Extraordinary Ten Years To See Changes丨The Robot Industry Is Moving Towards High-end

Yaskawa Shougang Industrial Robot on display at the 2022 World Robot Conference.

Medical robots perform minimally invasive abdominal surgery. The coffee robot can complete a cup of tulip-shaped coffee latte in 75 seconds, and the picking robot can complete apple recognition within 0.2 seconds in the area of 1 square meter...August 18 to 21, 2022 World Robot The conference was held in Beijing. For the first time, the expo showed the audience the latest applications of robots in medical, agricultural and other industries in the form of "robot + application scenarios".

Robots are called "the pearl at the top of the manufacturing crown" and are an important symbol of a country's technological innovation and high-end manufacturing level. On August 17, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized when he inspected Shenyang Xinsong Robot Automation Co., Ltd. in Liaoning that it is time to promote self-reliance and self-improvement in science and technology. In our own hands. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, my country's robot industry has achieved breakthroughs in scale, technology and products, and the application level has been greatly improved. According to the "14th Five-Year Plan for Robot Industry Development", as of the end of last year, my country has become the world's largest consumer of industrial robots for 8 consecutive years. In 2021, the density of robots in my country's manufacturing industry will reach 322 units per 10,000 people, an increase of 13 times compared with 2012.

From medical field to industrial manufacturing

my country has become the world's largest application market for robots

On the morning of August 23, Ms. Liu, who was working in Shanghai Jinqiao Huahong Innovation Park, went to a nearby nucleic acid sampling booth for nucleic acid testing. Unlike ordinary nucleic acid sampling booths, the sampling booth that Ms. Liu went to did not have a "big white", but a robot instead. "This robot is really high-tech, and its techniques are no less than that of professional medical staff." Ms. Liu said that in Shanghai's high temperature days, it was very hot to queue up to do nucleic acid tests, and the "big whites" were even more difficult to work in protective clothing. Now this kind of robotic nucleic acid sampling booth is available in many places in Shanghai, which is really convenient.

Robot doctors, robot couriers, robot waiters... In recent years, more and more robots have appeared in all walks of life in China. Compared with robots that were "clumsy and can only do simple work" in the past, robots are now more and more flexible, and their application scenarios are becoming more and more abundant. Data shows that my country has become the largest application market for robots in the world.

Recently, a child from Hefei City, Anhui Province underwent a "radical resection of megacolon" in the First Affiliated Hospital of China University of Science and Technology. The "chief doctor" of the operation was a robot named "Daqi". Is Robotic Surgery Reliable? The answer is not only reliable but also top-notch technology. According to the attending doctor of the child, because the child is young and light in weight, and the operation needs to free the pelvic ganglion-free intestinal canal, it is more difficult, so the operation must be very delicate. In this regard, the stability and precision of the robot are very high. The operation lasted more than 3 hours, and the intraoperative blood loss was only 20 ml.

The Da Vinci Surgical Robot System at the First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University in Fujian Province is performing an operation on a patient.

Medical treatment is a major field of domestic robot application. Surgical robots are known as "a new way of next-generation surgery" and have been used in many hospitals in China. Compared with previous World Robot Conferences, this year's World Robot Conference Expo has also set up a "Robot + Medical" exhibition area, with many exhibitors. Industry experts believe that the application of medical robots in interventional medicine can not only alleviate the problem of the long learning curve of medical staff, but also achieve more precise and standardized operations in surgery, and has a large clinical application space.

Industry is also an area of focus for robotics applications. As a master of digital and intelligent technologies, intelligent manufacturing led by industrial robots has become the main path for the transformation and upgrading of the domestic manufacturing industry.

In the crane manufacturing plant of Xugong Group Construction Machinery Co., Ltd., the intelligent production line runs at high speed. The entire production process only needs a worker to click the mouse, and the rest is done by industrial robots. As a world-renowned crane manufacturer, XCMG has built the world's first intelligent welding production line for crane turntables, which realizes machine substitution, 100% pass rate for one-time welding, and more than 100% increase in production efficiency. In XCMG's heavy-duty coating intelligent production line, the outriggers of the product are sprayed by two 7-axis spraying robots, and the paint utilization rate has increased from 51% to over 65%, which also eliminates the occupational health hazards caused by this position to workers.

