Robotics is advancing, with annual spending at 3.5 billion

For those investing in these areas of automation, the average outlay is 456 thousand euros (700 thousand for large enterprises, 160 thousand for small ones), but the picture is changing rapidly: among companies planning to invest in 2026, 29 per cent, for example, will allocate resources to innovative robots that integrate AI, sensors and continuous learning, with an average planned expenditure per company this year of 183,000 euros.

And whilst the current installed base still reflects the predominance of traditional robotics (with industrial manipulators accounting for 82 per cent), investment plans for the next three years clearly favour innovative solutions: collaborative robots will rise from 25 per cent to 34 per cent; autonomous mobile robots from 24 per cent to 30 per cent; humanoid robots, currently present in just 3 per cent of companies using robotics, are set to almost quadruple this share in just two years.

Why is that?

The companies surveyed cited, above all, the possibility of assigning risky, repetitive or physically demanding tasks to robots (70 per cent), the need to address the growing shortage of production staff (15 per cent) and the replacement of skilled workers approaching retirement (5 per cent).

It is no coincidence that five of the world’s top ten best-funded start-ups operate in this very advanced sector, as does Oversonic itself, which, with the new round of investors it has brought on board, aims to accelerate the roll-out of its applications to the market, focusing on the factory in the broadest sense but also looking beyond it.

“Whilst for a long time,” says Giovanni Miragliotta, Scientific Director of the Innovative Robotics Observatory, “talking about robotics meant talking about factories, today the drive towards automating repetitive and physically demanding tasks is extending beyond the confines of manufacturing. Innovative robotic systems are increasingly capable of operating in the real world: in unstructured warehouses, in environments where human presence is risky, in public spaces, in hospitals and in homes. They are not only a driver of competitiveness, but a concrete response to the labour shortage that companies in certain sectors are already beginning to feel.”

“Physical AI,” explains Paolo Rocco, Scientific Director of the Innovative Robotics Observatory, “is equipping robots with the abilities to perceive, reason and plan – capabilities that, until just a few years ago, seemed to be the exclusive preserve of the human mind. From being mere executors bound by predefined sequences, robots are now capable of constructing a representation of the world, anticipating obstacles and autonomously selecting the most appropriate action for the context. They can operate in unstructured environments, in collaboration with human operators and in variable scenarios, extending their scope of use well beyond the boundaries of traditional manufacturing. This is not simply a matter of faster or more precise robots, but of systems that learn, adapt and collaborate, enabling use cases that were inaccessible to previous generations. And ongoing development is set to produce systems with ever-greater capabilities for perception, reasoning and adaptation.”

“Innovative robotics is expanding its scope into healthcare settings, public spaces and personal care services,” says Elena De Momi, Scientific Director of the Innovative Robotics Observatory. “ However, for this transition to translate into a competitive advantage for the Italian manufacturing sector, a number of structural challenges must be addressed: the inadequacy of the regulatory framework, the limited maturity of investment assessment frameworks and the shortage of specialist skills. Technology is developing at a rapid pace; the ability of Italian businesses and institutions to keep up with this pace will determine the country’s competitive position in one of the markets with the greatest potential over the coming decades.”

The path towards robotics has been mapped out, but it is still fraught with obstacles, as highlighted by companies that are, for the time being, on the fringes of this technology.

For those who are not currently using robotic solutions and do not plan to do so in the next three years, the main reason is a regulatory and market environment that 51% of the sample perceive as not yet ready.

In particular, the regulatory aspect emerges as the dominant factor: 89% of those who identify the regulatory environment as the main barrier attribute this assessment to the inadequacy of the regulatory framework. Among the main obstacles are the lack of a clear legal definition of robots and a fragmented regulatory transition between the Machinery Regulation and the AI Act.

There are also other barriers that vary significantly depending on company size: for small businesses, the main obstacle is the high costs and the inability to adapt their processes to the robotic solutions available on the market; for large companies, the critical issue is the difficulty in building a business case to justify the investment.