To inspect the blades of the more than 270,000 wind turbines operating globally, technicians have traditionally relied on binoculars and field scopes from the ground, or have scaled the turbines with the help of ropes or cables. Today, unmanned aerial vehicles are providing a safer option, with the benefit of higher-resolution imaging. Cumulative global revenue for wind turbine UAV sales and inspection services is expected to reach nearly $6bn by 2024, according to a Navigant Research report.

Robot installations are estimated to increase an average of 12 percent per year from 2015 to 2017, according to the International Federation of Robotics. Those IFR statistics note that "human-machine collaboration will open up new applications and attract new customers."

In June this year a robot crushed a man to death in a Volkswagen factory in Germany. The 22-year-old maintenance worker became trapped between a large robotic arm and a metal plate, in an area usually off-bounds to humans.

The North American robotics market is off to its fastest start ever in 2015, according to statistics released from Robotic Industries Association (RIA), the industry's trade group.