London, UK: The mobile robot market is showing no signs of slowing down, according to the latest research from Interact Analysis.
Despite the market for mobile robot technology being well established, it is not yet close to reaching saturation, with new applications and opportunities continuing to emerge, Interact Analysis says.
“The manufacturing industry is expected to continue to drive growth, as the market rebounds from the effects of Covid and a slow start to 2020. Despite a slow 1H 2020 for many vendors, shipments picked up during the final quarter of the year, with revenues filtering through to Q1 2021. The data shows more than 70% growth in shipments recorded in 2021, topping 100,000 for the year.”
“Although overall forecasts to 2027 have been lowered slightly, the market outlook remains strong, with CAGR of between 30% and 40% predicted. By 2027, the installed base of mobile robots is expected to reach more than 4 million, the majority of which will be order fulfillment units,” Interact Analysis says.
“Both AMRs and AGVs will experience strong demand in the next 5 years but the growth of AMR adoption will dwarf that of AGVs due to the greater range of possible applications. Logistics will continue to be the primary market for mobile robots, but significant growth is also anticipated in the manufacturing industry as new applications present themselves as the market develops.”
“Looking at the trends in individual regions, shelf-to-person robots dominate in China and other APAC regions, while the Americas and EMEA are expected to see a strong uptake in order fulfillment bots. However, revenue growth in APAC regions will be slower out to 2027 due to the lower average selling price of the technology in this region,” Interact Analysis says.
“The Americas and EMEA regions look set to enjoy substantial revenue growth in the next 5 years, with the market reaching almost $6bn in 2027 for the US, while the figure sits at just over $2bn for the rest of APAC and $5bn for EMEA Despite this, China alone will account for around 40% of mobile robot shipments in the next five years due to an increasing trend towards lower cost robots.”
Mobile robot revenues set to soar out to 2027
China was the leader in terms of revenue growth in 2021 and Geek+ contributed considerably to this, becoming the country’s leading vendor. Following just behind was HikRobot and Kion. China experienced such remarkable demand for flexible automation solutions in 2021 in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic that there was very little in terms of labor shortage compared with other regions. Looking out to 2027, the material transport sector will dominate mobile robot shipments, while sales volume will be driven by conveying solutions.
Ash Sharma, managing director, Interact Analysis, says, “What we found most surprising was the remarkably lower average revenues per unit (ARPUs) than we previously expected, and this influenced our decision to lower our forecasts slightly. In 2021 this dropped by 22% as a result of a change in regional mix and the influence of price erosion. Tugger/AGC ARPUs reduced by just over 25% in 2021, followed by forklifts (20%) and tow tractors (>15%). In terms of unit pricing, we expect to see that every time mobile robot (AGV and AMR) shipments double, prices will fall by around 10% to 15%.”
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