News from the Wire

Service robots see global growth boom

Wednesday, October 08, 2025 — 16:29:02 (UTC)

Frankfurt am Main, GERMANY - October 7, 2025 – The total number of service robots sold for professional use reached almost 200,000 units in 2024, marking a 9% increase. Staff shortages are a key driver for companies to use robots designed for trained professionals. At the same time, the growing elderly population is increasing demand for medical robots. These findings are presented in the World Robotics 2025 Service Robots report by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR).

“There is strong demand for service robots in a number of different application areas,” says Takayuki Ito, President of the International Federation of Robotics. “In order to integrate automation without making a heavy upfront investment, more-and-more companies are deciding to enter into subscription or rental agreements rather than purchasing robots outright. The robot-as-a-service fleet (RaaS) has grown impressively by 31%.”

Top applications for professional service robots by units sold

With 102,900 units (+14%) sold in 2024, more than every other professional service robot was built for the application class transportation and logistics. These robots cover mainly mobile robots for the transport and handling of goods. While traditional sales remained the main channel of monetarization, RaaS enjoyed growing popularity with a growth rate of 42% in 2024. Transportation in indoor environments without public traffic qualifies as the most important application class within this segment. A special chapter in World Robotics 2025 focuses on the drivers and challenges in this dynamic market.

Hospitality robots remain second place with more than 42,000 sold – down 11%. Robots for mobile guidance, information points in public environments and telepresence account for the majority of these robots. Such service robots are taking over small services or promoting sales in stores, shopping malls, or at front desks. As the sector is evolving, new applications have emerged, such as food and beverage preparation.

The market for professional cleaning robots, in third place, grew by 34% to more than 25,000 units sold. The main application is floor cleaning.

Sales of agricultural robots rank fourth and contracted slightly by 6% with close to 19,500 units sold. The decrease was mainly driven by cultivation and milking.

For the application group of search & rescue, security robots a total number of 3,100 units were sold in 2024, placing it in fifth position up 19%. Three out of four robots in this application class were for security services.

Medical Robots

In accordance with ISO standard the World Robotics 2025 yearbook considers medical robots as a third category alongside service robots and industrial robots: Sales of medical robots increased strongly by 91% to around 16,700 units in 2024. Sales of rehabilitation and non-invasive therapy robots were up 106%. Demand for surgery robots rose by 41% and sales of robots for diagnostics and medical laboratory analysis increased by 610%.

“In a special chapter of the World Robotics 2025 report, we focus on the exciting opportunities presented by the automation of medical laboratories,” says Dr. Werner Kraus, Chair of the IFR Service Robot Committee. “In times of labor scarcity, service robots help to reduce manual labor and open up new ways to deal with the rising demand for medical services from the rapidly growing elderly population.”

Robots for consumer use

Consumer service robots are produced for the mass market. Service robots for consumer

use have experienced a solid growth rate of 11% with close to 20 million units sold in 2024. Robots for domestic tasks (floor cleaning, lawn moving etc.) were by far the largest group of consumer robots. Growth was largely driven by companies from Europe and Asia-Pacific, which both experienced growth rates of 16%, whereas sales from the Americas decreased by 1%. This was due to a loss in the market share for robotic vacuum cleaners.

Please note: World Robotics Service Robots report is sample data. Data is NOT projected to the whole industry. Sample composition varies each year. All numbers at the World Robotics Service Robots 2025 report are based on a sample of 294 service robot suppliers. Compiling or comparing data from different World Robotics Reports is strongly discouraged.

Orders for World Robotics 2025 Service Robots and Industrial Robots reports can be placed online. Further downloads on the content are available here: ifr.org/about-world-robotics

Video

Dr. Werner Kraus explains the market presentation at our press conference for the World Robotics 2025 publication. You can find the recording on our YouTube channel: youtu.be/954LVzNBl5U

Please see also market presentation on Industrial Robots: youtu.be/w1xGp-S3Mf4

Downloads

Press release in English and German language and picture can be downloaded at: ifr.org/ifr-press-releases/news/service-robots-see-global-growth-boom

About IFR The International Federation of Robotics is the voice of the global robotics industry. IFR represents national robot associations, academia, and manufacturers of industrial and service robots from over twenty countries: www.ifr.org

The IFR Statistical Department provides data for two annual robotics studies:

World Robotics - Service Robots: This unique report describes marketable products, tasks, challenges and new developments by service robots application. The report includes the results of the annual IFR service robot survey on global sales of professional and consumer service robots and an industry structure analysis including a full list of all service robot producers known to the IFR. The study is jointly prepared with the robotics experts of Fraunhofer IPA, Stuttgart.

World Robotics - Industrial Robots: This unique report provides global statistics on industrial robots in standardized tables and enables national comparisons to be made. It presents statistical data for around 40 countries broken down into areas of application, customer industries, types of robots and other technical and economic aspects. Production, export and import data is listed for selected countries. It also offers robot density, i.e. the number of robots per 10,000 employees, as a measure for the degree of automation.

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Press contact

International Federation of Robotics PRESS OFFICER Carsten Heer phone +49 (0) 40 822 44 284 E-Mail: press@ifr.org

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Source: Company press release.

Categories: Reports and research