Vision for Service Robots Report
| Service robots offer fast-growing and diverse opportunities for suppliers of vision components and systems. This 120-page market report published by Vision Systems Design, the leading media provider focused on machine vision, assesses the great diversity of markets for vision in service robots, from land-based to marine and aerial applications, and shows suppliers of vision components and systems how to take advantage of these new opportunities and the potential volume of sales that can be expected in each market segment. To learn more, download our brochure.
• Executive Summary
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Executive Summary
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Service robots, which are robots serving human needs beyond the factory floor, are playing an increasingly important role in many aspects of human life. These robots come in many designs and perform tasks that range from aerial surveillance, bomb disposal, farming, and warehouse logistics to teaching children and assisting the elderly. They use machine vision and image processing components, subsystems, and technologies to image, store, and interpret data about the world around them, and perform actions based on the data.
The Vision for Service Robots report from Vision Systems Design provides a comprehensive review of the technologies, markets, and opportunities for suppliers of vision components, the researchers and integrators who are building service robots, and companies and organizations interested in entering the market. This groundbreaking 120-page report is based on extensive interviews and original research compiled over eight months by Adil Shafi, well-known authority on service robots and president of Advenovation. It includes a global forecast that identifies multiple near-term market opportunities for vision components and systems totaling several billion dollars, and opportunities in the longer term that promise to be even greater. View a PDF of the report’s table of contents.
Many countries and regions are avidly fostering research and development in this field. They are doing so because, while industrial robots are sold in the tens of thousands per year, service robots will offer a volume of unit sales ultimately in the millions. Many of the companies, university labs, and government organizations developing service robots believe that vision will provide a critical technical and market advantage. The Vision for Service Robots report includes an extensive directory of organizations involved in service robot manufacturing, research and development as well as an overview of their projects and links to key resources and websites.
With the exceptions of many toys and simple domestic robots such as vacuuming robots, the majority of service robots require some sort of vision system. The related components, subsystems, and software range from simple 2-D CMOS sensors to complex subsystems capable of 3-D imaging and pattern recognition. The vision software needed to understand these images and provide robotic feedback is complex and evolving rapidly.
Some of the primary vision technologies used in service robots are: structured light systems, two-camera stereo systems, time-of-flight sensors, lidar, and single-lens camera systems. Other sensing/locating technologies may be combined with the vision components to provide even more information to the robots, including GPS navigation, radar, sonar, and inertial guidance. For more sophisticated robots, simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) is critical to build maps of unknown environments or to update maps within known environments, while at the same time keeping track of the current location of the robot.
This is an exciting and dynamic time for service robots. With the help of machine vision, these robots are gaining widespread commercial and personal acceptance as they assist humans in almost every aspect of life.
Summary of Market Opportunities Detailed in the Report |
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The Vision for Service Robots report divides the market opportunities and global forecast for vision into three sections that include details on 17 markets and 53 submarkets:
Aerospace Applications
• Spacecraft (robotic spacecraft; autonomous vehicles (rovers))
• Satellites
• Aircraft (unmanned drones for surveillance, combat, research; refueling robots aboard aircraft
(airborne, including UAV to UAV refueling); resupplying robots aboard aircraft carriers; MAVs and flying swarms
for reconnaissance)
Land Applications
• Defense and Security (surveillance, EOD, combat, transport (military UGVs); surveillance (civilian);
explosive or hazard disposal (civilian); explosive or hazard disposal (de-mining); firefighting, law enforcement)
• Farming (ground-based farming, livestock management, harvesting; tree-based produce retrieval ; feeding
and cleaning in zoos; wildlife conservation)
• Food Processing (dairy: milking and cleaning; meat: processing; poultry: chicken and egg handling;
fruit and vegetable handling and sorting)
• Transportation (assistive: cars, trucks; autonomous or Following: cars, trucks)
• Mining, Construction, Maintenance (under- and aboveground mining; construction and demolition
(including nuclear); roads and highways construction and maintenance; railway operations; facilities and
plants inspection and maintenance; runways and gates at airports; ports, docks, locks and canals (including
logistics); nuclear operations, inspection)
• Office and Warehouse (mobile: communications, telepresence; mobile: delivery, courier (includes hospitals);
warehousing logistics
• Health: Care (assistive: reach and access, switching positions, wheelchairs, walking; diagnostics (scanning
robots or automated scan-based robotic motion); telepresence: roaming doctor, tracking, doctor-patient
interaction; logistics
• Health: Rehabilitation (locomotion: exertive strength or walking balance; retraining: hand-eye retraining
with: 1) force or 2) vision)
• Health: Surgical
• Education and Entertainment (educational and research; toys; kiosk/marketing; coasters/rides)
• Home: Convenience (cleaning roof, gutters, driveway, pool, lawn, snow, windows, walls, floors; mobile robot
helper, companion (wheeled, humanoid); home surveillance and security)
Water Applications
• Defense and Security (surface: mine countermeasures, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance,
anti-submarine missions, harbor inspection, law enforcement, and naval logistics and support; underwater:
mine countermeasures, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, anti-submarine missions, harbor inspection,
search and rescue, and naval logistics and support)
• Commercial (ROVs: offshore oil and gas drilling, construction, inspection, maintenance, repair, salvage and
retrieval (for work after identification), cleaning and containment of spills; AUVs: offshore oil and gas
inspection, maintenance, salvage and retrieval (for identification), inspection of aqueducts, sewers)
• Scientific (ROVs: research marine environment, AUVs: research marine environment)
Example of Financial Details included in the Report
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• Unmanned drones have proliferated rapidly from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They provide surveillance and action options from the safety and stealth of remote control stations. The use of these innovations in civilian applications will grow and sustain even more than the military realm in the long term. Presently more than 15,000 drones are in use, more than 10,000 are projected to be sold in the next three years, and they constitute a multibillion dollar opportunity for vision components and subsystems.
