A New Turning Point in the Collaborative Robot Market: Manufacturing Automation and Smart Factory Innovation by 2025
Editor
As of December 2025, the collaborative robot (Cobot) market is presenting a new paradigm in manufacturing automation, experiencing rapid growth. The global collaborative robot market size is projected to grow from $1.8 billion in 2024 to $2.25 billion in 2025, representing a 25% increase, significantly surpassing the overall robot market growth rate of 12%. Notably, technological innovations led by Korea’s Hyundai Robotics and Denmark’s Universal Robots are key drivers of market expansion.
The core differentiators of collaborative robots from traditional industrial robots are safety and flexibility. While traditional industrial robots operate independently within safety fences, collaborative robots can safely work alongside humans in shared spaces, thanks to advanced sensor technology and AI-based collision detection systems. These technological advancements have significantly lowered the entry barriers for SMEs and traditional manufacturers to adopt automation. In fact, as of the first half of 2025, the average return on investment (ROI) for collaborative robots is 18 months, half the 36 months required for traditional industrial robots.
In the Korean market, Hyundai Robotics (headquartered in Ulsan) has achieved remarkable success in the collaborative robot sector. As of the third quarter of 2025, the company held a 35% share of the domestic collaborative robot market, with large-scale adoption cases increasing, particularly among automotive parts manufacturers. Hyundai Robotics’ HCR (Hyundai Collaborative Robot) series can handle payloads of up to 25kg and stop within 0.1 seconds upon contact with humans, meeting international safety standards ISO 10218 and ISO/TS 15066, thus gaining global competitiveness.
Globally, Denmark’s Universal Robots remains the market leader, but Asian companies are rapidly closing the gap. Universal Robots held a 42% share of the global collaborative robot market in 2025, down from 48% in 2023. Meanwhile, China’s Aplus Robotics and Japan’s FANUC (headquartered in Tokyo) are catching up with market shares of 12% and 15%, respectively. Notably, FANUC’s CRX series shipped 8,500 units globally in the first half of 2025 alone, marking a 40% increase from the same period the previous year.
Expansion of Collaborative Robot Utilization in Manufacturing
Examining real-world applications of collaborative robots, the automotive industry is seeing the most active adoption. At Hyundai Motor’s Asan plant, 50 units of Hyundai Robotics’ HCR-12A model have been introduced to the engine assembly line since the second half of 2025, used for bolt fastening and parts assembly. This has reduced repetitive motions by 85% while improving assembly accuracy to 99.8%. Notably, existing workers have transitioned to robot operation and management roles, achieving productivity gains without reducing employment.
The electronics manufacturing sector is also experiencing a surge in collaborative robot adoption. Since early 2025, Samsung Electronics’ Suwon plant has gradually introduced 200 units of ABB’s (headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland) GoFa collaborative robots to the Galaxy smartphone assembly line. These robots handle precise component assembly and quality inspection tasks, significantly reducing the defect rate from 0.15% to 0.03%. ABB’s GoFa series, with a maximum payload of 5kg, is specialized for precision tasks and achieves 0.1mm accuracy when integrated with vision systems.
The use of collaborative robots in SMEs is also noticeably increasing. Korea Precision, an automotive parts manufacturer in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, has automated CNC machine loading/unloading tasks by introducing three units of Germany’s KUKA (headquartered in Augsburg) LBR iiwa collaborative robots. This has enabled unmanned night operations, extending production time from 8 to 16 hours and increasing monthly production by 35%. KUKA’s LBR iiwa, a lightweight robot with 7-axis joints, is optimized for applications requiring complex task paths and delicate force control.
Another factor driving the growth of the collaborative robot market is the simplification of programming. While traditional industrial robots required complex coding knowledge, current collaborative robots allow anyone to easily set up tasks through intuitive teaching methods. Universal Robots’ UR+ ecosystem offers over 500 certified accessories and software as of 2025, meeting the needs of various industries. This ecosystem approach has resulted in a 30-40% reduction in robot adoption costs.
