International Federation of Robotics (IFR) President Junji Tsuda
previewed the statistics that will appear in the IFR Industrial
Robots Annual Report covering 2017 sales data. He reported that
2017 turnover was about $50 billion, that 381,000 robots were
sold, a 29% increase over 2016 and a 29 percent increase over
the 294,300 units sold in 2016, and China was the main driver of
2017’s growth with a 58% increase over 2016 (the US rose only 6%
by comparison). In addition, 2016 was 27% over 2015
China installed around
138,000 industrial robots in 2017, followed by South Korea with
40,000 units, and Japan with 38,000 units. In the Americas, the
USA is the largest single market with 33,000 industrial robots
sold, and in Europe it is Germany with around 22,000 units sold.
The automotive industry
continues to lead global demand for industrial robot sales,
according to the IFR. In 2017, around 125,200 units were sold in
this segment for 21 percent growth. Other strongest growth
sectors in 2017 were the metal industry (54 percent), the
electrical/electronics industry (27 percent) and the food
industry (19 percent).
Kuka’s CEO said we
would see a big move toward mobile manipulators doing multiple
tasks. ABB’s Sr. VP said that programming robots would become as
easy and intuitive as using today’s iPhones. Fanuc’s ED said
that future mobile robots would become more flexible. DHL’s VP
forecast that perception would have access to more physics and
reality than today.