• Robots to milk cows and help clean their environment have been used since 1992. Today there are more than 9,000 robots in the world that carry out more than 1.2 milkings per day. Automated milking in dairy farms not only frees up valuable time for the farmer but make for cows that produce higher yields of better-quality milk. This trend is expected to grow, and the machine vision opportunity in this sub-market is expected to exceed $600 million in the next three years.
• There are about 17 million older drivers in the US, and they constitute less than 6 percent of the overall population. The number of accidents caused by this segment is much higher than 6 percent. Recently, vision cameras have been tested in cars to look back onto older drivers (inside a car, in front and above drivers) and gauge their attention and focus on the road. When a dangerous situation is perceived, the cameras can cause precautionary actions such as slowing down the car or stopping it. Typically two cameras are used for this purpose, creating a market opportunity for up to 34 million cameras.
• Remote operated vehicles (ROVs) equipped with machine vision carry out critical operations in offshore oil and gas drilling, construction, inspection, maintenance, repair, salvage and retrieval, and cleaning and containment of spills. More than 5,000 ROVs are installed and more than 1,000 are expected to be sold in the next three years, creating a market opportunity for vision components and subsystems in excess of $100 million.
Table of Contents |
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Introduction
• Scope and Methodology
• Vision Technologies
• Summary of Findings
Global Forecast for Vision in Service Robots
• Overview of Forecast Methodology
• Global Forecast for Vision by Service Robot Class
Critical Technologies and Definitions
• Vision
• Data Interpretation and Computation
• Robots
Vision for Service Robots in Aerospace Applications
• Spacecraft
• Satellites
• Aircraft
Vision for Service Robots in Land Applications
• Defense and Security
• Farming
• Food Processing
• Transportation
• Mining, Construction, and Maintenance
• Office and Warehouse
• Health: Assistive Living and Care
• Health: Rehabilitation
• Health: Surgical
• Education and Entertainment
• Home: Convenience
Vision for Service Robots in Water Applications
• Underwater Robots and Sensor Fusion
• Surface and Underwater Robots
• Defense and Security
• Commercial
• Scientific Research
Resources
• Academia
• Competitions
• Corporations
• Government/NGOs/Research
• Publications/Reports
Frequently Asked Questions
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Q: What is a service robot?
A: Unlike industrial robots, service robots are mobile, uncontained and extremely diverse. The International Federation of Robotics has a provisional definition: "A service robot is a robot which operates semi- or fully autonomously to perform services useful to the well-being of humans and equipment, excluding manufacturing operations. With this definition, manipulating industrial robots could also be regarded as service robots, provided they are installed in non-manufacturing operations. Service robots may or may not be equipped with an arm structure as is the industrial robot. Often, but not always, service robots are mobile. In some cases, service robots consist of a mobile platform on which one or several arms are attached and controlled in the same mode as the arms of the industrial robot. Because of their multitude of forms and structures as well as application areas, service robots are not easy to define."
Q. Why is the Vision for Service Robots report an essential tool for researching vision market opportunities?
A: Multiple near-term market opportunities exist for vision components and systems, totaling several billion dollars. Opportunities in the longer term promise to be even greater. Many countries and regions are avidly fostering research and development in this field. They are doing so because, while industrial robots are sold in the tens of thousands of units per year, service robots will offer a volume of unit sales ultimately in the millions. Many of the companies, university labs, research centers, and government organizations developing service robots believe that machine vision will provide a critical technical capability and market advantage. With the exceptions of many toys and simple domestic robots such as vacuuming robots, the majority of service robots require machine vision with varied levels of sophistication. Vision components, subsystems, and software range from simple 2-D CMOS sensors to complex subsystems capable of 3-D imaging and pattern recognition. The vision software needed to understand these images and provide robotic feedback is complex, maturing, and evolving rapidly. To learn more, download our brochure.
