Record $46 billion 2019 investment in robotics industry
2019年機器人產業投資達到創紀錄的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.

機器人產業在2019年獲得了創紀錄的投資，總額達到460億美元。根據全球技術咨詢公司ABI Research最近發布的數據，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駕駛汽車（APV），外科手術機器人和倉庫自動化上，而現場機器人和無人機服務則有了顯著增長。

“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.

“盡管技術尚未商業化，但Waymo、Cruise、Zoox等自動駕駛乘用車開發商仍在繼續從公司和風投那里獲得大量資金，” ABI Research高級分析師Rian Whitton說。“外科手術機器人也獲得了巨額資金，并且已經在相當大的程度上實現了商業化，迄今為止，Intuitive Surgical銷售了5,000多個達芬奇機器人系統。”資金在幾個特定領域的本地化既取決于技術的預期效果，也要歸功于像豐田這樣的主要汽車制造商、像強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.

就位于不同技術集群的公司而言，美國和中國占所有投資價值的89%。加州有77家機器人廠商投資，而美國其他地區則有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.

除了風險投資家外，一些大型公司對自動化技術也產生了濃厚的興趣，包括亞馬遜對視覺導航開發商Canvas Technology的投資。同時，軟銀對包括機器人技術服務提供商CloudMinds，接待機器人開發商Bear Robotics以及物流自動化公司Berkshire Grey在內的各種機器人公司進行了大量投資。熱像儀制造商FLIR也對無人機和地面機器人進行了大量投資，以支持其用于安全和工業檢查的解決方案。他們的收購包括Aerodyne Group和iRobot的一部分Endeavor Robotics。“大型企業明白，雖然機器人產業不是一個短期的命題，但它將是生產力顯著增長的源泉，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，隨著投資者等待評估經濟衰退的可能規模，許多供應商在吸引資金方面將面臨更大的挑戰。像外科手術機器人和倉庫自動化這樣易于商業化的市場可能會從這場危機中受益。與此同時，自主駕駛乘用車市場可能會因缺乏商業準備而遭受不利影響，盡管這并沒有阻止今年第一季度對自動駕駛汽車開發商如Pony AI和Waymo的大規模投資。“在大流行的巨大影響變明朗之前，2020年已經成為機器人技術投資強勁的一年，自動叉車和牽引車開發商Seegrid和Vecna已經獲得了資金，” Whitton總結道。