Market Trends of Autonomous Mobile Robot Industry
Automotive Sector Expected to Register Significant Growth
- AMRs allow automotive manufacturers to streamline the material flow, shorten lead time, and achieve more efficient production. Moreover, as automotive manufacturers prioritize flexibility over volume throughout the forecast period, with the adoption of Just-In-Time (JIT) manufacturing techniques, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) are becoming increasingly popular as a logistic solution that can adapt rapidly to changing production layouts and processes.
- The use of robotics in vehicle manufacturing is expected to continue to grow fast enough to speed up production. Auto manufacturers, like Toyota and BMW, are investing to leverage what they already know about robotics and manufacturing to increase their share in the robotics market. For multiple years, BMW has partnered with Nvidia to develop mobile robots for internal use in their factories, primarily around automated material handling at the last mile.
- Further, increased investment in automated manufacturing techniques, including industry 4.0 norms across regions, is expected to dive into the market of AMRs within the automotive field. Though robots have been prevalent in the automotive industry for many years, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) are still relatively new.
- However, as players in the industry start realizing the benefits of implementing these solutions, the market is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. For instance, by adding AMR to the workforce, the automotive industry can save non-value work hours and give complex, value-adding tasks to their current staff in a safer environment.
- According to IEA, electric car sales has witnessed a rising trend, in 2023, the sales of electric cars was 13.7 million in 2023, up from 10.3 million in 2022. This represents a rising demand for autonomous robots in Automotive sector.
Asia Pacific is Expected to Dominate the Market
- Asia-Pacific occupied the largest market share in 2022 and is expected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period. The developing e-commerce industry in Asia-Pacific's emerging nations is encouraging the usage of autonomous mobile robots for inventory management.
- China has been a significant user of industrial robots. Its innovative manufacturing facilities have been noted due to its abundant, inexpensive labor and typically laxer safety regulations than North America or Europe. However, due to the various government initiatives like "Made in China 2025", the country intends to improve its research capacities in robots, artificial intelligence (AI), and cloud data technologies. China intends to create technologies that will lead to a stronger manufacturing future by concentrating on these sectors of the economy.
- Under the Japanese "New Robot Strategy," the country aims to make Japan the world's top robot manufacturer. The robot development will mainly focus on the manufacturing, service, nursing and medical, infrastructure, disaster response, agriculture, and construction sectors. According to the JARA (Japan Robot Association) Report 2022, the country produced 282,934 robots worth JPY 1,050.87 billion (USD 7.55 trillion) in 2022.
- Along with China and Japan, India remains a potential market for robots and automation. Though India severely lags behind the rest of the world, it is upping its automation quotient. According to the International Federation of Robotics, or IFR, sales of industrial robots in India set a new high in 2021 with 4,945 units installed, a 54% increase from 3,215 units in 2020. According to the IFR's World Robotics report, India is now ranked ninth globally in yearly installations.