The application of emerging technologies such as industrial robots and artificial intelligence has made production more flexible and efficient. Shunde District, Foshan City, Guangdong Province is the largest production base for small household appliances such as electric fans and microwave ovens in the country. Here, an intelligent microwave oven production line can offline a microwave oven every 8 seconds, and more than 20 screws on a microwave oven box. , only the last one needs to be manually tightened. Originally, the production line that could only produce one type of microwave oven can produce microwave oven products of various specifications at one time after automation and intelligent transformation.

In recent years, my country's manufacturing industry has accelerated automation and intelligent upgrades, and machine substitution and human-machine collaboration have become a trend and consensus. According to the "World Robot 2021 Industrial Robot Report" released by the International Federation of Robotics, the number of industrial robots operating in Chinese factories in 2021 will reach a record 943,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 21%, and continues to grow rapidly. At present, industrial robots have covered 60 major categories of industries and 168 middle categories of my country's national economy. The growth in demand for industrial robots has also spawned the rapid development of industrial robot manufacturing. According to data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in 2021, the output of industrial robots in my country will reach 366,000 units, an increase of 10 times over 2015, ranking the world's largest industrial robot. Robot market.

From hundreds to more than 120,000 new registrations a year

The main body of the robot industry market continues to optimize and grow

At the 2022 World Robot Conference, 12 robot companies from Sanlongwan Science and Technology City, Foshan City, Guangdong Province brought a variety of high-precision robot products, attracting many visitors. As the gathering place of the robot industry in Foshan, Sanlongwan Science and Technology City has more than 50 robots and related upstream and downstream enterprises (institutions), and the advantages of robot clusters are increasingly obvious.

A visitor shakes hands with a humanoid robot at the 2022 World Robot Conference.

Guangdong Province is one of the main clusters of the domestic robotics industry. Cities including Guangzhou, Foshan, Shenzhen, and Dongguan have successively established a number of robot industrial bases and industrial parks in recent years to vigorously promote the development of the robot industry.

The Songshan Lake International Robot Industry Base in Dongguan City, Guangdong Province was established in 2014. In just a few years, a complete robot industry chain has been initially formed. As of last year, there were more than 400 robot companies in the park, covering the upstream and downstream links of the robot industry such as core components, intelligent equipment, and system integration, and formed three enterprise echelons in the incubation period, growth period and maturity period. In addition, there are more than 30 new R&D institutions.

The sweeping robot manufacturer Yunjing Intelligent is an old resident of Songshan Lake. The company's co-founder Gao Han recalls that the robot industry in Dongguan is developing rapidly. Take Songshan Lake as an example. When Yunjing Intelligent first settled in, the office buildings in the park were still empty. , not a few companies. But in just over three years, this industrial base is almost full. The government's service support and the complete local manufacturing base are the reasons for attracting enterprises, and also provide fertile soil for the growth of the robot industry in the park.

The market entities of the robot industry have been continuously optimized and expanded, demonstrating the strong driving force for the development of my country's robot industry. According to incomplete statistics, ten years ago, the share of Chinese local companies in the domestic robot market was less than 5%, and the number of companies was only a few hundred. However, in the past 10 years, the number of registered robot-related companies has increased year by year. In 2021 alone, the number of new robot-related companies will reach 123,900. At present, my country's robot industry has basically formed a whole industry chain system from parts, complete machines to integrated applications.

In the final assembly workshop of Chongqing Qiteng Technology Co., Ltd., located in the Digital Economy Industrial Park of Liangjiang New District, Chongqing, the robot products have undergone strict inspection, and are then rolled off the assembly line and sold all over the country. This company, which was only established in 2010, now has products covering more than 20 provinces and cities across the country, providing services to more than 100 well-known enterprises at home and abroad.

Chongqing Liangjiang Robot Industrial Park is the core undertaking area for the development of Chongqing's robot industry. Since 2012, Chongqing Liangjiang New District has taken the robotics industry as an important development strategy, focusing on building an industrial ecology that integrates functional platforms such as "manufacturing area", "achievement incubation", and "application R&D", which has attracted and cultivated a large number of enterprises.

Robot industry clusters like this are not uncommon in China. In Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, a robot town has become a new local economic growth point. Hangzhou Qianjiang Robot Co., Ltd. settled in the town in 2017. Wang Haoyu, the company's sales manager, said that the main reason is to focus on the industrial agglomeration advantages of the town. "Here, as soon as you go out, you are a downstream enterprise; as soon as you chat, it is a brainstorm. It helps us reduce a lot of time, personnel, and transportation costs." He said.

