SAN FRANCISCO, May 17 (Xinhua) -- The global warehouse robotics market is expected to grow by 11.6 percent in the next five years to reach 5.186 billion U.S. dollars by 2023, a market research agency said Thursday.

In a report on worldwide warehouse robotics market opportunities and forecast for upcoming five years, market analysis agency Allied Market Research (AMR) said e-commerce as an industry vertical is expected to dominate the global warehouse robotics market from 2017 to 2023.

Warehouse robotics are designed to perform such functions as pick-placing, packaging, transportation, packaging, and pelletizing.

North America dominated the global warehouse robotics market with a 33-percent share in 2016, the AMR said.

It attributed the growth of the global warehouse robotics market to an increasing demand for automation in e-commerce.

The warehouse robotics totalled 2.442 billion dollars in 2016, according to the AMR.

It noted that the increasing deployment of robots in warehouse packaging, pelletizing and transportation will boost the growth in the food and beverage industry in the Asia-Pacific and European regions.?