Robotic Nation Evidence

Robot Sales

Survey: Industrial Robot Sales Show Boom

From the article:

The 380-page report, issued by the U.N. Economic Commission for Europe and the International Federation of Robotics, said 80,000 robots were sold between January and June. Orders for new factory robots rose 35 percent in North America and 25 percent in Europe, in both cases mostly for use in the auto industry.... The increases have been fueled by price changes, increased sophistication and reliability, the survey said. Taking the global average, a robot sold in 2002 cost a fifth of what a robot with the same performance cost in 1990, the study found."

This price trend is why, over the next decade or so, employers will be able to buy very sophisticated robots for very low prices and start replacing millions of workers in the service sector (see Robotic Nation for details).

See also the the UN press release and this CNN article.