Tracking the Rise of Robots: The IFR Database

Abstract

Abstract We present and analyze the dataset on the international distribution of industrial robots by country, industry, and application provided by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) since 1993. After describing the IFR we point out specificities and limitations of its dataset. We explain the process of data collection, develop a correspondence table between the IFR industry classification and the ISIC rev. 4 industry classification, and clarify the applied compliance rules. We further compute average implicit depreciation rates inherent to the robot stocks in the IFR dataset in the range of 4–7% per year between 1993 and 2019. We also find that the share of industrial robots that are not classified to any industry or application has sharply declined since 2005.