The Asia-Pacific region accounted for 162,284 units, Europe followed with 33,918 units and the Americas with 8,927 units sold.
According to Marina Bill, President of the IRF, "The service robotics industry is on the move: more and more robots are serving on factory floors, in shopping centre or helping with deliveries on the street.”
Figures show that more than one in two professional service robots sold in 2023 were built for the application class Transportation and Logistics where sales grew by 35%, with nearly 113,000 units sold in 2023, driven by significant labour shortages.
Demand is also surging for automated solutions operated in outdoor environments without public traffic, while hospitality robots are also becoming increasingly popular providing mobile guidance and information, while demand for food and beverage preparation is also performing well.
Sales of agricultural robots are also showing strong growth, up 21% in 2023, with almost 20,000 units sold.
Medical robots are considered separately but they too saw sales ahead 36% to around 6,100 units sold in 2023. Sales of rehabilitation and non-invasive therapy robots were up 128%, while demand for surgery robots rose 14% and sales of robots for diagnostics increased by 25%.
While US and Chinese companies dominate this market, with Germany ranking third with 83 companies, from a regional perspective, the majority of service and medical robot manufacturers are actually based here in Europe with a global market share of 44%, ahead of Asia with 29% and the Americas with 25%.