Q: What types of vision technologies are used in service robot applications?
A: Some of the primary vision technologies used in service robots are: structured light systems, two-camera stereo systems, time-of-flight sensors, lidar, and single-lens camera systems. Other sensing/locating technologies may be combined with vision components in sensor fusion techniques that incorporate GPS navigation, radar, sonar, and inertial guidance. For more sophisticated robots, simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) is critical to build maps of unknown environments or to update maps within known environments, while at the same time keeping track of the current location of the robot. This is an exciting and dynamic time for service robots. With the help of machine vision, service robots are gaining widespread acceptance in commercial and personal arenas as they assist humans in almost every aspect of life.
Q: Can I find similar research online from other sources?
A: The proprietary research and interviews conducted to create the Vision for Service Robots report are not readily available online. The information available online and through other reports is not sufficient to estimate the size of vision opportunities at the level of detail provided by this report. The report also includes a thorough listing of online resources, including descriptions of several organizations’ service robot projects, which can be used by readers to conduct further research into specific opportunities on their own.
Q: What kind of information is included in the Vision for Service Robots report?
A: The Vision for Service Robots report is based on eight months of interviews and extensive market research resulting in detailed and specific application descriptions and forecasts for 17 markets and 53 sub-markets for vision systems and components in service robotics. The report divides the applications into air-, land- and water-based categories. For each category, the report includes tables estimating the current value of installed vision systems, estimated product and component pricing for each application, and the forecasted number and value of vision systems for 2010-2013 and beyond. In addition, the report includes a detailed directory of 100+ organizations involved in service robots--with overviews of their projects and website links--organized by academia, competitions, corporations, government/NGOs/researchers, and publications/reports. To learn more, download our brochure.
Q: Who is the audience for the Vision for Service Robots report?
A: This report provides a comprehensive review of the technologies, markets, and opportunities for suppliers of vision components, vision subsystem integrators, technology researchers, universities looking to commercialize their intellectual property, service robot manufacturers, subsystem OEMs, turnkey solution integrators, the financial investment community, and companies and organizations interested in entering up to 17 different service robot market segments.
Q: Who researched and wrote the Vision for Service Robots report?
A: The report is based on original research conducted by Adil Shafi, President of Advenovation (Brighton, MI, USA). He has developed new and reliable solutions in the robotics and vision industry for more than 20 years. Recently Mr. Shafi has been known for developing advanced vision-guided robotic bin-picking applications. He holds three degrees from Michigan Technological University and his personal goals are to foster innovation, help create jobs, and maintain economic vitality.
Q: How long is the Vision for Service Robots report and in what format is it delivered?
A: The report is 120 pages and includes an executive summary, introduction (with scope and methodology), global forecast for vision in service robots, critical technologies and definitions, vision for service robots in aerospace applications, vision for service robots in land applications, vision for service robots in water applications, and a resources section with profiles and links to more than 100 organizations involved in service robots. The report is delivered via email to the ordering computer in PDF format. It includes hundreds of links that allow you to find additional information when reading the report from a computer with a live Internet connection.
Q: What does the Vision for Service Robots report cost?
A: The price for the full report is $995. An excerpt of the full report including our global forecast for 17 markets is priced at $495.
Q: How can I order the Vision for Service Robots report?
A: Click on the Order Report button at the top of this page or this link to order the full report on our e-commerce page. You will be prompted for credit card information to purchase the report online. A single-use PDF will be delivered to the ordering computer by email.To purchase the Global Forecast excerpt of the report only, click here.
Q: Who do I contact for more information?
A: To learn more about the contents of the report and how to use the information in it to enter the service robotics field for commercial benefit, email Adil Shafi at adil@advenovation.com. For help ordering the report, contact Judy Leger at judyl@pennwell.com.
How to Order
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The Vision for Service Robots report is available as a PDF for $995 for the complete report and $495 for the global forecast excerpt. To order the full report, click on the Order Report button at the top of this page to go to our e-commerce page or visit http://qmags.com/VSR. To order the Global Forecast excerpt only, visit http://qmags.com/VSRE. You will be prompted for credit card information to purchase the report online. A single-use PDF will be delivered to the ordering computer by email. For help ordering the report, contact Judy Leger at judyl@pennwell.com.
Contact Us
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To learn more about the contents of the Vision for Service Robots report, email Adil Shafi at Adil@advenovation.com. Adil is a well-known expert on service robots and president of Advenovation. He has more than 20 years of experience and a leading innovation implementation record with robots and vision. For more information, visit www.advenovation.com.