Some market institutions have done incomplete statistics. At present, there are more than 500 industrial parks in the industrial robot industry alone in my country, and the effect of industrial agglomeration and integration of industries and cities are constantly prominent.

From the lowest end of the value chain to the international initiative of independent research and development

Innovative enterprises continue to emerge, and core components have achieved phased breakthroughs

Shenyang SIASUN Robot Automation Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as SIASUN), a leading enterprise in the domestic robot industry, released its new product, the mobile robot "Xingweilai", at the 2022 World Robot Conference. The core algorithms, control systems, and navigation methods adopted by "Xingweilai" are the innovative achievements of SIASUN's independent research and development and even the first in the industry. It can be said that it integrates a number of leading technologies.

Although in the eyes of the outside world, "Xingweilai" shines with star light, but for Xinsong, such product innovation has become commonplace. Including my country's first industrial robotic arm, many first (sets) of Chinese robots were born in Xinsong. Since its establishment 22 years ago, SIASUN has created more than 100 firsts in my country's robot industry, and hundreds of robot products have completely independent intellectual property rights.

SIASUN's digital intelligent manufacturing workshop is a kingdom of robots. Not only the products on the assembly line are robots, but the manufacturing workers are also robots. From warehousing, logistics, assembly, spraying to testing, there are scenes of high-tech scenes of "robots making robots".

"The robots engaged in production in the factory are all made by ourselves." SIASUN President Zhang Jin told reporters, "SIASUN is a robot company with the most complete product line in the world. It not only produces single robot products, but also provides overall smart factory solutions. For example, in the field of automobile manufacturing, we have developed China's first industrial robot with a load of 120kg, etc., taking the lead in realizing the large-scale application of domestic industrial robots in the field of automobile welding."

Talking about the reasons for the company's success, Du Zhenjun, president of Siasun Central Research Institute, said that the first reason is the improvement of scientific and technological innovation capabilities. Since 2013, the company has obtained a total of 621 authorized patents, the R&D investment has increased by about 8 times, and the R&D team has increased to more than 4,000 people. Relying on innovative breakthroughs, SIASUN not only solved the situation that domestic industrial robots depended on imports, but also realized the first export of Chinese robots.

In Du Zhenjun's impression, over the years, the company has experienced too many "from 0 to 1". Countless new challenges have been received, and the company's reply is "no problem" when faced with the customer's "can it be done" question. The most impressive example for Du Zhenjun was the "8 Minutes in Beijing" at the closing ceremony of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, where 24 Xinsong mobile robots perfectly cooperated with roller skating dancers. "When the director team approached us, the R&D and production cycle from project planning to cooperating with robots was less than 4 months. And the requirements this time were completely different from the past. The mobile robots we made before were mainly used in factories, paths Most of them are straight lines and arcs. But this time it is for performance, with complex action designs, and requires multiple robots to interact with actors accurately." Du Zhenjun said that in order to complete this task, the company has specially developed a new navigation control. Algorithms, never imagined before, can accomplish so many technological breakthroughs in such a short period of time.

According to the data of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in recent years, domestic innovative robot companies like Xinsong have emerged. parts, etc. Chongqing Huashu Robot Co., Ltd. is one of the 101 companies. Wang Xuli, executive deputy general manager of Wasu, introduced that at present, the company has conquered more than 300 core robot technologies, and the autonomy rate of core components exceeds 80%. What makes Wang Xuli particularly proud is that the company has overcome the problem of the core system of industrial robots in my country, and realized the localization of the modular driver MCU under the circumstance that it is difficult to obtain one core. And through innovation in robot structure and control algorithm, it has won the first invention in the world.

Ten years ago, my country's robot market was still dominated by overseas products, and domestic robots could only do system integration for foreign investors, which was at the lowest end of the value chain. From imitation to originality, the enhancement of independent innovation capability allows Chinese robot companies to gradually occupy a place in the fierce market competition. Xin Guobin, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said: "In recent years, the basic capabilities of China's robotics industry have been significantly improved, and core components have achieved phased breakthroughs. Some key technologies in core software, represented by the robotic operating system, have made progress and have been put into practical applications."