Worldwide spend on robotics systems, drones to hit $128.7 billion in 2020

Worldwide spending on robotics systems and drones will be $128.7 billion in 2020, an increase of 17.1 per cent over 2019, according to a new report from International Data Corporation (IDC).

By 2023, this spending will reach $241.4 billion with a (CAGR) of 19.8%, said the IDC "Worldwide Robotics and Drones Spending Guide".

Robotics systems will be the larger of the two categories throughout the five-year forecast period with worldwide robotics spending forecast to be $112.4 billion in 2020.

Spending on drones will total $16.3 billion in 2020 but is forecast to grow at a faster rate - 33.3 per cent CAGR than 17.8 per cent CAGR of robotics systems.

"Software developments are among the most important trends currently shaping the robotics industry. Solution providers are progressively integrating additional software-based, often cloud-based, functionalities into robotics systems," Remy Glaisner, Research Director at IDC's Worldwide Robotics: Commercial Service Robots.

Discrete manufacturing will be responsible for nearly half of all robotics systems spending worldwide in 2020 with purchases totalling $53.8 billion.

The next largest industries for robotics systems will be process manufacturing, resource industries, healthcare and retail.

The industries that will see the fastest growth in robotics spending over the 2019-2023 forecast are wholesale, retail and construction.

Spending on drones will also be dominated by hardware purchases with more than 90 per cent of the category total going toward consumer drones, after-market sensors and service drones in 2020.

Drone software spending will primarily go to command and control applications and drone-specific applications while services spending will be led by education and training.

Consumer spending on drones will total $6.5 billion in 2020 and will represent nearly 40 per cent of the worldwide total throughout the forecast.

Industry spending on drones will be led by utilities ($1.9 billion), construction ($1.4 billion) and the discrete manufacturing and resource industries ($1.2 billion each), IDC said.

The resource industry will move ahead of both construction and discrete manufacturing to become the second largest industry for drone spending in 2021, according to the forecast.

The fastest growth in drone spending over the five-year forecast period will come from the federal/central government, education and state/local government, said the report.