The following article excerpt originally appeared on Robotics Business Review.
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Most warehouse and e-commerce order-fulfillment operations are still manual, so the potential market for mobile robots is huge. As significant as the technical challenges are, the bigger barrier to widespread adoption is educating potential users. 6 River Systems Inc.’s ‘Chuck’ robots are an example of robotic carts that can help warehouses improve productivity.
The global mobile robot market will have a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.31% to reach $10 billion by 2020, estimates Markets and Markets. In another bullish forecast, Transparency Market Research predicts the mobile robot market will grow from $8.5 billion in 2016 to $30 billion by 2025, with a CAGR of 15.6%.
Ryan Hamilton, co-founder of 6 River Systems, notes that about 70% of the warehouse operations he has encountered are still manual. He says that more affordable sensors, better on-board processors, and the support of the open-source software community have contributed to the success of robotic carts such as Chuck.
To continue reading this article and to see a video of Chuck in action, click here to visit the Robotics Business Review.
