The market for autonomous mobile robots performing material handling tasks has expanded greatly in the last few years, with global revenues of $223 million in 2016 expanding to $800 million in 2020, according to a new report by ABI Research.
To help commentators and end users understand the strongest horses in this race, global tech market advisory firm, ABI Research has completed a detailed profile on ten of the most promising autonomous handling robotics vendors: Teradyne, Fetch, Bluebotics, Seegrid, Gideon Brothers, Agilox, Baylo, IAM Robotics, Vecna Robotics, and Forward X.
The ranking criteria included both referenced the innovation of these companies, and their ability to channel this into mass deployments and build partnerships. The companies that performed best, according to ABI, are:
- Market Leaders: Teradyne, Fetch, BlueBotics
- Top Implementers: Teradyne, Fetch, BlueBotics
- Top Innovators: IAM Robotics, Agilox, Seegrid, Gideon Brothers, Vecna Robotics, Fetch Robotics
Teradyne led the field through its industrial automation business which, through acquisition of AMR developer Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR) and advanced heavy AGV developer Auto-Guide, has deployed more than 5,000 AMRs.
Fetch Robotics is not far behind, having developed a highly adaptable cloud-based solution enabled by advanced processing powered by Nvidia’s GPU and a sophisticated sensor configuration.
Representing the European market, BlueBotics has deployed over 2,500 robots and acts a technology partner who automates vehicles from original equipment manufacturers such as Toyota.
Rian Whitton, industrial, collaborative and commercial robots senior analyst at ABI Research, says: “All these companies are demonstrating unique solutions and have excelled in innovating autonomous mobile robots. The shift in quality from just 5 years ago is considerable.”
The autonomous material handling market is primed for a decade of strong growth. Revenues are going to grow from $7.4 billion in 2020 to $85 billion in 2030. For autonomous mobile robots, the growth is even more significant.
In 2020, the AMR market for material handling is $800 million in global revenue, but in 2030, it will make a much larger part of the wider automation market at $49 billion.
Whitton says: “The Coronavirus pandemic put new demands on supply-chains. The recovery is seeing a glut in capital investment, pointing to a great 2021 for these companies.
“The market has been further validated by large manufacturers developing their own robots through partnerships with the contestants, as well as building their own robot vendors, as in the case of BMW and Idealworks.”
As the market develops, some companies will pull ahead and begin to dominate the space, which is currently very fragmented. As companies go forward, they will attempt to move up the value chain, while also creating a powerful platform for smaller vendors to coalesce around.
Whitton says: “Gradually, this will result in increased efficiencies and fewer challenges to implementing robots for material handling.”
