2. Data and statistics 17 2. Data and statistics Growth Figure 4: Estimated worldwide operational stock of industrial robots 2016-2017 and forecast for 2018 through 2021 The main adopters of robotics technology have been industrial firms; in manufacturing, extraction industries 4000 and industrial service applications. 98% of the 253,748 robots delivered in 2015 were traditional robot systems 3500 (Murphy, 2017). These are typically in caged environments working with heavy payloads at fast 3000 speeds, costing around US$100,000 each including the physical device and software. The International its2500 Federation of Robotics (IFR) has charted a sharply- un2000 rising curve for industrial robot sales in the decade to 0 2017 (see Figure 3) while Loup Ventures estimates that '001500 this market will grow by 11.8% annually to a value of over US$33 billion by 2025 (Murphy, 2017). 1000 Figure 4 shows the projected growth in operational 500 stock of industrial robots, estimated at 16% per year. Figure 3: Estimated worldwide annual shipments of 0 industrial robots by regions 300 Source: IFR World Robotics, 2018 250 200 tsi un 150 '000100 50 0 Asia/Australasia Europe America Source: IFR World Robotics, 2018 Taking control: robots and risk