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Measures of Robotic Expenditures from the Annual Capital Expenditures Survey (307995)

Keywords: ACES, Annual Capital Expenditures Survey, Robots, Service Robots, Industrial Robots, Cognitive Testing

The Annual Capital Expenditures Survey (ACES) is a survey of the U.S. Census Bureau designed to provide data on capital spending for new and used structures and equipment by U.S. nonfarm businesses with and without employees thus covering all domestic, private, non-farm businesses. In this paper we describe our efforts to expand the survey to include the collection of capital spending in robotic equipment. This firm level survey will provide capital expenditures information on both industrial and service robots across industries. We discuss results from the cognitive testing interviews, the challenges faced in the data collection, and what we expect for future years. We also discuss plans to produce statistics for new and used robotic spending at the national level by 3-digit and selected 4-digit NAICS industries. Data on the amount of business expenditures on robotics are critical to evaluate productivity growth, changes in industrial capacity, and measures of overall economic performance.