The world’s first searchable, crowd-sourced map of the global robotics industry has been developed by a US-based public-private initiative called Robotics Alley. Already populated with more than 1,300 robotics-related organisations, TheRoboticsMap.com combines open-source intelligence gathering and crowdsourcing to build a flexible, expanding map of robotics organisations, including manufacturers, suppliers, research bodies and university robotics departments.

Robotics Alley predicts that the tool will include more than 5,000 organisations by January 2013 and upwards of 10,000 by the end of the year as more international entries are added. It expects researchers, investors, policy-makers, educators and suppliers to use the map to connect with one another, and to source technologies and expertise. Anyone can visit the map and add their organisation to the database. Each new entry is vetted before it is published on the map, which is searchable by region, market sector or company name.

Robotics Alley executive director says that the map has been created “to show the breadth and growth of the robotics industry across the United States and around the world. As we move forward, this map will be a living, visual representation of the evolution of robotics on a global scale.

“Free access to the map and an easy-to-use self-populating administration feature will allow for the continued expansion of the data set as the sector expands,” he adds.

At present, there are not many organisations on the map outside the US, and none in the UK, for example. The UK also appears top be missing from a drop-down list of countries which visitors can use to search the map (although the Vatican and the Wallis and Futuna islands are present).