One in Five U.S. Robots in Ohio and Michigan

Brookings this week released a study, “Where the Robots Are,” that looks at the distribution of robots in the country.

“Robots, it turns out, are congregating densely in some places but are hardly found in others. Specifically, the map makes clear that while industrial robots are by no means everywhere, they are clustered heavily in a short list of Midwestern and Southern manufacturing states, especially the upper Midwest,” finds the report.

“(M)ore than half of the nation’s 233,305 industrial robots are burning welds, painting cars, assembling products, handling materials, or packaging things in just 10 Midwestern and Southern states, led by Michigan (which accounts for nearly 28,000 robots, 12 percent of the nation’s total), Ohio (20,400, 8.7 percent), and Indiana (19,400, 8.3 percent), followed closely by Tennessee. By contrast, the entire West accounts for just 13 percent of the nation’s industrial bots,” according to the study.”

Not surprisingly, robot distribution tracks the footprint of the U.S. auto industry. 8/15/2017