The Problem with Cobots

The Problem with Cobots
When it comes to cobots, haven’t we all been reading stuff about cobot sales being low for years now? Like this from GlobalNews: “Collaborative Robots or Cobots have been in existence for the last ten years but account for less than 5% of the industrial robot market. However, the adoption of cobots is likely to see accelerated growth in the next five years.”

One forecaster says: the collaborative robot/cobot is projected to grow from $1.2 billion in 2021 to $10.5 billion by 2027; it is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 43.4% from 2021 to 2027. Such news commentary and forecasts have been intriguing me for a long time.

So, what’s the expectation that forecasters are exhibiting that’s not being realized in the data of the actual sales of cobots? I went looking for a connection…and here’s what I found.

Low-hanging fruit?
For the cobot industry, are all the easy sales long gone? The proverbial lowhanging fruit? The easy sales may all be in the rearview mirror, two years back. Big corporations, especially the auto industry, have been sold, as have the early adopters, as have well-financed startups or anyone else with cobots baked into their design specifications (see below for PDF download and/or Podcast excerpt).