And the long-term forecast is positive too, with an expected average growth rate of 20 to 25 percent in the period 2018 - 2020. That is the latest projection from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR).

FRANKFURT, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sales in service robots for professional use will increase 12 percent by the end of 2017 to a new record of 5.2 billion U.S. dollars. And the long-term forecast is positive too, with an expected average growth rate of 20 to 25 percent in the period 2018 - 2020. That is the latest projection from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR).

"In terms of value, the sales forecast 2018-2020 indicates a cumulative volume of around 27 billion U.S. dollars for the professional service segment," says Gudrun Litzenberger, General Secretary of the IFR. "Robots for medical, logistics and field services are the most significant contributors."

At the same time, the market for personal service robots which assist humans in their everyday lives is also progressing rapidly; it is projected that sales of all types of robots for domestic tasks - e.g. vacuum cleaning, lawn mowing or window cleaning - could reach an estimated value of around 11 billion U.S. dollars (2018-2020).

"Robots are clearly on the rise, in manufacturing and increasingly in everyday environments," says Martin Hägele, IFR Service Robot Group. "The growing interest in service robotics is partly due to the variety and number of new start-ups which currently account for 29 percent of all robot companies. Furthermore, large companies are increasingly investing in robotics, often through the acquisition of start-ups."

Service robotics market overview

European service robot manufacturers play an important role in the global market: about 290 out of the 700 registered companies supplying service robots come from Europe.

North America ranks second with about 240 manufacturers and Asia third with about 130.

Robotics in professional applications has already had a significant impact in areas such as agriculture, surgery, logistics or public relations and is growing in economic importance. There is a growing demand to monitor our everyday surroundings which results in increased and difficult-to-manage workloads and data flows. To meet this demand, robots will play an even greater role in the maintenance, security and rescue markets.

Robotics in personal and domestic applications has experienced strong global growth with a limited number of mass-market products: floor cleaning robots, robo-mowers and robots for edutainment.

Please find the full press release here: http://bit.ly/2yhHmwq

About IFR

The International Federation of Robotics: www.ifr.org