The Impact of the Top 3 Strategic Imperatives on the Cobot Market

Disruptive Technologies

Why

Advanced sensors and specialized end-effectors augment the cognitive abilities of collaborative robots (cobots), resulting in efficient and safe interaction with objects and surroundings. Extended reality (XR) offers an immersive experience and elevates human-machine interaction.

Frost Perspective

Haptic feedback enables handling fragile and soft objects of varying sizes and shapes. This will create new opportunities. Simulations using digital twins will continue to grow over the next 3 to 5 years as customers demand a reduction in implementation time.

Competitive Intensity

Why

As industrial cobots garner interest across industries, the market is witnessing the entry of several new players, intensifying competition. Additionally, competitors from allied industries (e.g., traditional robot vendors, automation vendors, open-source software vendors) are entering this market. China views robotics as the growth engine for industrial transformation. The emergence of low-cost Chinese robots is intensifying competition with US manufacturers.

Frost Perspective

In the next 3 to 5 years, the prominence of Asian participants in the global cobot market will increase, challenging regional and other global conglomerates. The ability to offer application-specific solutions will be key in addressing customer needs. Product differentiation in cobots will increasingly focus on customer-centric capabilities to adapt to different production requirements. By 2028, hardware components and cobot pricing will decrease due to increased competition.

Innovative Business Models

Why

Robotics-as-a-service model offers payment flexibility, especially for SMEs struggling with high upfront costs. Companies are introducing platform-based open-source models and creating an ecosystem to address specific customer needs. Outcome-based pricing and service agreements are other models available in the industry.

Frost Perspective

By 2030, the subscription-based pricing model will become more prominent. Refurbished robots will be used in less demanding applications, while robot rentals will be a prominent business model explored in this space.

Growth Drivers

• To mitigate global labor shortages and rising wages, manufacturers are utilizing cobots to bridge the workforce gap. The decreasing cost of cobots and the flexibility of the robots-as-a-service model drive automation adoption by small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The option to subscribe and lease minimizes capital investment and enables incremental scaling of automation.
• The use of cobots across various industries aims to address the challenge of managing variability in high-mix, low-volume production tasks. Cobots eliminate the cost of manual work, errors, and throughput. The ability to quickly install and easily integrate with existing production lines makes cobots readily adoptable, practical solutions for businesses of any scale, further fueling their adoption across diverse industries.
• Regulatory bodies, such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), implement stringent workplace safety standards that encourage the transition to safer automation solutions, including cobots. As businesses strive to meet safety standards while maintaining operational efficiency, demand for cobots is expected to grow further.

Growth Restraints

• Compatibility with existing systems for seamless deployment remains a key concern in the adoption of cobots in manufacturing. Moreover, a change from the status quo will necessitate employee training, further complicating the process.
• The shortcomings of cobots are particularly evident in high-speed and heavy-duty applications. Lack of speed and encumbrance of cobots drive customer preferences toward other robot types (e.g., Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm [SCARA]).
• Workbench and environmental changes require reprogramming cobots for seamless operations. This requires constant human intervention and safety considerations, making it cumbersome.