About Those Robots . . . .

Robot density will be high in Japan because of its aging population, and the Asian robot market as a whole "will explode," the report predicts.

For the second time in the span of five issues of this magazine, I'm writing about robots. Frost & Sullivan released a report1 on Jan. 9 that predicted personal robots would be a $19 billion market opportunity by 2020—that date is just nine months away, remember—and that by this year, 2019, 2.5 million robots "are expected to be part of the future workforce" and 42 million "service bots" will be operating for domestic use.

You'd think I would have noticed, read somewhere, that millions of service bots are on duty in homes around the world. But I have faith in Frost & Sullivan's research, and this report happened to come out in the midst of the CES 2019 show in Las Vegas, where a host of companies were showcasing various types of robotic assistants.2 At the same time, I soon will be part of the over-65 demographic that's driving the growth of personal robots. Frost & Sullivan's release on the report says as robots become more intelligent, they will be able to sense their surroundings, avoid objects, and even understand emotions and communicate.

"The lack of doctors, caregivers, and primary and secondary teachers is making a strong case for the use of personal robots in the health care and education sectors," explained Vijay Narayanan, Visionary Innovation Senior Research Analyst at Frost & Sullivan. "With more children requiring special attention and the yearly costs of child care escalating, there will be a huge market for robots with the ability to understand the unique needs of children and play the role of an entertainer, companion, or mentor."

Robot density will be high in Japan because of its aging population, and the Asian robot market as a whole "will explode," with China being one of the countries that provide low-cost, autonomous robots soon, the "Future of Robots" report predicts.

Stay tuned.

References
1. https://ww2.frost.com/news/press-releases/personal-robots-are-set-be-19-billion-market-opportunity-2020-says-frost-sullivan/
2. https://www.androidauthority.com/new-robots-942422/

This article originally appeared in the March 2019 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.

About the Author

Jerry Laws is Editor of Occupational Health & Safety magazine, which is owned by 1105 Media Inc.

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