Industrial Inertial Systems Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2021 - 2026)

The industrial inertial systems market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.24% over the forecast period (2021-2026). The powerful combination of IMUs with other onboard sensor data produces reliability and automation breakthroughs for applications in various industries. The emergence of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology resulted in the miniaturization of mechanical and electro-mechanical elements in sensors and semiconductors, with micro-fabrication and micro-machining techniques. Hence, MEMS have now become an essential part of the future navigation systems, and thus, are influencing the growth of the high-end inertial systems market.

• Moreover, these inertial systems are increasingly being used in deep-water drilling units for advanced operations. Sonardyne International came up with a new DP-INS (inertial navigation system) that combined the complementary characteristics of its long and ultra-short baseline (LUSBL) positioning technology, with high-integrity inertial measurements from its Lodestar AHRS/INS platform. Further, Gyroscope is a kind of inertial sensor used to detect the altitude angle and angular rate. Characteristics, such as small size, less power consumption, lightweight, low cost, and the possibility of batch fabrication, drive their adoption over the conventional gyroscopes. Recent developments have enabled the growth of IMU-enabled GPS devices. An IMU enables a GPS receiver to operate even when GPS-signals are unavailable, such as in tunnels, inside buildings, or when electronic interference is present.
• Furthermore, with the 3D MEMS technology, the companies are offering accelerators assembled in a dual-in-line or dual-in-flat-line plastic package with pins for surface mount and re-flow soldering. With silicone gel, they are environmentally protected, resulting in enhanced performance and reliability in a humid environment and at temperature cycling. Further, inertial sensors find applications in autonomous vehicle navigation, mobile robotics, unmanned land, and ocean systems, and civil and military aerospace. With the introduction of inertial measurement unit (IMU), MEMS inertial sensors can be intelligently programmed and have microcontrollers, miniature batteries, or tiny radio chips that may allow them to send their measurement data online. In March 2019, US-based Micro-Inertial LLC developed IMU and motion sensing systems, offering improved cost, power, reliability, and operating performance characteristics.
• Moreover, the increased defense expenditures in regions, like North America and Europe, have increased the demand for precise operations and equipment. Manufacturers are aiming to cater to this high demand by focusing their R&D on product innovation. For instance, in March 2019, Safran Electronics & Defense released that the company delivered more than 16,400 sensors to customers in 2018. Furthermore, Safran Electronics & Defense has broken its production record for its Quapason Gyroscope. Additionally, in June 2019, EMCORE launched EN-2000 to the Emcore-Orion series of micro-inertial navigation (MINAV) systems. It represents the highest performance in Emcore navigation systems. It attempts to achieve the company’s vision of a solid-state and closed-loop design that will deliver higher performance at lower cost than a traditional RLG (ring laser gyroscope) navigational system.
• Further, due to the COVID-19 pandemic country having stopped all major production activities, including its semiconductor industry, which is mostly China, this is expected to significantly influence the global industrial inertial systems market supply chain in 2020, and the market is expected to pick afterward. Disruption in China may have a significant impact on companies across the world and up and down the electronics value chain, directly impacting the sensor market. In 2019, China accounted for over 50% of worldwide semiconductor consumption. Apart from China, the spread of COVID-19 in the Asian continent is expected to restrain the growth rate of the major semiconductor manufacturing countries, such as South Korea. With the slowdown in the global economy, the demand for industrial OEM and automobiles is expected to be influenced until the first half of 2021.

Key Market Trends

Inertial Measurement Units are Expected to Hold Significant Share

• High-performance IMUs offers a prominent upgrade in terms of performance, accuracy, and efficiency over the traditional forms of inertial navigation systems (INS). They engage in tracking the study object’s position, using a method called ‘dead reckoning,’ which calculates the present location of the object, using previously available data. The emergence of MEMS-based IMUs enables a wider adoption in defense-based applications; they are usually combined with other forms of navigational systems, to account for bias errors. Defense-based applications are known to deploy two inertial navigational systems to tackle redundancy and to offer better fault tolerance.
• The automotive sector is the emerging market for IMUs, following advancements in various applications, such as stability control, safety measures, and crash detection systems. As the premium automakers approach L5 autonomous driving in the next ten years, the market may open a massive opportunity for IMU-powered MEMS sensors, related to acceleration, LiDAR, and motion detection systems. In May 2019, Innoviz Technologies Ltd, a significant developer of solid-state LiDAR sensors, raised around USD 170 million to back BMW’s LiDAR-equipped cars, which are expected to be rolled out in 2021.
• An increase in the number of applications and technological advancements across the regions provides lucrative opportunities for high-end inertial measurement units. For instance, in June 2019, the sensor manufacturer, ACEINNA, launched its new, open-source IMU sensor, which is meant for autonomous off-road, construction, and agricultural vehicle applications. OpenIMU300RI will engage in determining the direction in a GPS and track the motion on consumer electronics.
• According to the Federal Aviation Administration, it is expected that the number of United States carrier passenger planes is expected to grow at a rate of 1.9% per year, due to which the application of IMU is expected to grow at a steady pace, thereby fueling the growth of IMUs. In 2019, Bosch Sensortec, a MEMS technology specialist, announced the BMI270, an ultra-low-power smart Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) targeted explicitly for wearable applications. It offers the sharply improved accelerometer offset and sensitivity performance, with the help of the latest Bosch MEMS process technology.

