Once upon a time, a robot went hitchhiking Built at Ryerson University in Toronto, hitchBOT market will reach $241 billion by 2023; only half of had a simple goal: go out in the world and see that will be in manufacturing, the traditional mainstay 1 5 how people react. With pool-noodle arms, GPS of robotics sales. At the same time, the rollout of 5G tracking and simple communication software, it networks will unlock opportunities for all industries hitchhiked across Canada, visited Germany and to extend their autonomous capabilities outside of the Netherlands and racked up thousands of fans. contained settings like warehouses and production The next year, a new hitchBOT set out from Salem, facilities—and into the open world. Massachusetts with “San Francisco or bust” taped around its head and a bucket list of American These technologies are setting the stage for landmarks to visit. Two weeks later, its disassembled a massive robot migration, beyond controlled body was found on a street in Philadelphia.2 environments into uncontrolled spaces and from specialized industries to every industry. The hitchBOT (b. 2014, d. 2015) met an untimely end, but significance of this transition cannot be understated. its journey is more significant and relevant than ever. Even with a cursory knowledge of manufacturing, Advances in robotics, sensors, speech recognition it’s clear the advent of robotics radically changed and computer vision are combining with shrinking the economics of the industry, allowing companies hardware costs to make robots accessible for to scale and transform in unprecedented ways. And companies and industries that haven’t traditionally as the sophistication of the machines grew, what 3,4 used them. IDC predicts that the global robotics the enterprise was able to accomplish did as well.