Market Overview

The global market size for automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) by shipment value is estimated as 338,700 million yen in 2021, and 401,700 million yen in 2022, 118.6% of the size of the previous year.

The regulations of going outside amid the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 increased the stay-home hours, which rapidly shifted the consumers’ purchasing behaviors from offline to online, expanding the ecommerce market worldwide. The logistics industry took measures against sudden increase in cargos and labor shortage, that took place in association with the expanded ecommerce market, to automate the logistics processes thereby to improve the efficiency of warehousing tasks, which increased the deployment of AGVs and AMRs.
While lack of semiconductors and electronic components worldwide gave an enormous impact to the manufacturing production which raised the awareness of automation at each of manufacturing companies as they propelled normalization of production, in China and Europe where the manufacturing industry throughout the world converge and in Americas (especially the United States) where labor shortages plagued, increasing numbers of companies began aiming for reduction of labor cost and improvement in work efficiency by increasing the automation rate in logistics through introduction of AGVs and AMRs.
In addition, investing for carbon neutrality and ESG is viewed as significant, while electrification at industrial sites has become a trend, making electric forklifts rather than those driven by combustion engines more advantageous in adoption, with logistics automation underway, simultaneously.

Noteworthy Topics

While Manufacturing Industry is Major Demander as Application Occupies 80%, Application in Logistics Growing due to EC Market Expansion

When observing the global AGV and AMR market by application, the application at manufacturing occupies 80% and logistics 20%.
The deployment is underway in the manufacturing industry centered on well-funded large or middle-sized companies, in the automotive and related industries, and in the electronics industries. On the other hand, expansion of ecommerce market worldwide has fueled the application in logistics, increasing the deployment at logistics warehouses in the industries of ecommerce, apparel, and food.
Note that in the manufacturing industry, due to the safety aspect, AGV is preferred to AMR, and customized products rather than standard ones are more introduced. Meanwhile, for logistics, because of often changes in the work environment, such as the locational changes in warehousing pallets and shelves, the cases of preferring AMRs are increasing, due to flexibility. Others such as the applications in the infrastructure industry including construction, for the carriage of freight containers at airports and harbors, and at mechanical parking stations is increasing.

Future Outlook

The global AGV and AMR market for 2023 is projected to rise to 514,600 million yen, 128.1% of the previous year. As the supply shortage of semiconductors and electronic components is about to be solved and normalized, the influence on the production of AGVs and AMRs is regarded to decline.
In North America, Europe, and China, the production of electric vehicles (EVs), secondary batteries, and semiconductor related components is expanding, which can expect deployment of AGVs and AMRs.
In the countries of Japan, China, South Korea, etc., some supports for the production and introduction of AGVs as well as AMRs have been conducted, encouraging the market expansion.
As the ecommerce market around the world is on the expansion trend, the application in the logistics is also expected to expand.

Labor shortage and rising labor cost, and the tendency for young people to avoid harsh working conditions as well as excessive work are raising the demand for automating simple repetitive tasks and the handling of heavyweight goods. Against this backdrop, the global AGV & AMR market for 2026 is projected to generate 908,700 million yen.

Research Outline