the market of industrial robots is expected to double and reach 25 B€ by 2015 while the growing market of service robots will clearly overtake it in 2018, with companies in service robotics concentrated in North America and Asia.
To gain a predominant position in the future market of robotics, the transfer and cooperation between research and industry in Europe must be dramatically improved, and the European research and industry must build strategic partnerships in Asia, where manufacturing is and will be concentrated for several decades in the future.