Warehouse robotics market to grow by over US$4bn by 2026
The global warehouse robotics market is to grow by more than US$4bn by 2026, as organisations increasingly demand efficiency in distribution channels.
Research conducted by Technavio estimates the market size to grow by US$4.1bn, accelerating at a CAGR of 13.31% between 2021 and 2026. According to Statista, in 2020 the warehouse robotics market was worth some US$5.3bn worldwide, rising to US$6.2bn in 2021.
In addition to the rising demand for efficiency in distribution channels, the market growth will also be influenced by trends such as the increased adoption of Industrial Internet of things (IIoT) technology in robotics, the Technavio report says.
According to a study by Bank of America, robots are likely to perform 45% of manufacturing tasks by 2025. And the rise of artificial intelligence will only accelerate that process as the number of devices connected to the Internet doubles to 50 billion by 2020.
Warehouse robots improve efficiency without increasing operational costs
Consumers nowadays look for e-commerce players that can quickly deliver products to their doorstep, says Technavio. In order to fulfil the growing requirements of consumers, retailers, e-commerce companies, and manufacturers are focusing on improving their delivery efficiencies without increasing operational costs.
“We’ve passed an inflexion point where machine vision is now available, affordable and fast enough to be used in practice. Data, computing power and affordability are the three main ingredients for a step function improvement,” Bjorn Andersson, Senior Director, Global IoT at Hitachi Vantara, told AI Magazine.
End-users are integrating their warehouse robots with smart sensors and communication devices, also known as IIoT devices, to collect data. These devices collect a large amount of data from the production system that allow the operators to analyse manufacturing productivity and speed. This helps to drive the reliability of assets and improve cost-efficiency. These devices also help the engineers and operators identify components that are performing poorly and are likely to fail in the near future. This allows them to perform early predictive maintenance or replacement of components, thereby reducing breakdown during operations and production downtime and maximising output quality. This trend will have an accelerating effect on the growth of the global warehouse robotics market during the forecast period.
Industrial IoT to fuel warehouse robotics market growth
The increased adoption of the Industrial Internet of things (IIoT) technology in robotics will fuel the global warehouse robotics market's growth. The robots that are used in industrial applications are increasingly witnessing the deployment of smart sensors and communication devices, also known as IIoT devices, to collect data, which can be utilised to improve productivity and efficiency further.
IIoT devices allow the creation of a system that can monitor, collect, exchange, analyse data, and deliver insights that can help drive business decisions. IIoT systems generally consist of intelligent devices, infrastructure for collecting and exchanging data, and cloud-based applications to drive analytics. A large volume of data obtained from various IoT systems and sensors installed in the production system, including warehouse robotics, can help operators analyse manufacturing productivity and speed. This helps enhance the reliability of assets and improves cost efficiency. Therefore, the rise in the adoption of IIoT technology in robotics will positively impact the global warehouse robotics market during the forecast period.
