2017 has been a strong year for both industrial and commercial robotics. Major socio-economic factors continue to create opportunities for robotics companies to deploy and improve their solutions, resulting in major breakthroughs and existing product launches. Key verticals such as manufacturing, logistics, and healthcare are reaping the benefits of robot workers. At the same time, new vendors have also emerged, especially in China, where the government is pushing hard into robotics automation and artificial intelligence.
This report illustrates the major development and advancement in industrial and commercial robotics. Aside from covering Japanese and European suppliers, this report also looks into new players from China and some exciting start-ups. The report also looks beyond the surface, investigating the development in key components, namely computing architecture, actuator, gripper and effector, machine vision, sensor, localization and navigation system, and cognitive system.