Industrial robots have been widely applied in a broad range of fields such as assembly, production, electric welding, spraying and painting, food packaging, and component installation. Recent years, several companies have seen aggressive investment in related technologies or M&A activities, including Fanuc, ABB, KUKA, Yaskawa, Mitsubishi, Hitachi, Sony, Toyota, Honda, and Samsung. Even Foxconn has jumped on the bandwagon.

"After filtering the research results obtained from the USPTO, a total of 2,858 patents were left for analysis and, by analyzing key technologies covered by those patents, we can obtain a full picture of key patented technologies by sector and field," says David Chen, a senior analyst with MIC.

"Based on our finding, the majority of patents are used for Mechanical Engineering sector (45%) followed by Instruments and Electrical Engineering," says Chen.

"After classified by field, the results revealed the Control (33.1%) has the highest share, followed by Handling and Machine Tools"

Based on IFR (International Federation of Robotics) statistics, global industrial robot market volume reached around 163,800 units in 2014, up from 162,000 units in 2013 and will stand at 191,800 units in 2016. The market has a CAGR of 8% from 2010 to 2016.

On top of that, although China has posted the highest growth for industrial robot sales, soaring wages, frequent strikes, and a constant shortage of labors in Asian countries have affect production capacity and product quality. The deteriorating labor market conditions have forced foreign-invested companies to consider replacing some human jobs with industrial robots.