have repeatedly modernized to keep pace with changing platforms for integrating design and manufacturing, and they have produced higher quality robots that continue to labor years beyond their anticipated service life. Yet the industry’s growth has effectively flat lined, not once, but twice. The first time occurred after the 2001 terrorist attacks, and it happened again during 2008. The great paradox of the robotics industry is that this apparently failing patient has amazingly strong vital signs. An industry that was once grounded in a handful of highly specialized types of industrial and space robots has expanded to include new, commercially viable types of domestic and professional service robots, as well as military and security robots. 

This analysis describes the macro and micro developments that have begun to coalesce to produce a new era of sustainable growth that will propel the robotics industry to a greater than $21 billion worldwide market by 2014.

Robotics Technologies and global markets report aims to help those currently in, or preparing to enter, the robotics industry to take full advantage of emerging opportunities.

To that end, this report:

• Identifies the causes of the sudden and sharp fall off in demand for robotics.
• Describes the changes leading to recovery.
• Identifies the most promising areas for robotics through 2014.
• Forecasts global and country specific demand for six generic types of robots.

This market report views the robotics industry as presently divided into six types of robots defined by their application:

• industrial robots
• domestic service robots
• professional robots
• military robots
• security robots and
• space robots

Robotics: Technologies and Global Markets report recognizes the European Union’s ambitious attempt to establish uncontested leadership in robotics, through the creation of the European Robotic Platform (EUROP) funded jointly by businesses and government. Along these lines, Chapter Three: Common Concerns addresses all of the technical issues identified by EUROP’s working groups. This chapter is equally useful to U.S. and Japanese companies interested in further developing sales in European markets. This first study with product demand forecasts that reflect:

• The collapse of capital funding for new robot purchases.
• The collapse of consumer credit for the purchase of robot–made goods.
• The World Bank’s downward adjustment of the gdp in India and China.
• The effect of the 2009 U.S. economic stimulus package.

The study presents separate forecasts for the six types of robots, both worldwide and regionally, for the 5-year period between 2009 and 2014.
 
Robotics market report also examines the more than 40 common issues and enabling technologies that pertain to all six types of robots. In addition it provides profiles of all key players, as well as abstracts and assignment information for key robot patents issued in this century.
 
In short, this report provides a comprehensive package of information that can help business executives and policy makers better understand the many and very different ways in which the robotics world works.
 
By the end of the 20th century, robots had become as familiar a feature of the industrial landscape as the time clock. The industry itself appeared to be following a smooth trajectory of growth, filling an increasing demand from the industrial sector while generating new ideas for bringing more robots into the service sector. As a result of the attacks on September 11th 2001, it was assumed that the new demand for security robots would increase the demand for robots in all applications. In fact, a far more complex constellation of events occurred. Rather than the expected growth, the industry entered a period of decline. As it appeared to recover, the World Bank revealed it would be necessary to downwardly adjust previous baseline estimates of the GDP in India and Communist China.

The year that followed, 2008, saw regional collapses of credit for so–called big ticket consumer credit. In the U.S., changes in the tax laws that eliminated deductions for interest on traditional auto loans drove consumers to use second mortgages, or home equity loans, to purchase cars. When the mortgage crisis emerged and home equity financing collapsed, a decline in demand for car and light truck production followed, with predictable negative consequences for the robotics industry. Massive intervention by central banks around the world and a trillion dollar economic stimulus package, which was signed into law in late January 2009 have revived hopes of the industry’s recovery.

While the events that financially damaged the robotics industry played out, major changes were taking place in robotics technology. With the exception of military robots, the U.S. has slowed its efforts to advance the state of the art. Japan showed periodic bursts of activity, but little in the way of true technological advancement. More by default than design, leadership in robotics has now passed to European Union countries. As part of a periodic scientific review process, EU nations attempt to assess how science and technology can be put to greater public use. One of the potential needs is robots that are developed to work along side humans, not on assembly lines, but as domestic and professional assistants.
 
By the end of January, 2009, mechanisms were in place to restore business and consumer lending, the U.S. was about to see an injection of tax dollars to revive its economy, and the EU countries were in the final stages of preparing a roadmap for revitalizing the robotics industry that was decoupled from past dependence on industrial robots. In short, the critical elements capable of restoring the robotics industry were in place.
 
The robotics industry will continue to see a minimal growth through the first half of 2011, then enter a slow recovery for the balance of the forecast period, achieving a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 4%, as it reaches slightly more than $21 billion by the end of the 2009 to 2014 forecast period.
 
In addition to its value to executives with firms that are presently manufacturing or purchasing robots and robotics components, Robotics: Technologies and Global Markets offers instructive insights for those considering adding industrial robots to their production line or using service robots to augment their skilled and unskilled work forces. Members of the academic and investment communities that are unfamiliar with the recent and rapid improvement in service robots will also find this study valuable, as will technology policy makers and analysts.
 
SCOPE AND FORMAT
 
After the Introduction and Summary chapters, the report includes:
 
Chapter Three: A Unique Machine presents a brief history of robotics, and the evolution of a common definition of robots as a distinct class of machine, separate from automated machine tools and automated vehicles.
 
Chapter Four: The Six Basic Types of Robots describes how the robotics industry has divided into six applications–driven domains: industrial robots, professional service robots, domestic service robots, military robots, security robots and space robots.
 
Chapter Five: Enabling Technologies examines the technology that is required by all six types of robots identified in the previous chapter.
           
Chapter Six: Factors Influencing the Demand for Robots describes events and considerations from outside the robotic area that will directly influence the demand for robots during the 2009–2014 forecast periods. Then this presentation is repeated, focusing on each of the six types of robots individually.
 
Chapter Seven: Robot Patent Analysis provides a unique insight into the past, present and future of robotics by looking at the types of patents issued for each of the major types of robots. In this chapter the six general types are further subdivided by major applications.
 
Chapter Eight: Robot Forecasts follows the same breakdown of industry divisions as in the original BCC study published in 2003, and reproduces the information presented in the previous five chapters in a new set of forecasts through 2014.
 
Chapter Nine: Industry Profiles identifies corporations and organizations that have played, or are currently playing, a significant role in advancing the quality of what is referred to as “state of the art”.
 
ROBOTS NOT INCLUDED IN THIS REPORT
 
This report excludes software applications known as Internet robots, automated machine tools, and machines commonly referred to as intelligent assist and cybernetic devices that amplify, or otherwise enhance or regulate, human muscle movements.

This Report:

• Provides market forecasts, through 2014, for robotics technologies in various market sectors, from manufacturing to consumer applications.
• Thoroughly defines all sectors of the robotic industry.
• Defines current and emerging technologies.
• Covers traditional applications as well as the path-breaking: medical laboratories, construction, hazardous waste removal and home security.
• Examines environmental, economic and regulatory issues impacting the robotics industry, as well as major robotic-related research and patent activity.
• Provides a strategic overview of the regional and global marketplace for robotic technologies.
• Profiles major robotic manufacturers, research institutions and related patents.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter-1: SUMMARY

Chapter-2: A UNIQUE MACHINE

Chapter-3: THE SIX BASIC TYPES OF ROBOTS

Chapter-4: ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES

Chapter-5: FACTORS INFLUENCING THE DEMAND FOR ROBOTS

Chapter-6: ROBOT PATENT ANALYSIS

Chapter-7: ROBOT FORECASTS

Chapter-8: ROBOTICS COMMUNITY PROFILES