Technology
After the International Data Corporation published its forecast for the robotics industry last week, it’s worth taking a look at some of the reasons behind robotics’ pending explosion, especially in light of the next-generation technologies debuted and discussed at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this month. While one might not think of robotics and mobile in the same breath, the two are intertwined.
The IDC forecasted global spending on robotics and related services to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17% from more than $71 billion in 2015 to $135.4 billion in 2019, with growth in resource, healthcare, and the transportation industries as the next three largest commercial industries in terms of overall robotics spending.
Coincidentally, healthcare and transportation are two of the industries that are going to also experience major growth in mobile over the next few years. Mobile health is a rapidly developing industry -- startups in mHealth are gaining ground and healthcare facilities are increasingly updating infrastructure to incorporate the next generation of mobile tech to make operation more efficient. And robotics is playing a role in these advances.
Robotic medical technology has been entering the health industry for a while, emerging in hospitals and other facilities to streamline operations, the most famous of which right now is likely robotic surgery. Exoskeletons, robot-assisted recovery and rehab, and elderly care are some of the other aspects of healthcare that robots are bolstering, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
As far as transportation goes, mobile car technology is old news at this point, although the tech highlighted at the Mobile World Congress shows a new era of mobile in vehicles on the horizon. Connected cars still have a long way to go, and nearly every major tech company in mobile is making sure it’s a part of that progress. But the robotic car (known sometimes as the driverless car, or self-driving car) is also a swiftly-moving technology of the day, and the two are developing in tandem.
One of the IDC’s factors behind robotic development is the fact that the industry is gaining more competitive players, driving down the costs. John Santagate, Research Manager, Supply Chain at IDC Manufacturing Insights said in the group’s statement: "Robotic capabilities continue to expand while increasing investment in robot development is driving competition and helping to bring down the costs associated with robots.”
Together, mobile and robotics will no doubt reshape industries like healthcare and transportation.
