What's driving the adoption of robots in industry? - PreScouter - Custom Intelligence from a Global Network of Experts

The next great period of growth in manufacturing productivity will be driven, at least in part, from advances in machine sensing, engineering, and machine learning, which will provide robots with the capability to collaborate closely with workers and overcome variability. The original introduction of industrial machines and the production of goods in factories resulted in a dramatic increase in worker productivity over the course of the industrial revolution. In contrast, in the last 40 years, inflation-adjusted worker productivity in the United States has declined slightly, from nearly 65% in 1970 to under 57% in 2017. Specifically, in the period after the Great Recession, worker productivity in the manufacturing sector has shown, relatively, very little growth (seen below), though there has been substantial growth in robotics in the logistics and supply sector. Interestingly, there has also been little growth in the rate of purchases of industrial robots in the United States in this same time frame, while there has been significant investments in robotics in the logistics and supply space as warehouses become increasingly automated.