46th AGV Talk: Implosion or explosion: What will happen to the hyped mobile robotics market?

When will the big growth and profit-generating bubble of the mobile robotics market burst? How much more money does the market have to swallow up before manufacturers start to “die”?

Mobile robotics has been massively hyped in terms of development in intralogistics: however, the market has been strongly driven and supported by venture capital in recent years. It was said that developments had to be financed in order to build up global sales and service organizations. Then you want to sell scalable solutions!

It is becoming increasingly clear that this financial support is nothing more than subsidies to ensure the survival of hopeful companies.

At the same time, these funds are destroying the entire market because many customers do not recognize the risks. This is also difficult because the innovative solutions of the up-and-coming sector are pushed with the latest marketing tools at trade fairs, in the print media and on social networks, so that customers are dazzled.

When will it pop? What remains? What does a realistic future for mobile robotics look like?

My guest is Wolfgang Hillinger, CEO of DS Automotion GmbH, Linz and board member of VDMA mobile robotics

Best regards
Günter Ullrich
Forum-FTS