"Robotics is one of the core technologies that is enabling significant changes in manufacturing through factory of the future initiatives,” said Dr. Jing Bing Zhang, Research Director, Robotics at IDC Manufacturing Insights.

“While traditionally used in the automotive industry, there is an increasing adoption of robotics in sectors like electronics, retail, healthcare, logistics, agriculture, services, education, and government. Such broad-based growth in robotic adoption is being driven by increasing labor costs, shortage of skilled labors, and an increasing emphasis on repeatable quality in conjunction with a reduction in prices of robotic systems and strategic national initiatives," added Dr. Zhang.

The AP robotics spending is currently dominated by the discrete and process manufacturing industries, followed by resources and healthcare in terms of overall robotics spending. From a technology perspective, AP spending on robotics systems, which includes industrial, service and consumer robots, is forecast to grow to nearly $21 billion in 2019.

However, services-related spending, which encompasses applications management, education and training, hardware deployment, systems integration, and consulting, will grow to more than $24 billion in 2019.

In 2015, the AP region accounted for more than 65% of total robotics spending. "China became the world's largest market in 2013 for industrial robots and accounted for more than 25% of global shipment of industrial robots in 2014. This growth trend is expected to continue, partially fueled by the "Made in China 2025" national strategic initiative, in which robotics is identified as one of the 10 key technology focus areas," added Dr. Zhang.

"Apart from manufacturing, we are also seeing growth opportunities across AP in other industries such as healthcare, retail, consumer, and resources. A good example is robotics for mining automation in countries like Australia."