Lots of folks, especially those working in robotics, are totally unfamiliar with or even disinterested about investing in robotics.

That, it seems, is changing and rather quickly.

There could well be some real investment income to be had for use on a kid’s education or that vacation home or even a retirement nest egg, all courtesy of the very profession in which they labor: robotics. It happened in IT, right? Just ask early Microsoft employees about their stacks of shares in MSFT

There was a time not too long ago when no one, especially those on Wall Street, ever took notice of robotics as an investment-grade opportunity.Now, a year removed from Amazon’s startling move in acquiring Kiva, hardly a day goes by without some insider look.

If robotics is going to be, as many have prophesized, the coming of the next IT, then why not give some thought to that next coming?

Way more than a few have gotten most curious with all the recent hoopla attending the robotics plays from 2012 to 2013, especially eye-opening were the Amazon and Google grabs. Google is still grabbing: most recently is the acquisition of Nest.

Serious enough to buy?

Some of our members, who previously avoided the allure of Wall Street, are now getting curious enough to be giving serious thought to writing an investment check. Many queried us for some basics on investing in robotics. Some even asked that we do some stock picking on their behalf, which is something, we reply, that is best handled by a professionally licensed investment consultant.

With that said, Motley Fool’s Beth McKenna has put out a nice thumbnail for newbie robotics investing. Here’s an excerpt. See more here.

MOTLEY FOOL: Briefly, industrial robots have been used in factory automation since their introduction in the late 1960s, so this category is quite mature. Like most things technological, however, factory bots are getting more advanced.

Some robots within the professional service category, notably defense-related ones, have been around for a while; others, such as telepresence robots for the health-care industry, are quite new.

Google’s robots might eventually be joining the service robots category. Google hasn’t said much about what it plans to do with its growing army of robots — it acquired eight robotics companies last year, most notably Boston Dynamics and Schaft, which make the most advanced humanoid robots this side of the silver screen.

However, there’s buzz that Google intends to use them in its delivery service. This makes sense, as there seems to be considerable synergy between robots and Google’s nascent delivery service, its Uber car service company acquired last summer, and its driverless-vehicle efforts.

Overall, the consumer robotics market — which includes robots used for domestic tasks and entertainment — is the newest.

Market size: hardware tip of the iceberg

$13B in hardware only ($8.5B industrial, $3.4B professional service, $1.2B consumer). The industrial number jumps to $26B when software and engineering systems costs are tacked on.

What’s the projected growth of the robotics market?

The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) projects the industrial robotics market will grow about 6 percent annually through 2017 for industrial robots; faster growth for professional service (non-defense portion) and consumer robots.

There doesn’t seem to be a good consensus estimate for growth in the other robotics markets. However, the general view is that the non-defense portion of the professional service market and the consumer market will experience faster growth than the industrial market.

Growth in the consumer market is projected to be especially strong. Once this nascent market reaches a tipping point, growth should kick into high gear.

Pure-play vs. non-pure-play companies:

1. Pure-play robotics companies

I know of five (there could be more) pure-play robotics companies that trade on a major U.S. exchange: iRobot (IRBT), Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) , Adept Technology (ADEP), Hansen Medical (HNSN), and Mazor Robotics (MZRTF). (MAKO Surgical was recently acquired by Stryker (SYK)).

This is an eclectic bunch with respect to type of robots produced, as well as company size and profitability.

If you want to invest only in companies that are currently profitable, you can shorten this list to two companies: iRobot and Intuitive Surgical, which have market caps of $1.1 billion and $16.0 billion, respectively.

2. Non-pure-play robotics companies

There are many non-pure-plays, with the approximate percentage of their revenue generated from robotics varying widely.

Three that generate a fair chunk of their revenue from robotics are AeroVironment (AVAV) , Accuray (ARAY), and ABB (ABB:US). Big defense companies such as Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Lockheed Martin have robotics divisions; however, robotics is very small part of their overall businesses.)

Let’s start with the biggie — Switzerland-based ABB, which has a $60.7B market cap. This company provides power and automation technologies for utility and industrial customers worldwide.

ABB is considered among the world’s largest makers of industrial robots and is heavily focused on the auto industry, with major, long-term customers including Ford and BMW.

Robotics is a unit within its discrete automation and motion division, and since ABB reports financial results down to only the division level, it’s not possible to tell what portion of its business comes from robotics.

This division has been performing well. It generated revenue of $9.4B 2012, or 22 percent of total revenue, up 6.8 percent from the year before, while its operational EBITDA margin (that’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) was 18.4 percent, down slightly from 2011’s 18.9 percent. It appears that robotics is doing well, as ABB stated in its 2012 annual report that the unit’s revenue “continued to grow at a double-digit rate.”

Investors interested in a large-cap company with exposure to industrial robotics, as well as some other attractive niches, such as construction of electricity grids — ABB is the largest player here — might want to further explore this company.

AeroVironment, which has a market cap of $675M, is involved in two businesses: making unmanned aerial vehicles, or “drones,” for the military, and manufacturing and installing charging systems for electric vehicles.

The company is slightly unprofitable on a trailing-12-month basis, with a profit margin of -1.8 percent. Analysts expect AeroVironment to be profitable in 2015, as the company sports a forward P/E of 52.7.

Many are bullish on AeroVironment, and I agree that both businesses have potential. That said, I think investors new to robotics would be better served looking to commercial and/or consumer robotics plays at this time, as defense plays are subject to considerable uncertainty because they rely heavily on government spending.

Those more comfortable with the topic of robotics, however, might further explore AeroVironment. Certainly, Amazon’s plans, announced late last year, to use drones for lightweight, short deliveries could heat up the drone space in the near future.

While AeroVironment has outflown our industrial robotics player over the one-year period, the five-year period is a different story.

Over the 10-year period, ABB has considerably outperformed the market, returning 438 percent vs. the market’s 101 percent. ABB is quite cyclical and was walloped during the Great Recession; however, its stock price is now very close to the all-time high it reached in 2008. AeroVironment hasn’t yet traded for 10 years, as it went public in 2007.

Publicly traded foreign robotics companies

There are many foreign players. In fact, Japan is robot-central when it comes to industrial robot makers.

Several of the major players that trade over-the-counter (OTC) in the U.S. are KUKA Robotics (KUKAF:US; German; robotics is one of two divisions, with a focus on the auto industry; provides industrial and service robots); Yaskawa Electric (YASKF:US; Japanese; robotics is one of three divisions; focuses on service robots primarily for the auto and electrical equipment industries); and Fanuc Robotics (FANUF:US; Japanese; manufactures industrial machinery and robots).

ETF investing

For the exchange-traded-fund (ETF) fans among you, there’s the relatively new Robo-Stox Global Robotics & Automation ETF (NASDAQ: ROBO ). This ETF, which began trading in October, had 77 holdings when it launched.

As with all mutual funds and ETFs, the main benefit is also the main drawback: diversification. An ETF with a large number of holdings is likely never going to hit one out of the ballpark and return, say, 85 percent, as iRobot did in 2013.

However, it’s also likely not going to be a considerable loser, either, as long-term winner Intuitive Surgical was in 2013.

This ETF’s return since inception is 8.3 percent vs. the S&P 500’s total return of 5.3 percent (as of Jan. 14, 2014).