We're used to robot vacuums and robots in factories - but would you get a manicure from a robot? Clockwork, which says it designs robots to'liberate people from everyday mundane tasks,' just inked a deal to put its manicure machines inside six Target locations across the United States - including locations in Texas, California and Minnesota. The bots utilize artificial intelligence and 3-D technology to determine the size and shape of a person's hands and then provide manicures in only ten minutes for $10. Target is one of several retailers expressing interest in the robots, which could disrupt the $6.5 billion nail industry if they're widely embraced by consumers. Clockwork's manicure robot has been deployed to six Target locations in the US, including in Texas, California and Minnesota The bots utilize artificial intelligence and 3-D technology to determine the size and shape of a person's hands and then provide manicures in only ten minutes for $10 'We're pushing tens of thousands of partnership requests at this point,' Clockwork CEO Renuka Apte told Yahoo Finance.

The market for professional service robots reached a turnover of 6.7 billion U.S. dollars worldwide (sample method) – up 12% in 2020. At the same time, turnover of new consumer service robots grew 16% to 4.4 billion U.S. dollars. This is according to World Robotics 2021 – Service Robots report, presented by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). "Service robots continued on a successful path proving the tremendous market potential worldwide," says IFR President Milton Guerry. "Sales of professional service robots rose an impressive 41% to 131,800 units in 2020."

Robots have been a mainstay in factories for decades, but their use has been expanding everywhere else, from warehouses and hospitals to retail. That trend continued last year, and the novel coronavirus pandemic has accelerated service robot demand for automated logistics, disinfection, and delivery, according to the International Federation of Robotics. The Frankfurt, Germany-based IFR said that the sales value of professional service robots increased by 32% to $11.2 billion (U.S.) worldwide between 2018 and 2019. The organization published its full research in the "World Robotics 2020 – Service Robots" report, which is available for download. Sales of medical robotics accounted for 47% of the total service robot value turnover in 2019, according to the IFR.

The global robotics market, as noted by market reports, was registered at US$42,654 million in 2018 and it is anticipated to hit US$181,828 million by 2024, growing at a CAGR of 28.5 percent. The major driving force behind the substantial growth of the market is wide-scale deployment and advancements in robots as a machine and as an application. Robotics is making its way into various market verticals, proving its worth in several industries of today. Even in the current crisis situation, one thing that we are sure about is robots are here to emerge out victorious as a recession-proof technology. During the coronavirus pandemic, robots have been extensively implemented across healthcare and other significant sectors as well.

The idea of robots picking items from warehouse shelves may still seem futuristic today. But the future may be closer than many people think. Of the almost 1 million robots we expect to be sold for enterprise use in 2020, we predict that just over half of them will be professional service robots, generating more than US$16 billion in revenue--30 percent more than in 2019. What's more, with regard to enterprise spending, the market for professional service robots is growing much faster than that for industrial robots (figure 1). If recent trends are any sign, professional service robots may pass industrial robots in terms of units in 2020 and revenue--in 2021. That's not to say that the industrial robotics market is hurting.

I would like to thank the European Parliament for the invitation to speak at this seminar on a topic which is at the heart of the European Commission's activities, especially those of the Directorate-General I represent, DG Connect. Let me first state that we greatly appreciate and welcome the publication of the report of the European Parliament Legal Affairs Committee. Given the great public attention currently devoted to robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) this report is very timely and points at some crucial issues that need to be addressed. It highlights the opportunities robotics and AI offer and points towards the clear need for a coherent European approach and for Europe to have a strong presence and investment in this technology in order to maintain leadership in it. Many aspects of the report are directly in line with the Digitising European Industry strategy we launched in April 2016.