According to the latest Gartner Hype Cycle for Mobile Robots and Drones several mobile robotics technologies for supply chains will mature within the next two to five years, creating an accelerating market for increasingly capable mobile robots and drones.
As robot and drone use becomes more widespread and mission-critical, business continuity plans will need to consider how to respond to robot and drone losses and downtime.
As organizations look to further improve logistic operations, support automation and augment humans in various jobs, supply chain leaders have turned to mobile robots to support their strategy. Mobile robots are continuing to evolve, becoming more powerful and practical, thus paving the way for continued technology innovation.
Dwight Klappich, VP Analyst and Gartner Fellow with the Gartner Supply Chain practice
On the rise are automation and AI solutions, such as autonomous data collection and inspection technologies, which are expected to deliver benefits over the next five to 10 years. Leveraging indoor-flying drones and mobile robots to autonomously capture data, the solutions use technologies like AI-enabled vision or RFID to supplement time-consuming inventory management, inspection, and surveillance tasks. The technology can also alleviate safety concerns that arise in warehouses, such as workers counting inventory in hard-to-reach places.
Humanoid robots are expected to have a transformational impact on the supply chain, however, mainstream adoption may take 10 years or more. Exploiting the human form factor and powered by AI, this generation of humanoid robots is striving to achieve the adaptability of the human workforce, flexibly supporting the needs of the business by dynamically moving between processes and taking on new activities without special programming.
Gartner clients can read more in: Hype Cycle for Mobile Robots and Drones, 2024. Nonclients can learn more in: Supply Chain AI.
