Servo technology from Siemens began in late 1970s when it was still a part of Indramat. Its very first MAC permanent-magnet AC servo motor was launched in the year 1978. All its drives were later branded under Sinamics brandname. The latest to join the family of servo drives from Siemens is Sinamics S220 system launched in January 2026. Interestingly, the company holds largest single market share of global servo drives market at over 15%. It has largest market share in Europe, especially in heavy industry.

A brief history of Yaskawa. Founded in 1915. The DC servomotor, Minertia Motor was launched in 1959, AC servomotor in 1983. The first motor in the Sigma Series of high-functioning, high-precision servo motors was introduced in 1992 (currently the Sigma-7 series). Some say that Yaskawa invented “mechatronics”, which simply defined is an electrical, mechanical, chemical or information technology product combined with other technologies to produce a completely new type of product. Today the world’s leading robot servo supplier – with a full 21% of the market share as the #1 player, and another 8% of the market share jointly with the next three suppliers.

Mitsubishi started with MELSERVO in 1988 and the latest MELSERVO-J5 series launched in 2020 still enables quick tuning (~0.3 seconds), AI-powered predictive maintenance (Maisart AI), and high-speed networking (CC-Link IE TSN). Mitsubishi is the first tier player with very strong presence in the Asia-Pacific region which accounts for 74% of global servo demand.

Fanuc AC Servo motors were born from Fujitsu’s NC project in 1955. The first AC Servo motor was launched by Fanuc in 1982 (S Series), and since then over 5 million AC Servo motors have been delivered to date. These are currently used in approximately 75% of Japanese machine tools and 55% of machine tools around the world. Fanuc is the world’s largest supplier of CNC systems and industrial robots.

Servo products from motion and control systems expert Rockwell are called Allen‑Bradley Kinetix, part of the automation brand. The high-end drives and controls for the Kinetix 6000 (early 2000s) were aimed at packaging and assembly applications. The high-end drives were followed in 2012 by the introduction of the Kinetix 5500 single-cable drive system for EtherNet/IP. The single-cable drive system for distributed motion control can reduce cabling requirements by up to 60 %. As one of the largest manufacturers of automation solutions worldwide, Rockwell has particular strength in the North American market.

ABB entered the servo market back in 2007 with an AC drive for machinery applications featuring enhanced Direct Torque Control (DTC)/IPM (Intelligent Pump Management) technology. Servomotors form a highly competitive field with four major manufacturers globally, with ABB being one of them, along with Yaskawa, Mitsubishi and Fanuc. In the industrial robotics market ABB is one of the so-called “Big Four”.

Delta has been involved in industrial automation for about two decades, and its servo products have served applications across a spectrum of industries. The power of ASDA-A2 reached 10 HP in 2009, and with the upgrade to ASDA-A3, ASDA-B3 and other series offered today by Delta, the full range of power options are available. This long history of servo development has made Delta the world’s largest servo manufacturer from outside of Japan, and the most successful servo brand in Asia outside of Japan.

Bosch Rexroth has a long and deep rooted Servo heritage from its Indramat brand (founded in 1958). As the founder of the Servo drive technology, the company invented the worlds first brushless AC servomotor in 1979 and the worlds first maintenance free AC servomotor. The company continues to support existing Indramat products while driving automation innovation in the European market with its Rexroth brand of motion solutions.