The robotics industry is booming, and lots of companies are cashing in on the revolution. In 2021, there were 3 million industrial robots operating in factories around the world — a 10 percent increase from 2020. The markets that relied most heavily on robotics included metals, food and consumer goods and other industries.
5 Publicly Traded Robotics Companies
- iRobot (IRBT)
- Boston Dynamics (HYMTF)
- AeroVironment (AVAV)
- Raytheon (RTN)
- Stryker (SYK)
Robotics technology isn’t merely applied to mundane or repetitive tasks; robots can now perform complicated procedures that have long been the domain of specially trained humans, including scouring dense forests to find missing hikers and even performing minimally invasive heart surgery.
Here are 12 publicly traded robotics companies where humans work hand-in-hand with robots to tackle complex problems.
Industrial and Consumer Robotics Companies
The use of AI-enabled robotics is burgeoning in the industrial and consumer sectors, especially the former, where it’s used to do everything from quickly ship packages to explore oceans for untapped oil deposits. Below are six publicly traded companies that develop robots or implement them in some aspect of their business practices.
Location: Houston, Texas
Stock Symbol: OII
Oceaneering International’s fleet of remotely operated vehicles assist oil and gas companies with underwater operations. The company’s eight different robots do everything from lift massive amounts of weight to help with underwater rig inspections to fix any problems with underwater pipelines.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has tasked Oceaneering International with updating navigational charts and researching marine habitats and fisheries off the coast of Florida. Oceaneering International’s Liberty E-ROV has performed 80 missions and helped reduce support vessel hours and offshore crew hours as well as eliminated 13,700-ton support vessel CO2 emissions since its launch in 2017.
Location: North Reading, Massachusetts
Stock Symbol: AMZN
Amazon Robotics creates and implements autonomous robots, control software and robotic language and vision sensing for its fulfillment center operations. Originally called Kiva Systems, the company uses its robots as automated storage and retrieval mechanisms throughout its vast warehouses.
The implementation of robotics has reportedly cut Amazon’s costs by up to 20 percent. The floor-roaming robots can locate and carry entire shelves or individual products to conveyor belts, which saves time and resources. Amazon Robotics announced a collaboration with MIT to create a science hub for robotics and artificial intelligence research.
Location: Bedford, Massachusetts
Stock Symbol: IRBT
IRobot has developed a series of AI-enabled robot vacuums, mops and pool cleaners. The iRobot Roomba vacuums create a map of the house they are cleaning and track the patterns for most efficient routes and spots that need the most cleaning attention.
The 25-year-old robotics company developed a pool cleaner dubbed Mirra, which is programmed to clean the surface of the water as well as a pool's walls and floor. IRobot’s cleaner uses AI to track its routes and identify areas where bacteria buildup can occur.
Location: Waltham, Massachusetts
Stock Symbol: HYMTF
Boston Dynamics creates human- and animal-like robots that do everything from carry heavy loads in factories to perform reconnaissance for the U.S. military. Originally part of MIT and acquired by Hyundai Motor Group, the company has a stable of nine robots that all perform different tasks.
Boston Dynamics boasts an impressive lineup of robots. The Wildcat, an animal-like robot, can run at a speed of 19 mph. The company’s LS3 is a load-carrying robot that's designed to follow the U.S. Marines and carry up to 181 kilograms. Atlas is a humanoid robot that can run, jump and carry.
Location: San Francisco, California
Stock Symbol: PATH
UiPath offers robotic process automation software that implants AI into robots to help them perform tasks more efficiently and continue learning. UiPath’s RPA can work with a variety of platforms and enterprise applications like SAP, Salesforce, Oracle, Microsoft, Google and ServiceNow.
The company was founded in 2005 and aims to enhance robots with the skills needed to process documents, recognize dynamic interfaces, and make complex decisions. UiPath’s RPA services industries include healthcare, banking, retail and manufacturing.
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
Stock Symbol: PIAGF
Piaggio Fast Forward offers an AI robot called Gita that helps users with everyday tasks. The AI robot acts as a hands-free carrier “built with pedestrian etiquette” to make walking around easier.