North America to Hold the Largest Market Share

• The housing of prominent vendors offering MEMS in the region is expected to emerge as a source for innovation, and it is estimated to hold a significant market share. North America is one of the largest markets for offshore oil and gas communication globally. New-found shale resources in the United States and an increasing number of oil and gas projects in Canada are expected to drive the demand for communication equipment in the region. The United States Department of the Interior (DoI) plans to allow offshore exploratory drilling in about 90% of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) acreage. Under the National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program (National OCS Program) for 2019-2024, the region's oil and gas sector is expected to open up new opportunities.
• The housing of prominent vendors offering MEMS in the region is likely to emerge as a source for innovation, and it is estimated to hold a significant market share. North America is one of the largest markets for offshore oil and gas communication globally. New-found shale resources in the United States and an increasing number of oil and gas projects in Canada are expected to drive the demand for communication equipment in the region. The United States Department of the Interior (DoI) plans to allow offshore exploratory drilling in about 90% of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) acreage. Under theNational OCS Program for 2019-2024, the oil & gas sector in the region is expected to open up new opportunities to the market.
• The United States Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Centre has also implemented silicon-based MEMS technology for inertial measurement units for guided projectiles like Excalibur. The country's army replaced larger devices based on ring-laser gyroscopes and air-bearing gyroscopes for the inertial guidance reference in precision munitions with silicon MEMS inertial measurement units. Further, the space market is still evolving at a steady pace, with the increasingly crucial robotic approach coming from players, like SpaceX and Blue Origin, enabling the reusable rocket launchers and the increasing number of space projects and launches have been lined up for the coming years. Moreover, key MEMS sensor vendors in the region are also adopting product innovation strategies and contract deals to cater to advanced offerings across the industries.
• In September 2019, US-based Honeywell International introduced its two latest Inertial Measuring Systems (IMU) to provide navigation in a small, lightweight system without compromising on cost. It can withstand any environments land, air, or underwater for the application in agriculture, robotics, survey/mapping, uncrewed vehicles, and transportation. Further, in February 2020, the US Air Force awarded Honeywell USD 3.52 billion for Embedded GPS Inertial Navigation System Modernization (EGI/EGIM) follow-on production and sustainment. This contract provides manufacture, sustainment, and technical engineering services in support of the EGI/EGI-M system. The work is anticipated to be finished by December 31, 2035.

Competitive Landscape

The industrial inertial systems market is competitive due to the presence of multiple firms operating in national and international boundaries. The market appears to be mildly concentrated moving towards the consolidation stage, with some of the key strategies adopted by the major players are product innovation and mergers and acquisitions. Some of the major players in the market are L3Harris Technologies, Inc., MEMSIC Inc., Trimble Inc., among others. Research and development expenses in the market are higher and are driven by the end-user application and therefore drive collaboration in research stages.

• June 2020 - SBG Systems to announce the third generation of its famous miniature inertial sensors called the Ellipse Series. This renewed product line benefits from a 64bit architecture allowing high precision signal processing. All the INS/GNSS now embed a dual-frequency, quad constellations GNSS receiver for the centimetric position and higher orientation accuracy.
• March 2020 - Teledyne Marine, which engages in subsea visualization technology and unmanned marine vehicles, announced today that it had released a new unmanned survey vessel, the TELEDYNE Z-BOATTM 1800-T. The survey vessel will be equipped with Trimble's high-precision GNSS heading receiver. It is compatible with Trimble Marine Construction (TMC) software, enabling marine construction/dredging projects to run efficiently and be monitored in real-time anywhere in the world.

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