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Nie Pengju, a representative of the National People's Congress, proposed during the two sessions: "Industrial robots are the most representative products in the field of intelligent manufacturing. It is recommended to increase support for the core parts industry of industrial robots, promote the development of the industry in the direction of mid-to-high-end, and improve the research and development and manufacturing of domestic robots. level."
The reason why such a proposal was put forward at the two sessions is based on the following facts: my country has become the world's largest consumer market for industrial robots for six consecutive years (currently accounting for about one-third of the global market), and is growing rapidly at a rate of more than 20%. However, even with such great vitality, compared with foreign countries, my country's industrial robot industry has bottlenecks such as weak independent innovation capabilities, lack of core talents and core technologies, and severe constraints on mid- and high-end core components.
In what aspects does my country's industrial robots still have broad room for improvement? How long is there to go?
Core components still need to be imported
At present, industrial robots are mainly used in welding, spraying, handling, assembly, cutting and other fields. The controller, servo system and precision reducer are the three most technically difficult core components. The servo system can be said to be the core "heart" of all types of robots and precision equipment.
Although the market demand for domestic robots has grown rapidly, the core components required for robots have been monopolized by foreign brands. In the early days of the development of the robot industry, the market has been occupied by the "four major families" (Abb, Fanuc, Kuka, and Yaskawa), one is the control system, and the other is the core components. In addition, domestic robots started relatively late, so they missed out on technical and cost advantages.
Robot industry chain
But as mentioned earlier, China is currently the largest consumer market in the world. Relying on such market advantages, we should still maintain confidence in the prospects of core components.
In the past two years, my country's technological development and the popularity of intelligent products have greatly improved, and the robot market has ushered in a small peak. Although affected by the epidemic in early 2020 and the overall market economy fluctuated, robots performed outstandingly in this "war epidemic", especially service robots.
my country's robot market size from 2016 to 2020
From a macro perspective of the domestic and foreign robot industries, although domestic industrial robots are still far behind those of foreign countries, this gap will gradually narrow.
With the in-depth study and improvement of quality technology, some domestic robots have also begun to go abroad and enter the international market. Compared with imported brands, low-priced domestic industrial robots can serve foreign and domestic manufacturing companies with better technology and reliability, which means they have a higher cost-effective advantage. Therefore, the opportunities and space for domestic robots are still huge.
In addition, backed by China's huge robot market, geographical factors have also become the advantages of domestically produced core components. No matter how late it starts and develops compared to foreign companies, if we insist on making the highest quality products and constantly improve product quality, the gap will definitely become smaller and smaller.
Price war restricts healthy development
Although robots that go abroad have occupied some international markets due to their price advantages, in the domestic market, price wars between companies are indeed common.
At present, industrial robots are mainly used to replace simple repetitive labor. Robots that are too expensive will lose their significance. Low-cost industrial robots are more conducive to promoting the implementation of Industry 4.0 and intelligent manufacturing solutions. However, the development of intelligent manufacturing requires industrial robots to have good quality and advanced functions, so the investment cost will not be very low.
Taking AGV robots as an example, in the past few years, domestic AGV has developed extremely rapidly, and a large number of AGV manufacturers have emerged. Although the scale of the domestic AGV market is also expanding, no matter how big the cake is, the more people eat the cake, the less each person will share.
In order to seize market share, some AGV companies have begun to engage in price wars. In 2014, an ordinary AGC product could sell for about 160,000. However, today with serious inflation, some companies only sell less than 40,000. Domestic AGV prices are affected by walking mode, charging method, load, navigation method, etc., and the price ranges from hundreds of thousands to more than one million. But now some companies have announced that they will reduce the price of AGVs to less than 30,000, which makes it difficult for some smaller manufacturers to gain a foothold in the market.
However, many buyers are limited by cost or do not know enough about AGV. They may choose the low-priced one due to cost. This cycle is like this. Bad money drives out good money. Slowly, good things start to reduce their prices in order to survive!
Properly low prices are conducive to industrialization and scale, but too low and excessive prices will kill the industry. This is a truth proven by countless facts.
Therefore, what the current AGV industry needs is to restore business rationality. Not only for the AGV industry, but also for the entire industrial robot industry. Those companies that are competing to attract customers with low prices should focus more on product quality and research and development. Only by doing this can our industrial robots appear in the public eye with a better image.
At present, the density of robots in China is relatively low
Robot density refers to the number of robots per 10,000 workers in an industry. This indicator is an important parameter reflecting the level of a country's manufacturing industry.
