Research firm HowToRobot has published a report in which it has described the robotics market in the United Kingdom, including the data of 410 automation firms. Although the application of robotics is broad, the most popular uses at this stage seem to be automation in the supply chain.
Most automation firms in the UK are located in the central or southern part of England, particularly in the area close to Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham. There is also quite a few automation firms in vicinity to London. Most firms are located close to big cities. The most automation firms (67) are located in West Midlands, followed by firms in South East. HowToRobot describes nine automation firms in Northern Ireland.
The most firms from their research are big international companies that have over 5000 employees working in all their locations. The majority of those firms are manufacturers. The second most popular category were firms with the number of employees between 100-249, from which significant percentage has multiple offices across United Kingdom. A lot of companies that have less than 50 employees are integrators. The least firms have been categorized as between 250-499 employees.
Logistics
The most firms have been specialized in robotic application falling under the category “other”, which includes for in-stance palletizing/de-palletizing, labelling, wrapping, packaging, sorting, and a lot of end-of-line operations. The second most common category was material handling, including pick & place. The third biggest category, although significantly smaller than the other two groups, is assembly. The least popular category, mentioned by only 17 firms, is material removal. The biggest sub-categories classified as removing material would be drilling, grinding or sanding and polishing.
Target
The target industries are broad. The most common category is a combined group that can include anything from aerospace industry to renewable energy or fashion. The second biggest category is food & beverage, associated with 189 firms, followed by pharma & chemistry mentioned by 164 firms. The least popular target industries are mining (17 companies) and recycling (24 companies).
The report can be found here
