President’s Report by Marina Bill

Outlook 2024

Dear Reader,

The year 2024 has started with great visibility for IFR, with coverage by Bloomberg, Financial Times, Forbes, Handelsblatt, FAZ, AFP and Le Monde, among others.

In January, IFR enjoyed significant interest in its analysis of global robot densities, showing the impressive speed of robotics adoption in factories around the world. Korea, Singapore and Germany are in the lead of the global robotics race, while the new global average robot density hit an all-time high of 151 robots per 10,000 employees – more than double the number measured only six years ago.

And in February, following feedback from members, IFR published its top five robot trends for 2024, which are:

1. AI and machine learning
2. Cobots expanding to new applications
3. Mobile manipulators
4. Digital twins
5. Humanoid robots

These five mutually reinforcing automation trends in 2024 show that robotics is a multidisciplinary field where technologies are converging to create intelligent solutions for a wide range of tasks. These advances continue to shape the merging industrial and service robotics sectors and the future of work.

During the Automate show in Chicago from May 6-9, 2024, we will have the opportunity to see respective showcases in the exhibition hall and learn about the trends and recent developments during the ISR Americas 2024. The IFR Executive Roundtable will gather key executive from the robotics industry to discuss the trends & technologies driving the industry in 2024 (we will let you know about the speakers soon). We are also curious to see the new preliminary figures on the global robotics market in 2023, which will be published ahead of the roundtable.

While IFR's Executive Board, Marcom Committee and Robot Suppliers' Committee will meet in Chicago on May 7, the Service Robot Group will already gather on March 20 in Stuttgart where the LogiMAT show is held.

Looking forward to meeting you all in Chicago soon.

Best regards

Marina Bill