Polyfunctional Robots: One Robot For All Your Needs

Polyfunctional robots have been pinned as one of the major technological trends for 2025 by almost every market research firm. Yet, not many know what a polyfunctional robot is—and what it can do. So, we thought we would just get down to the brass tacks…

What are Polyfunctional Robots?

• Most robots employed in today’s industries are ‘made for a job’—but polyfunctional robots can perform multiple tasks and are adaptable across working environments and different industries
• For example, a polyfunctional robot in defence can help with surveillance, search and rescue, bomb disposal, and reconnaissance; in a first responder team, it can assist with search and rescue, first aid, crowd management, debris cleaning, and more
• Apart from advanced robotic capabilities, they have built-in intelligence to perform multiple tasks, make decisions, and learn on-the-go
• In a sense, polyfunctional robots can be seen as the equivalent of AI agents in the robotics world

What are the Constituent Technologies?

• Polyfunctional robots are advanced robotic systems with multiple degrees of freedom
• They are usually collaborative robots (cobots)—that is, they can work alongside humans and other robots
• Made of modular hardware, they can dynamically switch functionalities
• They are also fitted with multiple tools and equipped with efficient mechanisms to swap tools and components to transition between tasks quickly
• They have advanced sensors and cameras that enable interaction with the environment in multiple ways, including vision, voice, and touch
• They connect to the cloud to optimise their performance, for remote control and monitoring, and software updates
• Most importantly, it is AI and machine learning (ML) that make polyfunctional robots what they are! AI and ML enable these robots to interact smoothly with the environment and with enterprise systems, autonomously make decisions, switch tasks, learn, improve, adapt, and perform predictive maintenance

How can Businesses Benefit

• Higher returns on investment (RoI) because the robot can be used in multiple ways
• For example, in a warehouse, the same robot can be deployed for item picking, packing, and/or delivery as needed. And when it is no longer required, it can be sold off to any industry. In its new avatar, it could even become a doctor’s assistant, helping monitor a patient’s vitals, dispensing medicines, and so on
• Improvements in efficiency, productivity, quality, and consistency, along with better resource utilisation, predictive maintenance, greater safety, and minimal downtime, lead to savings across the enterprise
• Inherent flexibility and scalability enable the business to react quickly to market changes

What are the Challenges

• The initial investment is high
• Integrating polyfunctional robots into existing workflows could be difficult in some companies due to a lack of skills, safety regulations, and so on
• There are also some ethical considerations surrounding job displacement and data privacy

What does the Future look like

• Almost all established robotics firms have begun producing polyfunctional robots, including Boston Dynamics, ABB, Fanuc, and Universal Robots. And there are startups like Rainbow Robotics, Agibot, Hetbot, Aro Robotic Systems, Workr Labs, Aeon Robotics, and FingerVision
• Startups in India like CynLr, Sakar Robotics, Invento Robotics (Mitra), Gridbots, and Muks Robotics are also working in this space, either making polyfunctional robots or essential software and hardware components
• The unprecedented growth of AI and ML technologies is directly giving a boost to polyfunctional robots in terms of cost and capabilities
• As the cost of required hardware components is coming down, industry analysts feel the prices of polyfunctional robots are also bound to go down in the future
• According to the Global Polyfunctional Robots Market Study by HTF Market Intelligence Pvt Ltd, the market for polyfunctional robots is set to expand from US$8 billion in 2025 to US$45 billion by 2032 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.5%
• Gartner predicts that by 2030, 80% of humans will engage with smart robots daily, up from less than 10% today