Global Trends in Robotics

Abstract

The paper considers long- and short-term trends in global robotics and changes in its production and export volumes. A comparison with world GDP shows that industrial robot installations in all counties of the world have grown at a faster rate than world GDP from 2012 onwards. Still, the trend of installations also shows significant volatility and fluctuations being recorded throughout the analyzed period. As shown in the article, the other trend is a very low of global exports of industrial robots over these years. Its value amounted to only US$7 billion in 2023, which is 0.03% of the total world exports. We determine structural shifts in major markets and regions around the world as well as in consumer industries of robots. The case study was focused on China’s industrial robotics industry. Since 2013, PRC has been the undisputed world’s largest market for industrial robots. According to author’s estimates, in 2022 China was ahead of the United States and Japan in industrial robot installations by 250 and 240 thousand units accordingly. In terms of yearly robot installations, China was almost 6 times ahead of second-place Japan and more than 7 times ahead of third-place USA in 2022. It may be concluded that, despite the relatively high growth rates in comparison with world GDP, as of now, robotics does not have characteristics and qualities of innovative breakthrough technology to become a real driver of the global economy than a computer was 30–40 years ago. Robotics remains a narrow functional and, at the same time, diversified technology for use in the economy and society.