Robots in Logistics Boom Worldwide

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The demand for robots for transport and logistics is increasing: Almost 113,000 robots were sold for transport and logistics tasks in 2023 – up 35%. These results are published by VDMA Materials Handling and Intralogistics Association in cooperation with the IFR.

“About every other professional service robot was built for the application class transportation and logistics," says Wolfgang Hillinger, Chairman of the VDMA Mobile Robots Division of the Materials Handling and Intralogistics Association. "The annual report clearly shows that automation or partial automation with robotics in transport and logistics is steadily increasing."

Mobile robots for intralogistics

Of the units sold, almost 80,300 are in the mobile robot segment, which transport materials indoors and outdoors and are used in production supply or warehouses, for example, as well as robots for loading and unloading lorries or pallets. Here alone, sales rose by 24% in 2023. Most mobile devices came from Asia-Pacific (around 83%), followed by Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (around 10%) and North and South America (around 7%).

Indoor environments

Transportation in indoor environments without public traffic qualify with 71% of all units sold as the most important application class within the segment.