Drones helping robotics industry fly higher

A new report from NH Investment & Securities looks at the robotics industry and determines intelligence is coming to industrial robots as shipments continue to grow through 2018. The report draws partly from data provided by the International Federation of Robotics, which expects the robotics industry to increase to $25.6 billion by 2018 from $18.5 billion this year. The CAGR of the industry is seen to rise from 10.4 percent to 11.8 percent. NH projects a 15.3 percent year-over-year increase in shipments of industrial robots to 260,000 units. It did not provide an estimate for service robots, but it expects sales to increase and average sales price to decline from the current $46,400 per unit.

The report looks at the potential merging of technology between industrial robots, defined as “automatically controlled, reprogrammable machine(s),” and service robots, defined as machines “designed to assist humans” and “operate fully- or semi-autonomously.” The growth in intelligent machines is expected to impact the robotics industry in significant ways as the machines become more essential to labor. Much of the new growth is projected to come in the form of “smart vehicles,” which include self-driving cars and aerial drones. Manufacturers who prove to be “fast followers” in this market “would likely gain new growth opportunities,” according to the report.

Unsurprisingly, drone sales are rising along with the rest of the robotics industry. NH estimates the civilian drone market will grow 25 percent through 2023 while the overall drone market is expected to expand 14 percent. The growth of this market is also predicted to increase sales of Li-ion batteries and drive innovation in “one-chip solutions” that combine logic products such as CPUs andmemory such as DRAM onto a single chip.