According to a report from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), a tech-focused non-profit, sales of service robots for professional use increased by 37% last year.
The report revealed that the strongest growth came from Europe, which held a market share of 38%, followed by 32% in North America and 30% in Asia. New consumer service bots also reportedly grew by nine percent.
“Service robots for professional use are extremely diverse,” said Marina Bill, president of IFR.
“They are usually designed to perform a specific task and can be found in warehouses, in hospitals and airports or even helping on dairy farms automatically milking cows.
“Service robots for consumers are mainly used in domestic environments: they help with vacuuming, floor-cleaning, or gardening, and are also used for social interaction and education.
“These service robots are produced for a mass market with completely different pricing and marketing compared to service robots for professional use.”
IFR’s figures suggest that 121,000 professional service robots were sold in 2021, meaning more than one in three robots built was intended for use in goods or cargo transportation. The majority were also deployed in indoors environments.
Robots for hospitality applications grew by 85% in terms of sales, with more than 20,000 being sold in 2021, according to IFR. This category of robot includes those developed for food and drink preparation or for mobile guidance, information and telepresence.
The non-profit also revealed that sales of medical robots increased 23% last year to 14,823 units, the majority of which being surgical bots, followed by those designed for rehabilitation and non-invasive therapy. The portion of this market used for diagnostics is still low, it claims.
What’s more, the report also shows that robots for domestic applications were the most popular form of consumer robot in 2021, with almost 19 million units (a 12% growth) being sold in 2021. Among these, vacuuming robots and others for indoor floor cleaning comprised the biggest share.
