Professional service robots feature some degree of autonomy and mobility for unstructured environments and offer many potential benefits for end users.
Professional service robots are a type of robot deployed outside of the traditional factory floor environment within a professional setting. Like industrial robots, they’re often used in dangerous, strenuous, menial or repetitive tasks where automation technology excels over manual labor. Unlike industrial robots, professional service robots typically feature some degree of autonomy and mobility for unstructured environments. From agriculture to healthcare to fulfillment centers and more, professional service robots represent a rapidly growing segment of the robotics market and offer many benefits for end users.
Professional service robots have only just begun to emerge as commercially viable forms of automation. This is primarily due to the fact that advanced vision systems, combined with complex navigational capabilities, have only recently been able to support this type of automation.
According to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), professional service robot sales in 2017 were up 85% over 2016. The overall market is estimated to be worth $37 billion by 2021, with an annual growth rate of 21%. As the technology advances, adoption will grow exponentially in a wide range of industries.
Benefits from professional service robots include increased productivity. They also can automate tasks and the connected nature of these robots allows for detailed data collection that facilitates ongoing productivity improvement.
Professional service robots have greater uptime, speed, and consistency when compared to manual labor, leading to major efficiency gains. By automating dangerous or strenuous tasks, these robots also introduce greater safety into a wide range of applications.
Professional service robots are a rapidly growing segment of the robotics industry, automating tasks that industrial robots never could, and giving human laborers the opportunity to focus on more cognitive-oriented tasks.
This article originally appeared on the Robotics Online Blog. Robotic Industries Association (RIA) is a part of the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), a CFE Media content partner. Edited by Chris Vavra, production editor, Control Engineering, CFE Media, [email protected].
