Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Collaborative Robotic (Cobots) Systems Market - Forecast(2024 - 2030)

AI in Cobots Market Overview

The global AI in cobots market in 2021 reached $118.2 million and is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 34.22% during the forecast period to reach $616.3 million by 2027. The entire robotics industry is witnessing the effects of Covid-19 pandemic, with strain felt on the supply chain restricting parts of imports and equipment exports in H1 2021 especially. The overall economic uncertainty also pushed majority of customers to defer purchases in order to conserve capital. Recent advancements in Machine Learning and human robot interaction have enabled collaborative robots to precisely execute tasks in dynamically changing workspaces, enabling operations and material handling to run more smoothly, efficiently and productively. AI is now intelligently powering cobots by leveraging billions of hours of iterative machine learned practices in manufacturing, production and engineering. Collaborative robots (cobots) represent a variant of industrial robots and is currently considered to be one of the fastest growing segments in industrial automation driven by improved technology such as virtual assistants, cloud computing, internet of things. A cobot is a type of robot that is designed to operate alongside humans in shared workspaces. These machines are easy to program and deploy, can increase productivity manifold, and offer high returns on investment.

Report Coverage

The report: “AI in Cobots Market – Forecast (2022-2027)”, by IndustryARC covers an in-depth analysis of the following segments of the AI in Cobots market

By Payload: Up to 5 Kg, 5 to 10 Kg, Above 10 Kg.
By Application: Handling, Assembling/Disassembling, Welding and Soldering, Dispensing, Packaging and Others.
By End User: Automotive, Electronics, Semiconductor, Plastics and Polymer, Food and Beverage, Healthcare, Metals and Machining and others.
By Geography: North America (U.S, Canada, Mexico), South America (Brazil, Argentina and others), Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Russia and Others), APAC (China, Japan India, SK, Aus and Others), and RoW (Middle east and Africa).

Key Takeaways

• Group PSA’s Sochaux plant in France has chosen Universal Robots UR10 for its "Plant of the Future" Project. Two UR10 cobots have been implemented at the Sochaux plant in screw driving applications on body-in-white assembly lines to increase performance and reduce production costs at the factory.
• In 2019, Walmart has planned to invest $2.7 billion to add new robots totaling almost 4,000 robots in its stores and facilities in order to shift human workforce to customer service roles. The robots are majorly used for scanning, sorting goods from delivery trucks. This is set to create opportunities for AI in cobots in retail sector.

AI in Cobots Market, By Region, 2021

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AI in Cobots Market Segment Analysis – By Application

Material Handling had a major share in the AI in Cobots Market with a value share of approximately 22.3% in 2021. Material handling is one of the major applications of industrial robots. Robots in material handling segment are used in applications such as movement of goods, protection, storage and control of products throughout manufacturing as well as warehousing of the products. Any industries that need to store, receive, dispatch or ship its products always entail industrial robot. Manufacturing and Warehouse operations involving handling of goods becomes complex when it takes place at a larger scale. This is made easy and efficient with the aid of industrial robots. Material handling robots are majorly used in warehousing applications as compared to its counterpart. Material handling applications that benefit from the incorporation of AI cobots encompass picking, packing, palletizing, sorting, and more. The wide-ranging use of these applications makes them a more site-specific solution for safety implementation. Operators and other workers are often moving or transporting other materials around the AI cobot, requiring additional planning to avoid hazardous contact. Safety-rated grippers are rare in the market at the present time. Currently, manufacturers typically use pneumatic grippers, which require safety considerations for impacts and the loss of power or suction. Uses of bar code, RFID, voice-activated receiving and packaging, pick-to-light technology, transportation management system is some of the drifts observed by material handling robots. Cycle counting, annual, physical and perpetual are few approaches of keeping a track of inventory.

AI in Cobots Market Segment Analysis – By End User

Among industries, automotive held the largest share in 2021 at 23.2%. The industry development of AI cobots is ongoing in several different areas. Faster reaction time, more exact movement patterns, orientation capabilities, capabilities in imitating humans – all these aspects contribute to advancements in AI driven cobot development. In addition, brain-computer interfaces is an exciting area that has made significant progress recently. In recent developments in technologies such as linked data, parallel processing, edge computing and distributed artificial intelligence allow for efficient decision making by cobots, making execution robust and efficient. A challenge with the market deployment of AI cobots is that insufficient technology maturity hinders the market deployment of cobots. AI Cobot technology includes hardware design, sensors and actuators, efficient information processing, video processing, planning and multiple of fields from artificial intelligence landscapes, along with technologies that ensure safety, predictability and security of the solution. There is currently a need for high amount of signaling, bandwidth, low latency, and fast decision-making capabilities through efficient computing for AI driven cobots in safety-critical environments, wherein the facilities do not need human intervention. While the automation industry was affected during the pandemic, the longterm outlook for automation is positive, as end users evaluate their reliance on overseas supply chains and reevaluate their operations in a world where a pandemic can stop production cold. Automation is hence being looked upon as a valuable bulwark against the risks laid bare during the pandemic, and this can act as a strong growth driver for AI driven cobots and robots in industrial automation end user verticals.

