Professional Service Robot Sales Grow 30%

Sales of professional service robots jumped 30% in 2023 to more than 205,000 units, according to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR).

Of those, 113,000 were used in transportation and logistics applications, followed by hospitality, (54,400), agriculture (20,000), professional cleaning (12,000) and medical and health care (6,200), the IFR said in its new World Robotics 2024 Service Robots report.

The main cause of the increases, particularly in transportation and logistics, was labor shortages. 

"The service robotics industry is on the move: more and more robots are serving on factory floors, in shopping centers or helping with deliveries on the street," said IFR president Marina Bill.

Sales of robots in medical and health care grew the most of all applications, at 36% year over year, followed by transportation and logistics at 35%, hospitality at 31%, agricultural at 21% and professional cleaning at 4%.

The Asia-Pacific region accounted for more than 80% of the robot sales, at 162,284, followed by Europe at 33,918 and the Americas at 8,927.

The United States led the world in terms of service and medical robot suppliers, with 199 companies. 

Of those, 66% produced professional service robots, 27% produced consumer service robots and 12% produced medical robots. (Medical robots are broken out into a third category, alongside service and industrial robots, under ISO standards.)

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China had the second-highest number of suppliers, at 107, with 80% producing professional service robots, 34% consumer and 5% medical.

Germany ranked third, with 83 companies, of which 79% manufactured professional service units, 17% consumer and 12% medical.

The findings of the report are based on a sample of 298 service-robot manufacturers with data from 2023, the most recent year available.