Robots have either been part of popular culture and science fiction or have been the workhorses of industrial shop floors—that is until now. 

According to “Robotics Market Forecasts,” a new report from Tractica, Boulder, Colo., the industrial robotics segment is projected to reach $237 billion in revenue worldwide by 2022 thanks to emerging robot types such as consumer robots, enterprise robots and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), with autonomous vehicles poised for strong growth in the coming years as well. Tractica anticipates most of this growth will be driven by non-industrial robots.

“The key underlying story emerging in the industry is that industrial robotics, which has been the traditional pillar of the robotics market, has given way to non-industrial robot categories like personal assistant robots, UAVs and autonomous vehicles,” says Aditya Kaul, research director.  “In this process, the epicenter of the industry is shifting toward Silicon Valley, which is now also becoming a hotbed for artificial intelligence (AI), a set of technologies that are, in turn, driving a lot of the most significant advancements in robotics.”

The report covers the global market for robotics, including consumer robots, enterprise robots, industrial robots, healthcare robots, military robots, UAVs and autonomous vehicles. These categories are further segmented into 23 robot application markets. Market data within the report includes robot shipments and revenue segmented by world region, application market and enabling technology. The technologies included are machine vision, voice/speech recognition, gesture recognition and tactile sensors.