Photo: IFOY
According to the International Federation of Robotics' (IFR) annual report "World Robotics – Service Robots," nearly 113,000 robots were sold in 2023 for transport and logistics tasks. Of these, according to the German VDMA Materials Handling and Intralogistics Association, 80,300 were specifically designed for internal transport.
The German Engineering Federation (VDMA), in cooperation with the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), publishes an annual report on market growth in the field of mobile robots. According to the report, 24 percent more units were sold worldwide in 2023 than in 2022. These mobile robots transport materials both indoors and outdoors, for example, in production supply or warehousing, as well as for loading and unloading trucks or pallets. Most units originate from the Asia-Pacific region (approximately 83 percent), followed by Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa (around 10 percent), and North and South America (around 7 percent).
Photo: VDMA
“Automation or partial automation with robotics in transport and logistics is steadily increasing. This is clearly demonstrated in the annual report. Specifically for the product area of mobile robots, the report provides a well-founded and detailed overview each year – and that for the global market,” says Wolfgang Hillinger, board member of the Mobile Robots division at the German Association for Materials Handling and Intralogistics and managing director of DS Automotion GmbH.
“We are experiencing a very dynamic market environment for mobile robots in intralogistics. As the representative of around 50 manufacturers in this segment and as a network platform, we now provide not only extensive expertise in technical regulations and standardization, but also valid data on the global market,” says Sascha Schmel, Managing Director of the VDMA trade association.
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Total figures
Photo: klk.
Global sales of professional service robots increased by 30 percent in 2023, reaching over 205,000 units. Approximately 80 percent of the total market volume, 162,284 units, originated in the Asia-Pacific region. Europe followed with 33,918 units sold, and the Americas with 8,927. Broken down by application area, the majority of units were sold in the transportation and logistics sector (55 percent). This was followed by the hospitality industry (around 26 percent), agriculture (just under 10 percent), professional cleaning (just under 6 percent), and the medical and healthcare sector (3 percent).
Further contents of the report can be found here.
