Service sector sees increase in use of Robotics & Automation across Europe

Sales of professional service robots have gone up by 37% in 2021 according to the World Robotics 2022 – Service Robots report issued by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). The strongest growth coming from Europe

The report identified five top applications; transportation of goods or cargo; Hospitality; medical; professional cleaning; agriculture. Out of the 121,000 professional service robots that were built in 2021 at least One in every Three were designed for the transportation of goods or cargo industry. A total of 286 companies are producing service robots in this category.

More than 20,000 robots were sold for use in the Hospitality industry, used either for food and drink preparation or for mobile guidance and telepresence. The sale of Medical robots went up by 23%; the majority being surgical robots.

Due to a demand for floor cleaning and disinfection sales of robots that perform these tasks robots grew by 31%. This area has been expanding due to an increased demand beginning with the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Agriculture is staring to see an uptake in the use of robots; mainly through cleaning and milking operations, however their use for the cultivation of crops is in its infancy.

One on the largest sale areas for the robotics market has been the consumer use. Almost 19 million were sold in 2021 these robots take the shape of vacuuming robots or care-at-home types that support an aging population.

Being a rapid growth industry, the number of start-ups have decreased as the industry focusses on Software and Research Development. In the future IFR predicts that there will be more Robot suppliers as opposed to producers as companies choose to ‘system integrate’ combining hardware and developing software for individual solutions.

World Robotics 2022 Service Robots and Industrial Robots reports can be placed online. Further downloads on the content are available here.