The industrial robotics marketing is booming – and there is no sign of a slowdown anytime soon.

This meteoric growth has been driven largely by China in its relentless push to automate its industries.

According to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), China is expected to account for 40 percent of the world’s industrial robotics market by 2019 – up from 32 percent this year.

But in the next 12 months one of the biggest growth areas in the robotics industry will be in mobile service robots, says Dan Kara, Research Director, Robotics, at ABI Research in Boston.

“We are now seeing big investments in companies that are making mobile service robots for logistics automation,” he says.

Mobile service robots are designed to deliver items autonomously in warehouses, manufacturing facilities, hospitals, health care facilities and other locations.

These types of robots are ideal for menial, repetitive jobs where workers move items from one location to another. They work with humans navigating through spaces using sensor technology.

“A prime example is a company like Amazon which now deploys more than 30,000 mobile service robots every day in its operations throughout the world,” says Kara. Though I suspect the number (of mobile robots) they are using is nearly twice that figure.”

And Kara expects that growth to continue in key industry sectors including manufacturing plants, warehouses, distribution and logistics centres where mobile robots are being used to lighten the workload of workers and drive productivity.

And in 2017 you can expect to see more collaborative robots (cobots) working alongside humans in factories across the globe.

You can also expect to see growth in the number of mobile service robots in the healthcare sector, predicts Kara.

“Every day across the world hospitals are serving three meals a day and delivering meds to its patients,” he says.

“Typically this has been done by humans, but hospitals now are looking at new systems to automate logistics.”

Mobile service robots provide an ideal alternative – and are now being used successfully in hospitals and healthcare facilities throughout the world.

The robot can transport food, medicine and medical supplies through the facility, even using elevators to reach its destination. It can also be used to collect food trays and dishes when meals are finished and take them back to the kitchen for cleaning.

And Kara says with a growing grey population in most advanced nations we can expect to see more mobile robots in aged care facilities.

“In western countries the population is getting older and more elderly people are living longer, so there is a huge social need,” he says.

But until now many aged care facilities and the home healthcare markets have been slow to embrace the new technology due to various complexities.

Likewise, we can expect to see more mobile service robots in the hospitality industry. Hotels will be using them to deliver food and service items to hotel guests.

You will also start to see more robots serving drinks behind the bar and robots in hotels that will store your bags.

Mobile service robots are also being increasingly used for security to monitor movement. Robots can capture facial recognition and vehicle registration information for law enforcement and security purposes. Sensors can also be used to detect radioactivity.

We will also begin to see more mobile robots in homes. More people will be using autonomous vacuum cleaners and lawn mowers. Some robot lawn mowers now have built-in security features to deter and prevent theft.

And according to Kara you can expect to see more robots in hazardous workplace situations such as working at heights, mines, radioactive areas, carrying dangerous loads or in confined spaces.

But the big question remains – what affect will this huge proliferation of mobile service robots have on jobs?

Opinions are equally divided, says Kara.

“Recent international research involving 1800 specialists showed half think robotics and automation will result in an increase in jobs and half think it will take jobs away.”

“There is no doubt robots will create jobs – that’s true – but the real question is what will be the impact on net job growth overall.”

Only time will tell.

Established 26 years ago, ABI Research is a global leader in IT and communications research. Before joining ABI nearly four years ago, Dan Kara was Chief Research Officer for Myria RAS, a research and advisory services firm focused on automation, robotics and intelligent systems trends. He is the former President of Robotics Trends, an integrated media and research firm serving the personal, service and mobile robotics markets. He holds a MS in Computer Science from Boston University.