The number of industrial robots installed in factories has increased significantly in recent years. Robot sales increased 15% in 2015 according to Executive Summary World Robotics 2016 Industrial Robots, which had set a record. The International Federation of Robots predicts that there will be 2.6 million industrial robots by 2019, or one million more active units than in 2015. Recent predictions suggest that the industrial robotics market could triple in the next decade. In other words, the demand for robots is higher than ever before, and growing at a rapid rate. How long will this demand for robots last, though?
Will the demand for robots continue to grow, or will it one day come to a halt?
We’ve seen how robotics and automation have taken a more central role in manufacturing as well as other industries. We’re currently in a transition phase where new types of robots, machinery, and automated systems are being implemented and introduced to perform tasks and the do work previously done by humans.
What happens, when this transition is complete, though? Right now factories and warehouses don’t just want robots, they need robots. But what happens when all the robots are installed? Will we see a decrease in demand for robots? Only if robotics and automation technologies don’t improve. As long as technology continues to improve, we can expect for the demand for robots to remain.
Automation is the present and the future
Rapidly improving technology – as well as the increasing research and investment going into automation – suggest that automation is the future. We continue to find new applications for automation, and we’re relying more and more on machines than human workers.
Robots continue to get more sophisticated and more readily available. Technology gets better, and it gets cheaper to produce robots.
Will we one day automate everything that needs to be automated? Is there a cap, a finite number, to the amount of robots that the world needs? Or will we constantly find new uses for robots, and always need more automation?
It doesn’t seem likely that we will ever stop needing robots. Automation is here to stay. Make sure that your robots are running a their best. Contact us today for service or repair on Indramat motion control systems.