From 2010, there was an average of 38 percent increase in the demand for industrial robotics, with the largest demand increase coming from the automotive industry.
Like a similar study we reported on from The Freedonia Group, the IRF’s report shows that the two largest users of industrial robots are the automotive manufacturing sector, followed by electrical/electronics manufacturing. These two sectors are also the ones that the IRF expects to continue driving growth in industrial robot sales during 2012.
The International Federation of Robotics expects that this increase in demand will continue through 2015, though there will most likely be some cyclical decreases.
Between 2013 and 2015, the report says the electrical/electronics manufacturing sector will continue to increase its use of robots. That also makes sense, since this was one of the earliest manufacturing sectors to become automated. During this time period, although automotive manufacturing will continue to be the main sector that comes up with new robotics technology, it will experience what the IRF calls a cyclic decrease in robotics investment in 2013 and 2014. The previous decrease in this cycle happened between 2006 and 2009, during the global economic downturn.
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