Seen a drone in the air lately? It’s certainly one of the most hyped about technology in recent years. And this trend seems only likely to continue.
According to Material Handling and Logistics, companies are investing heavily in both robots and drones and by the end of this year, sales is set to hit $95.9 billion (S$127.8b). Of which, discrete and process manufacturing will spend $54 billion on robots this year, while enterprise drone sales will be $9.3 billion.
Looking at the robotics market, pending on robotics solutions is expected to total $86.6 billion in 2018 and will account for more than 85% of all spending throughout the five-year forecast.
Jing Bing Zhang, research director at Worldwide Robotics, was quoted as saying: “collaborative robots are taking off in industrial applications, driven by customer demands for product quality, delivery, and mass customisation.” In essence, today’s market wants robots that are safe, simple to use, smart and easy to redeploy.
For the drone market, worldwide drone spending will likely reach $9.3 billion in 2018 and is expected to grow at a faster rate than the overall market.
“Organisations continue to explore a range of applications and use cases for drones, moving beyond aerial photography to drone-based deliveries, precision agriculture monitoring, and even time-sensitive medical deliveries,” says Stacey Soohoo, research manager at IDC’s Customer Insights & Analysis, in a quote published within the same article.
As the use of drones expand, governments are starting to regulate the usage of drones. Governments realise the growing importance and need for drone control and a proper air traffic management system for both enterprise and consumer deployments.
Safety is also another concern for both consumers and regulators. As such, many IT suppliers are building drones with improvements in their sensory and collision avoidance technology.