Manufacturers sold around 121,000 professional service robots worldwide in 2021. Broken down by region, the strongest growth came from Europe with a market share of 38%, followed by North America with 32% and Asia with 30%. At the same time, sales of service robots for private and domestic use increased by 9%.

More than one in three professional service robots are used to transport goods or merchandise. Most of them work indoors, for example in production halls. A total of 286 companies manufacture service robots in this category.

Robots are becoming increasingly popular in the hotel and catering industry. Compared to the market potential, however, the sales figures here are still low: around 20,000 units were sold worldwide in 2021 (+85%). Robots in this category are used either for preparing food and drinks or as mobile stations for information and telepresence.

The top 5 applications for service robots, units sold in 2020 and 2021 in comparison.

© IFR World Robotics 2022

Sales of medical robots rose by 23% to 14,823 units. Surgical robots represent the largest group, followed by robots that support rehabilitation and assistants for non-invasive therapies. The market share of diagnostic robots is still small in comparison.

Demand for professional cleaning robots rose by 31% to more than 12,600 units sold. The main application in this group is floor cleaning. Disinfection robots that spray liquids for sterilization or use ultraviolet light against viruses have also seen strong growth in demand since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Other professional helpers also clean windows, swimming pools and solar panels.

With more than 8,000 units sold (+6%), robotics plays an important role in the digitalization of agriculture. Robots are already well established in milking cows and are supported by models for barn cleaning or feeding. In contrast, robotics is still in its infancy in the cultivation of crops.

"Private users mainly use service robots in the domestic environment: they vacuum, help with floor cleaning or gardening and are also used for social interaction and education," explains Marina Bill, President of the IFR. These service robots are produced for a mass market and therefore come onto the market with a completely different pricing and sales strategy than service robots for professional use. Almost 19 million robots for domestic use were sold in 2021 (+12%). The most popular application is currently robotic vacuum cleaners and other robots for indoor floor cleaning. These models are available in almost every supermarket and are therefore easy for consumers to purchase. Garden robots are usually lawn mower models. This market is expected to grow in the low double-digit range on average over the next few years.

Care robots are a growing niche market: they help older people to remain independent and in their own homes.

Structure of the service robotics industry

Although the dynamically growing service robotics industry is comparatively young, 87% of service robot manufacturers worldwide are considered established companies and were founded before 2017. The proportion of start-ups has declined in recent years. According to the IFR, there are various reasons for this: Some market segments have already reached a higher level of maturity. These include, for example, autonomous mobile robots (AMR) for warehouse logistics. In addition, start-up activities are shifting from the development of hardware to software. Many service applications are based on collaborative industrial robots purchased from industrial manufacturers. These providers of service robots are therefore not counted as robot manufacturers in the IFR industry statistics. Instead, they act like system integrators who combine various components and develop software to offer a solution on the market.