According to the data of the CMRA and the statistics of the New Strategy Mobile Robot Industry Research Institute, the sales scale of China’s mobile robots (AGV/AMR) was 22.1 billion yuan in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 4.25%; the sales volume was 139,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 11.2%.
Among them, in 2024, the sales volume of China’s cobots was 1,560 units, a year-on-year increase of 24.80% compared with 2023, and the growth rate began to accelerate. Domestic companies gradually occupied a dominant position through technology iteration and ecological integration.
Chart: Sales scale and sales volume of China’s mobile robots from 2015 to 2024
Chart: Sales volume and market growth rate of China’s cobots from 2018 to 2024
The new round of transformation and upgrading of industrial manufacturing has put forward new performance requirements for robots. Users are also more stringent in the flexibility, safety and reliability of mobile robot system operation. The unique application value of the composite mobile robot with both hands and feet has expanded the boundaries of mobile robots. Its unique advantage of “mobile + operation” is being verified in more and more scenarios – in the handling of semiconductor wafers, it can achieve high-precision material transfer and docking; in the “goods to people” link of e-commerce warehouses, it can complete the full process of destacking, sorting, and stacking autonomously; on the automotive parts assembly line, it can adapt to multiple categories of workpieces with its flexible grasping ability, greatly improving the flexibility of the production line. With the continuous maturity of technology, cobots are moving from the initial niche application to the critical point of large-scale landing.
And with the development of embodied intelligence technology, cobots have also ushered in a new round of technological revolution. The industry, which has keenly observed this trend, is actively embracing the wave of “embodied intelligence” and regards it as the core path and future direction of the intelligent development of cobots. More and more wheeled humanoid robots with the structure of “wheeled chassis + humanoid half body” are beginning to appear on the market. The emergence of this type of product has brought cobots into a new stage of development. From the initial “chassis + single arm” structure that undertook simple loading and unloading tasks, it gradually evolved into a “mobile chassis + humanoid half-body” form with stronger capabilities. At the same time, the technical system around core capabilities is also constantly being reconstructed, which has promoted a significant leap in the intelligence level of cobots.
In the future, the technological evolution of cobots is expected to show the distinctive characteristics of “dual-track parallel”: new form products focus on breakthroughs in extreme scenarios; traditional products focus on cost-effectiveness optimization, and continue to expand the application boundaries through modular upgrades. The deepening of embodied intelligent technology will promote the two types of products to achieve technical commonality at the perception and decision-making level, forming a benign development pattern of “high-end forms leading technological breakthroughs and traditional products supporting large-scale applications”. The current cobot market is still in the stage of small-scale customized applications. The continuous breakthroughs in new technologies are believed to inject strong impetus into the leap from this stage to large-scale applications of cobots.
Note:
Logistics Automation Development Strategy & the 7th International Mobile Robot Integration Application Conference Southeast Asia will be held in Concorde Hotel Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 21st August 2025. At the same time, the2025 Global MobileRobot Industry Development Report will be released. Welcome to join us.
For agenda, please click https://cnmra.com/logistics-automation-development-strategy-the-7th-international-mobile-robot-integration-application-conference-southeast-asia-21st-august-2025-concorde-hotel-kuala-lumpur-malaysia/
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