About Robot Sourcebook
Robot Sourcebook is an independent research project on buying robots. We take public, scattered and mutually contradictory information and turn it into something you can act on — stating each time where a figure came from and how far it can be trusted.
The name
A sourcebook is a collection of primary material — the documents themselves, assembled so you can work from them directly. That is the intent here: not a newsletter of opinions about robots, but the underlying prices, codes, filings and standards, arranged so a decision can be made from them.
The name also carries a deliberate second reading. Source means both "where information comes from" and "where goods come from" — and a good part of what we publish exists because supply chains for robots run through China, where most English-language research does not look.
Our Chinese name is 机鉴 (jī jiàn). It comes from a third-century Chinese history, the Records of the Three Kingdoms, in a passage praising an official for 机鉴先识 — perception that arrives ahead of the event. 机 is the character for machine; 鉴 is to examine and judge. Robot Sourcebook and 机鉴 are two names for one entity, not two brands.
What we publish
Five sections, each a standing asset rather than a feed:
- Cost Index — what robots cost: purchase price, certification, integration, service, and how to compute a payback period honestly
- Vendor Shortlist — who supplies and who holds up, layered by capability and delivery record, using public filings rather than marketing pages
- Market Access — market-by-market entry files: classification and tariffs, safety standards, radio and laser clearance, equipment-authorisation limits — starting with the United States
- Monthly Signal — one brief a month on what moved, and what it means for you
- Report Library — full per-category studies with keyword matrices, vendor layering, cost models and entry paths
Evidence grading
This is what separates us from most sites covering the same ground, and it is worth two minutes of your time.
| Grade | Meaning | How we handle it |
|---|---|---|
| A | First-party official: government filings, standards bodies, listed-company disclosure, or data we pulled ourselves | Document number quoted, so you can look it up |
| B | Authoritative secondary, traced back to origin | Source named; where we could not check the original, we say so on the page |
| C | Our own estimate or inference | Labelled separately, assumptions stated, never presented as fact |
Why bother? Because an ungraded industry document gives you no way to weigh it. In the same page, a grade-A figure and a grade-C projection look equally authoritative — and carry completely different risk. Publishing the grade lets you decide how much to stake on each line.
What we don't do
- We don't resell raw data. Bills of lading, keyword databases, vendor directories — purchasable elsewhere, some of it free. Our work is the layer that turns them into a decision.
- We don't take vendor advertising, and rankings are not for sale. A vendor appears because public records show it active, not because it paid.
- We don't write "market size" pages. Agency definitions conflict and none of them answer "should I buy, and from whom". Where we cite a market figure, we list the competing definitions side by side and refuse to multiply them together.
- We don't publish content without a conclusion. Summarising ten documents into a page is not research.
Independence
Robot Sourcebook is not affiliated with any robot vendor, integrator or investment firm, and no payment from a vendor influences what we publish. Where a piece of content touches our own commercial interest, we disclose it on the page — including where we act as a consultant on robotics export and content strategy.
Disclosure is not only a matter of honesty here. It is the precondition for this section being trusted for long enough to matter.
Contact
Corrections, data contributions, or enquiries: mckay@robotsourcebook.com
If we have mis-graded a claim, cited a number wrongly, or you disagree with a conclusion — say so. Corrections are recorded in the update note at the foot of the page.
See the method in practice
Robot Sourcebook is an independent research project. Nothing here constitutes legal, tax or investment advice. For compliance decisions, check the primary documents and consult a qualified professional.