Gita’s AI capabilities include three-dimensional understanding of people, obstacles, speeds and trajectories so that it can dynamically follow behind users as well as the ability to process visual and spatial information in real-time and continuous learning.
Defense and Military Robotics Companies
From unmanned AI drones that roam the sky to working alongside military personnel on the battlefield, AI-enabled robots are drastically changing the nature of defense and warfare in a variety of ways. For its next wave of battlefield technology, the U.S. Department of Defense is beginning to rely more on outside defense contractors. Here are three publicly traded ones on the forefront of military robotics.
Location: Arlington, Virginia
Stock Symbol: BA
One of the world’s largest producers of civilian and military aircrafts, Boeing uses robots to help build military planes. These robots work alongside humans to construct fuselages and are also employed as autonomous vehicles to transport heavy aircraft parts.
From robotic submarines, military drones and a space plane that launches military satellites, the company’s autonomous vehicles roam the ocean depths and outer space
Boeing uses autonomous robots in a large portion of its military operations. The company’s Echo Voyager is an unmanned submarine that's used to ferry military equipment deep beneath the sea. The Boeing High Altitude Long Endurance unmanned aircraft can reach 65,000 feet and is mainly used for reconnaissance and missile defense.
Location: Waltham, Massachusetts
Stock Symbol: RTN
Defense contractor Raytheon designs robots to help soldiers on the ground and autonomous aircraft to defend the skies. In addition to an array of autonomous drones, the company is now working on an exoskeleton that helps logistics personnel move heavy military equipment,
One of Raytheon’s newest military robots is the “Coyote,” a drone used to track and shoot down enemy unmanned aerial vehicles. The Coyote's unique swarming ability enables tens of the small autonomous drones to gather in a group, identify enemy targets and employ attached warheads to take them out.
Location: Monrovia, California
Stock Symbol: AVAV
AeroVironment is a developer of unmanned aircraft systems for the Pentagon and dozens of other allied nations. AeroVironment’s six unmanned robots can be launched by hand for reconnaissance missions or via aircraft carrier to defend U.S. territories and ships.
The AeroVironment Puma helps rescue and research teams survey land and gather data. It was used by the U.S. Coast Guard to chart Antarctic ice sheets and by firefighters to assist in their search for a missing colleague who disappeared during a wildfire.
The Switchblade is a much larger drone that needs to be launched and is designed for warfare. It is equipped with thermal visioning and can fire missiles with extreme precision.
Healthcare Robotics Companies
Robotics and AI have become much more prevalent in the healthcare industry, implemented in everything from research to training to surgeries. A couple of examples include KASPAR, a child-sized robot that's designed to help parents support a child with autism, and Xenex, a robot that disinfects hospital facilities using ultraviolet light.
Below are three publicly traded companies whose robots make the healthcare industry safer and smarter.
Location: Sunnyvale, California
Stock Symbol: ARAY
Accuray’s robots help with cancer treatments and surgeries. Employing a variety of arms, they administer radiotherapy to affected parts of the body, including the pancreas, lungs and brain.
The Accuray CyberKnife System is the first surgical tool that administers robotic radiotherapy. Instead of traditional chemotherapy that targets a wide area of the body, the robotic surgery tool pinpoints specific areas where cancers are found and keeps collateral damage to a minimum.
Location: Kalamazoo, Michigan
Stock Symbol: SYK
One of the largest biotechnology companies in the United States., Stryker makes robotic-arm assisted surgery machines. Using 3D modeling of bone anatomy, the company’s Mako robots assist surgeons in joint surgeries for partial and total hip and knee replacements.
In June 2017, the Stryker Mako robot performed the 100,000th robotic-arm-assisted surgery in the United States when it helped surgeons complete a knee surgery.
Location: Sunnyvale, California
Stock Symbol: ISRG
Considered the originator of surgical robotics, Intuitive developed its da Vinci System to assist on minimally invasive surgeries. Surgeons face a console that displays exactly what the robot is seeing while the robot makes incisions and performs surgeries more precisely than humans are able. It also comes with several different attachments for instruments and vision.
Widely deployed around the world, Intuitive’s da Vinci reportedly is used every 36 seconds to perform minimally invasive surgery.