Good news for American manufacturing comes from the Robotic Industries Association (RIA), which reports that the North American robotics market experienced its fastest start ever in 2015. A record 14,232 robots valued at $840 million were ordered from North American robotics companies in the first half of the year, representing an increase of 1 percent in units and 7 percent in revenue over the same period in 2014, which held the previous record.

Much of this growth has occurred in industrial segments including coating/dispensing (36 percent) and material handling (27 percent). RIA estimates that some 232,000 robots are now at use in the United States, making it second only to Japan in robot use. This continues a trend reported here by the Boston Consulting Group.