Although China's robot market is vast, in the context of a larger processing and manufacturing industry, my country's automation level actually still has a lot of room for improvement. In 2017, China's industrial robot density was 97 units per 10,000 people, exceeding the global average for the first time. In 2019, the China Electronics Society released the "China Robot Industry Development Report (2019)". The "Report" shows that according to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), China's robot density will exceed 130 units per 10,000 people in 2021, reaching the average level of developed countries.
Midea Group has begun to make efforts to increase the density of robots. In the past five years, it has invested more than 30 billion yuan in scientific research and established 28 R&D centers in 11 countries, including China. The total number of R&D personnel worldwide exceeds 10,000. The purpose is Increase the density of robot usage to the level of developed countries with 625 units per 10,000 people.
On the one hand, as competition among industrial robots intensifies, the technology becomes more mature, easier to use, more efficient, the price of industrial robots decreases, and the investment payback period continues to shorten; on the other hand, the demographic dividend continues to decline and labor costs rise. This factor provides more opportunities for the increase in the density of use of industrial robots in China.
The development of system integrators is hindered
Currently, more than 80% of domestic robot companies are robot system integration companies, not robot ontology companies.
When domestic industrial robots first started, a few companies selling robots were profitable. However, due to frequent stability problems, after-sales maintenance costs were very high, and integrators emerged as the times require. Many people say that it is very profitable to do well in robot integration applications, but this seems to be a bit of a generalization.
The barriers to system integration are relatively low, so the bargaining power with upstream and downstream companies is weak. Although the gross profit level is not high, the market size is much larger than the ontology market. Such huge market demand has not stimulated the vitality of system integrators. What is the problem?
On the one hand, system integration projects are almost all non-standardized. Each project is different and difficult to scale. The annual output value of most manufacturers is not high, and "large companies" with revenue exceeding 300 million yuan are mainly concentrated. In the four major automotive process fields. In other words, only these leading integrator companies in the entire industry can really make money.
On the other hand, since robot integration is a secondary development product, it requires familiarity with the processes of downstream industries. If you focus on a certain field, you can usually gain higher industry barriers. However, due to industry barriers, it is difficult to expand business across industries, and mergers and acquisitions are not feasible.
In addition, due to the need to advance funds, integrators usually have to consider the number and scale of projects to be implemented simultaneously, and therefore cannot expand their business in a timely manner. Moreover, the development of system integrators has extremely high requirements for talents, and the requirements for core sales, engineers, installation and debugging personnel are not low, which makes the development of integrators more difficult.
However, the current industrial robot industry itself is an industry integrating system integration, advanced manufacturing and precision supporting, so system integration will also be a necessary condition for the development of the entire industry. Comparatively speaking, it is a long-term and arduous task to break away from the limitations of core technologies and change the limitations of market scale. Therefore, the most promising breakthrough in the industrial robot industry is still in the field of system integration.
Industrial robot system integrators and ontology manufacturing complement each other and are the basis for industrial robot automation applications. The development of robot ontology requires the promotion of system integrators, and system integrators also need the support of ontology manufacturers. my country's integrator companies should seize the opportunity to subdivide the industry, gradually modularize and functionalize it, master core processes, and complete professional technology accumulation. In addition, system integrators can also develop smart factories or digital factories, not only doing hardware integration, but also top-level architecture design and software integration.
The future of my country's industrial robots: great potential
In recent years, the government has implemented a series of preferential policies to vigorously promote the development of the robot industry, and industrial robots are increasingly being widely used. At the same time, the transformation of robot production lines and continuous localization have given domestic robots a lot of opportunities for practice and exploration from core technology and key component research and development to complete machine manufacturing.
Especially in terms of the core technology of industrial robots, including core components such as reducers and motors, as the market share and quality requirements of domestic robots increase, core component product technologies are also constantly being updated. Its technological maturity is getting higher and higher, and its prices are becoming more transparent, which also provides a lot of opportunities for the development of domestic robots.
Although many people say that there are still differences between domestically produced parts and imported parts, from the current point of view, the mainstream suppliers of core robot parts have become globalized, so the purchase price difference between domestic and foreign robot manufacturers is gradually approaching. The cost of domestic robots and imported robots on the same quality hardware is almost at the same level. Low cost and high quality are the best ways for local robotics companies to break through.
To do a good job in quality management, it starts from the selection of core components and raw materials, that is, entering into a strict testing process, and there must also be detailed management rules in the assembly process. From a macro perspective, although domestic industrial robots are still far behind developed countries, the gap is gradually narrowing. With the improvement of quality and technology, some domestic robots can go abroad and enter the international market, which is how we are recognized. Compared with imported brands, low-priced domestic industrial robots can serve manufacturing companies with better technology and greater reliability, occupying a higher cost-effective advantage. Therefore, the opportunities and space for domestic robots are still great, let us wait and see. .