AI in Cobots Market Segment Analysis – By Geography

Geographically, APAC held major share of 37% of AI in cobots market share in 2021, owing to high adoption of automation technologies in industrial and automotive warehouses and increasing investments and funding. North America is the next largest market with 33% revenue share in 2021. South America is witnessing the fastest growth rate with a CAGR of around 46.6% during the forecast period 2022 – 2027 owing to high investments and growing deployment of automation technology mainly in the countries such as Brazil, Argentina and Colombia. Portuguese company MOV.AI has announced in October, 2020 that it has raised $4m in funding. The company has designed its ROS for manufacturers of cobots, as well as academics and automation integrators. It also contributes to the ROS community. Some of the robots with AI enabled are YuMi from ABB, Franka Emika Panda, APAS from Bosch, Aura, Aubo, NEXTAGE and CORO etc.

AI in Cobots Market Drivers

Growing demand for automation and technological advancements set to drive the AI In Collaborative Robotics Market

There has been significant growth in AI driven collaborative robotics market owing to the increased demand for automation, high competition in the e-commerce industry, and the advancement in technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). The use of robots reduces the risk of injury to workforce has also witnessed growth. Integration of robots with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine vision technology has been assisting companies in obstacle detection, navigation, movement of the goods. This has been attracting vendors in automating the warehouses and installing the robots in warehouse, thereby driving the collaborative robotics market. In 2019, Geek Plus Robotics, an intelligent logistics robot solution provider had launched the world’s first interweaving sorting robot, which could be an alternative to conveyor systems. Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR), a leading manufacturer of collaborative mobile robots launched a new warehouse robot to automate the transportation of pallets and heavy goods across warehouses. Development of new robots for various applications of warehouses set to boost the demand of collaborative robotics market.

Growth in E-Commerce Sector

E-Commerce industry is rising at global level of retail and logistics. As a result, growing number of e-commerce companies look forward to automate warehouses. Warehouse robots play a key role in e-commerce industry for various applications such as automated storage and retrieval, picking and placing, order fulfillment operations and many others. Adoption of warehouse cobots by e-commerce companies helps in reducing operational and logistical costs and save on delivery time. This has been increasing automation in warehouses in order to deliver goods to shoppers in faster and more efficient ways by increasing productivity of supply chain. In developed countries such as the U.S., and Canada, Grocery retailers are focusing on deploying robots that bring the shelf stacks to human workers, who pick out the right products and package them up to be sent out. These robots travel with high speed, faster than humans, thereby increasing efficiency of the work. In 2019, Amazon had introduced new warehouse cobots in several of its U.S. warehouses that scan and pack items to be sent to customers. It has started using robots in warehouses, which scans goods coming down a conveyor belt raising the scope of adoption. In 2020 Covariant.ai launched its AI robots and solutions through its warehouse bin-picking robots which is being used by companies such as Knapp, a warehouse logistics company and Obeta, a German electronics retailer. As per estimates, around 2,000 AI powered robots have been deployed across warehouses globally.

AI in Cobots Market Challenges

High Initial Investment

The initial cost of AI driven collaborative robots that are used in factories are high as the cost of automation is much higher in comparison with labor costs. This prevents most companies from completely automating their operations with robots. The average selling prices of cobots vary from $25,000 to $50,000 and does not include the installation costs. In addition to this, there is a training cost associated with the robots that further restricts the operators’ likeability for integrating robots into their operating lines. Slow deployment of collaborative robotic systems by smaller and medium enterprises hampers the robotics market. However, high labor costs are set to drive the collaborative robot market during forecast period.

AI in Cobots Market Landscape

Technology launches, acquisitions, and R&D activities are key strategies adopted by players in the AI in Cobots market. In 2021, the market of AI in Cobots market has been consolidated by the top players

1. Fanuc
2. Techman Robots
3. Rethink Robots
4. AUBA Robots
5. ABB
6. Kawasaki
7. KUKA
8. Yaskawa
9. Staubli
10. Universal Robots

Recent Developments

• In May 2019, the government of Saudi Arabia announced an investment of $30 billion to upgrade warehousing facilities by adoption of the advanced autonomous robots in the newly built warehouses across Saudi Arabia, thereby contributing towards the growth of the cobots market during forecast period in this region.
• In October 2019, the South Korean government announced an investment $150 million to develop the intelligent robots for various industrial application which includes warehousing and logistics, thereby enhancing the growth of the cobots market.

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