Collaborative robot market to reach $7.2B by 2030, predicts ABI Research

Despite a lack of growth in 2023 and 2024, the latest report from ABI Research predicted that revenue from collaborative robots will increase from $970 million in 2023 to $7.2 billion by 2030 at a compound annual growth rate, or CAGR, of 28%. The research firm said that safety, lower average selling prices, and accessibility will drive cobot sales in the coming years.

“Cobots are at the forefront of the robotics revolution,” stated George Chowdhury, robotics industry analyst at ABI Research. “They have the potential to democratize automation and bring robots into new markets, working side by side with human workers to unlock economic growth.”

“Cobots have a synergy with artificial intelligence,” he added. “Enterprises have leveraged the two technologies combined to automate tasks which have, until now, been exclusively reserved for human workers. Moreover, the more affordable cost and safety of cobots create an opportunity for small and medium [size] enterprises (SMEs) to adopt robotics, unlocking major productivity advantages for broad sectors of the economy.”

The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) tracks industrial and collaborative robot sales in North America. In 2024, companies ordered 31,311 robots valued at $1.963 billion, representing slight increases of 0.5% in units and 0.1% in revenue over 2023.

In 2023, North American robot orders declined by 30% after two years of record sales.

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Automakers, nearshoring to drive cobot growth, according to ABI

ABI Research said it expects cobots to play a large role in global reshoring initiatives. Geographically, cobot shipments will grow to 64,000 per year in North America by 2030, a CAGR of 29%.

The research firm forecast that China will become the main adopter in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, growing to 130,000 annual shipments at the end of the decade, with suppliers experiencing a CAGR of 41%.

Within industrial manufacturing, the automotive segment will drive cobot uptake, with shipments growing from 13,000 in 2023 to 115,000 by 2030. Growth in use cases, including palletization and inspection, will have a knock-on effect on attachment sales, including cameras.

3D cameras, stereo cameras with the ability to judge object depth, will be attached to 59% of cobot deployments by 2030.

“Collaborative robots are the flagship form factor for democratization and automation expansion into new markets, notably via SMEs,” Chowdhury wrote. “Cobots can revolutionize industries from medicine to agriculture by augmenting human workers with AI value-adds.”

While traditional robotics OEMs have developed cobot product lines — including FANUC, KUKA, ABB, Omron, and Kawasaki — Universal Robots (UR) and its partner network continues to control the largest market share.

NVIDIA will also play a critical part in the further adoption of cobots, said ABI. The company’s graphics processing units (GPUs), coupled with software products such as Isaac Manipulator, will deliver AI-augmented systems to the market, enabling new robotics use cases.

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