Soft Robotics Market

The global soft robotics market size was valued at $573.8 million in 2019, and is projected to reach $3.41 billion by 2027, registering a CAGR of 30.7% from 2020 to 2027. Soft robotics is a specifically designed subfield of construction robots that offers reprogrammable, multi-functional, and versatile systems intelligently linking to the sensing action. Further, soft robotics vendors develop materials, components, and colossal active structures in a way that they can safely relate to the manufacturing process and adapt to their immediate environment better than the robots made of hard components. 

Soft robotics technology can potentially remove the complexity of mechanical and algorithmic robot designs. Further, soft robotics can combine tissue engineering to manufacture the hybrid systems that are used for medical applications. Moreover, soft robotics can be divided into robot grippers, medial robots, and similar, depending on the robotics applications.

Soft robotics is a system specifically designed and manufactured from materials with mechanical properties similar to living tissues. It has now spread across the retail, food & beverage, logistic, and healthcare sectors to innovate in the product supply chain. Further, soft robotics allow the end users to increase the flexibility and adaptability of the manufacturing process due to the ability to sense and adapt according to the surrounding.

The soft robotics industry is expected to witness growth during the forecast period, owing to rapid development of smart infrastructure in the healthcare sectors. The market for global soft robotics is expected to be driven by a surge in the adoption of IoT and AI-based technologies in the logistics and retail industries. Thereby, offers more life-like movement and bodies. Moreover, robotics muscles are one of the most popular applications used across manufacturing sectors. Considering these factors, the global soft robotics market is estimated to experience steep growth in the future.

Rise in industrialization & automation and increase in number of exoskeleton innovations are some of the other drivers for the global soft robotics market growth. However, high costs of soft robotics in developing countries act as a major challenge for the market growth. Furthermore, innovation in robotics for small- and medium-sized companies provide lucrative opportunities for the global soft robotics market. 

One of the hard-hit segments of COVID-19 is the manufacturing sector. The emergence of COVID-19 has declined the growth rate of the market in 2020, and the market is witnessing relatively slow growth in 2021. The soft robotics market was primarily hit by several obstacles created amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the logistic and manufacturing industry including the availability of raw material, contractual obligations, and project delays or cancellations. The COVID-19 has influenced the growth of the food & beverage manufacturing industries due to the reduction in consumption. Consequently, it resulted in decreased demand for the global soft robotics industry.

The soft robotics market is analyzed by type, component, and end user. On the basis of type, it is fragmented into soft grippers, cobots, inflated robots, and exoskeleton. The soft grippers segment dominated the market, in terms of revenue in 2019, and is expected to follow the same trend during the forecast period. On the basis of component, the market is segregated into hardware and software. The hardware segment dominated the market, in terms of revenue in 2019, however, the software segment is projected to witness significant market share during the forecast period. By end user, the market is divided into healthcare, advanced manufacturing, food & beverage, logistics, and others. The global soft robotics market share of the healthcare segment accounted highest in 2019, and the others segment is expected to grow at a high CAGR from 2020 to 2027.

By region, the global soft robotics market trends are analyzed across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA. The Asia-Pacific region accounted for highest revenue share in 2019, owing to development of advanced manufacturing processes in the countries such as South Korea, Japan, Singapore, and China. 

Top Impacting Factors

Significant factors that impact the growth of the global soft robotics industry include rise in exoskeleton innovation in the healthcare sector, surge in penetration of AI-based technologies, and increase in industrialization in the automation sector. However, high cost of sift robotics in developing countries acts as a major barrier for early adoption, which hampers the growth of the market. On the contrary, innovation of robotic in small and medium-sized companies and industrial sectors is anticipated to provide lucrative opportunities for the soft robotics market during the forecast period.

Competition Analysis

Competitive analysis and profiles of the major global soft robotics market players such as Bioservo Technologies AB, Cyberdyne Inc., Ekso Bionics Holdings, Inc., F&P robotics AG, Festo AG, Rewalk Robotics Ltd., Righthand Robotics Inc., Roam Robotics, Soft Robotics Inc., and Yaskawa Electric Corporation are provided in this report. 

Key Benefits For Stakeholders

• This study comprises analytical depiction of the global soft robotics market size along with the current trends and future estimations to depict the imminent investment pockets.
• The overall global soft robotics market analysis is determined to understand the profitable trends to gain a stronger foothold.
• The report presents information related to key drivers, restraints, and opportunities with a detailed impact analysis.
• The current global soft robotics market forecast is quantitatively analyzed from 2019 to 2027 to benchmark the financial competency.
• Porter’s five forces analysis illustrates the potency of the buyers and suppliers in the global soft robotics market.
• The report includes the global soft robotics market share of key vendors and market trends.

Key Market Segments

By Type

• Soft Grippers
• Cobots
• Inflated Robots
• Exoskeleton

By Components

• Hardware
• Software

By End User

• Healthcare
• Advanced Manufacturing
• Food & Beverages
• Logistics
• Others

Key Players

• Bioservo Technologies AB
• Cyberdyne Inc.
• Ekso Bionics Holdings, Inc.
• F&P Robotics AG
• Festo AG
• ReWalk Robotics Ltd
• RightHand Robotics Inc.
• Roam Robotics
• Soft Robotics Inc.
• Yaskawa Electric Corporation