http://m.007sbw.cn 2020-05-27 16:21 《中華工控網(wǎng)》翻譯
Record $46 billion 2019 investment in robotics industry
2019年機(jī)器人產(chǎn)業(yè)投資達(dá)到創(chuàng)紀(jì)錄的460億美元
The robotics industry received record investment in 2019, totaling in at US$46 billion. According to recent figures published by global tech advisory firm ABI Research, a total of US$17.8 billion went to acquisitions and a further US$29 billion went into investments. Most of the funding was focused on autonomous passenger vehicles (APV’s), surgical robotics, and warehouse automation, with significant growth for field robotics and drone services.
機(jī)器人產(chǎn)業(yè)在2019年獲得了創(chuàng)紀(jì)錄的投資,總額達(dá)到460億美元。根據(jù)全球技術(shù)咨詢公司ABI Research最近發(fā)布的數(shù)據(jù),收購總額為178億美元,投資總額為290億美元。大部分資金都集中在自動(dòng)駕駛汽車(APV),外科手術(shù)機(jī)器人和倉庫自動(dòng)化上,而現(xiàn)場機(jī)器人和無人機(jī)服務(wù)則有了顯著增長。
“Despite not having commercialized their technology, autonomous passenger vehicle developers like Waymo, Cruise, Zoox and company have continued to amass enormous funding from the corporate and VC world,” said Rian Whitton, senior analyst at ABI Research. “Surgical robots also received huge funding, and have already been commercialized to a considerable extent, with Intuitive Surgical selling over 5,000 Da Vinci robot systems to date.” The localization of funds to a few specific sectors is down both to the anticipated effect of the technology and the relative market power of major auto manufacturers like Toyota, health companies like Johnson & Johnson and E-retailers such as Amazon.
“盡管技術(shù)尚未商業(yè)化,但Waymo、Cruise、Zoox等自動(dòng)駕駛乘用車開發(fā)商仍在繼續(xù)從公司和風(fēng)投那里獲得大量資金,” ABI Research高級(jí)分析師Rian Whitton說。“外科手術(shù)機(jī)器人也獲得了巨額資金,并且已經(jīng)在相當(dāng)大的程度上實(shí)現(xiàn)了商業(yè)化,迄今為止,Intuitive Surgical銷售了5,000多個(gè)達(dá)芬奇機(jī)器人系統(tǒng)。”資金在幾個(gè)特定領(lǐng)域的本地化既取決于技術(shù)的預(yù)期效果,也要?dú)w功于像豐田這樣的主要汽車制造商、像強(qiáng)生這樣的健康公司以及像亞馬遜這樣的電子零售商的相對(duì)市場力量。
The United States and China account for 89% of all investment value, in terms of companies located in their various tech clusters. California hosts 77 robotics vendors that were invested in, while the rest of the United States had 88 companies. Other countries with considerable investment included Canada, Israel, Japan, and the UK.
就位于不同技術(shù)集群的公司而言,美國和中國占所有投資價(jià)值的89%。加州有77家機(jī)器人廠商投資,而美國其他地區(qū)則有88家公司。其他擁有大量投資的國家包括加拿大、以色列、日本和英國。
Aside from venture capitalists, a few major corporations have taken a significant interest in automation technologies, including Amazon with their investment in vision-based navigation developer Canvas Technology. Meanwhile, Softbank made a considerable investment in a variety of robot companies, including robotics service provider CloudMinds, hospitality robot developer Bear Robotics, and fulfillment automation company Berkshire Grey. FLIR, the thermal camera manufacturer, also invested heavily in drones and ground robots to shore up its solutions for security and industrial inspection. Among their acquisitions include Aerodyne Group and Endeavour Robotics, formerly part of iRobot. “Major corporations understand that, while the robotics industry isn’t a short-term proposition, it will be the source of considerable productivity growth that will be necessary to compete in the future,” said Whitton.
除了風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資家外,一些大型公司對(duì)自動(dòng)化技術(shù)也產(chǎn)生了濃厚的興趣,包括亞馬遜對(duì)視覺導(dǎo)航開發(fā)商Canvas Technology的投資。同時(shí),軟銀對(duì)包括機(jī)器人技術(shù)服務(wù)提供商CloudMinds,接待機(jī)器人開發(fā)商Bear Robotics以及物流自動(dòng)化公司Berkshire Grey在內(nèi)的各種機(jī)器人公司進(jìn)行了大量投資。熱像儀制造商FLIR也對(duì)無人機(jī)和地面機(jī)器人進(jìn)行了大量投資,以支持其用于安全和工業(yè)檢查的解決方案。他們的收購包括Aerodyne Group和iRobot的一部分Endeavor Robotics。“大型企業(yè)明白,雖然機(jī)器人產(chǎn)業(yè)不是一個(gè)短期的命題,但它將是生產(chǎn)力顯著增長的源泉,這是未來競爭所必需的。” Whitton說道。
Despite the scale of funding in 2019 growing considerably from the previous year, the impact of COVID-19 will likely mean it will be more challenging for many vendors to attract funding as investors wait to assess the likely scale of the economic downturn. Markets with an easy route commercialization, like surgical robots and warehouse automation, could benefit out of the crisis. At the same time, the autonomous passenger vehicle market could be adversely affected due to lack of business-readiness, though this has not prevented big investments in APV developers like Pony AI and Waymo in the first quarter. “Prior to the pandemic’s massive impact became clear, 2020 was already shaping up to be a strong year for robotics investment, with autonomous forklift and tow tractor developers Seegrid and Vecna already receiving funding,” Whitton concludes.
盡管2019年的融資規(guī)模較前一年大幅增長,但新冠疫情的影響可能意味著,隨著投資者等待評(píng)估經(jīng)濟(jì)衰退的可能規(guī)模,許多供應(yīng)商在吸引資金方面將面臨更大的挑戰(zhàn)。像外科手術(shù)機(jī)器人和倉庫自動(dòng)化這樣易于商業(yè)化的市場可能會(huì)從這場危機(jī)中受益。與此同時(shí),自主駕駛乘用車市場可能會(huì)因缺乏商業(yè)準(zhǔn)備而遭受不利影響,盡管這并沒有阻止今年第一季度對(duì)自動(dòng)駕駛汽車開發(fā)商如Pony AI和Waymo的大規(guī)模投資。“在大流行的巨大影響變明朗之前,2020年已經(jīng)成為機(jī)器人技術(shù)投資強(qiáng)勁的一年,自動(dòng)叉車和牽引車開發(fā)商Seegrid和Vecna已經(jīng)獲得了資金,” Whitton總結(jié)道。