Technological Innovation and Market Outlook
The most notable advancement in collaborative robot technology in 2025 is the integration of AI and machine learning. Hyundai Robotics has equipped its HCR series with edge AI chips, enabling real-time learning capabilities. This allows robots to adapt to changes in the work environment and autonomously find optimal work paths. In tests conducted at Hyundai Mobis’ Chungju plant, AI-based collaborative robots improved work efficiency by 22% compared to existing models.
Advancements in sensor technology also play a crucial role in expanding the collaborative robot market. ABB’s latest collaborative robots come standard with 6-axis force/torque sensors and 3D vision systems, achieving human-level finesse even in complex assembly tasks. Particularly in tasks involving flexible materials, such as automotive wire harness assembly, they achieve a level of precision previously unattainable with traditional industrial robots. These technological advancements are expanding the application range of collaborative robots from traditional repetitive tasks to high-value precision work.
According to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), global collaborative robot shipments are expected to reach 63,000 units in 2025, a 28% increase from the previous year. This figure significantly exceeds the overall industrial robot shipment growth rate of 15%, indicating that collaborative robots are becoming a new growth driver in the robotics market. Regionally, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to account for 55% of the total collaborative robot market, with China, Japan, and Korea holding shares of 32%, 12%, and 11%, respectively.
From an investment perspective, the collaborative robot market is showing active movement. In the first half of 2025 alone, global collaborative robot startups raised a total of $800 million in investments, a 45% increase from the same period the previous year. Notably, Korea’s Neuromeka and Rainbow Robotics successfully completed Series C funding rounds of $100 million and $150 million, respectively, accelerating their global market entry. These companies are specialized in collaborative robot technology, demonstrating Korea’s global competitiveness in the collaborative robot sector.
However, several challenges exist in the growth of the collaborative robot market. The most significant challenge is the complexity of safety standards. Varying safety regulations across countries pose difficulties for global market entry, and particularly stringent certification processes are required in fields such as medical devices and food processing. Additionally, the slower operational speed of collaborative robots compared to traditional industrial robots acts as a constraint in mass production environments. Currently, the average operational speed of collaborative robots is 60-70% of dedicated industrial robots, making it crucial to find a balance between productivity and safety.
In the second half of 2025, a new trend gaining attention in the collaborative robot market is modularization and standardization. FANUC has introduced a replaceable end effector system in its CRX series, allowing a single robot to perform various tasks. This provides SMEs with a solution to implement multipurpose automation on a limited budget. In practice, Daesung Precision, a precision machining company in Busan, uses a single FANUC CRX-10iA/L to perform five different tasks, including welding, grinding, and inspection, reducing equipment investment costs by 60% compared to previous setups.
The future outlook for the collaborative robot market is very promising. Global market research firms predict that the collaborative robot market will maintain an average annual growth rate of 23% until 2030, reaching a scale of $12 billion. The key drivers of this growth are the digital transformation of manufacturing, the acceleration of smart factory construction, and the intensifying labor shortage issue. In aging societies like Korea and Japan, collaborative robots are expected to become essential for maintaining manufacturing competitiveness.
From an investor perspective, the outlook for stocks related to collaborative robots is also positive. Hyundai Robotics recorded a 67% increase in sales to 45 billion won in the third quarter of 2025 compared to the same period the previous year, with an operating profit margin significantly improved to 15.2%. ABB’s robotics division also saw a 22% growth in sales to $3.4 billion in the first half of 2025 compared to the same period the previous year. These performance improvements indicate that the structural growth of the collaborative robot market is translating into actual corporate performance. The growth of related companies is expected to continue for the foreseeable future through the ongoing development of collaborative robot technology and the expansion of application fields.
This article is intended for informational purposes only and is not a solicitation or advice for investment. Investment decisions should be made at the individual’s discretion and responsibility.
