Robots made in China usher in an explosive

Catering robots, welcoming robots, sweeping robots... Unconsciously, Chinese people have gradually become accustomed to robots appearing in restaurants, hospitals, railway stations, nursing homes and other scenes, and even household robots such as floor sweeping and entertainment appear at home. Statistics show that China has become the world's largest market for sweeping robots. About 90% of the world's sweeping robots are produced in China, and China's service robot market has accounted for more than a quarter of the global market. The sudden new crown epidemic has swept the world, making contactless services a rigid demand, and accelerating the process of domestic robots going overseas. Compared with robots produced by companies in developed countries in Europe and the United States, what are the advantages of "Made in China" robots? How can domestic robots win the international market? "Global Times" reporters to investigate this.

tentacles reaching overseas

The Japanese media first paid attention to the emergence of Chinese robots in the domestic service market. "Nihon Keizai Shimbun" reported that due to the impact of the epidemic, unmanned delivery services that avoid human-to-human contact are rapidly expanding, and Chinese intelligent robot companies are expanding their tentacles overseas.

The types of foreign cuisines are not as complicated as domestic ones, and the usage scenarios are relatively simple. Some foreign customers had prejudice against Chinese manufacturing before, but when they saw China's use of robots in the epidemic, they had a new understanding of domestic robots. In particular, foreign labor costs are higher, and high tips are also a burden for consumers. Therefore, foreign customers who are currently approaching believe that "it is urgent to introduce robots." If the company's business was steadily moving forward before the outbreak, it has doubled since the outbreak.

"In the past, everyone thought that Chinese products were of low quality and low price, but now this situation has changed a lot," Chang Jing, chairman and CEO of Beijing Stone Century Technology Co., Ltd. ("Stone Technology"), told the Global Times. During the interview, he said that Chinese products can now be sold at very high prices internationally and are sold to many developed countries, because the quality of Chinese products, including the degree of innovation, has almost reached the world's leading level. Roborock Technology is a company specializing in the research and development and production of household intelligent cleaning robots and other cleaning appliances. Its main products include Roborock sweeping robots and Mijia sweeping robots. According to the financial report, the total shipments of Roborock sweeping robots exceeded 2.38 million units last year, and the sales revenue was 4.350 billion yuan, an increase of 11.08% over the previous year.

When to overtake a corner

The State Grid of China recently released the "White Paper on the Development of the Robot Vacuum Cleaner Market in 2021", showing that with the explosive growth of robot vacuum cleaners in China, China has become the world's largest robot vacuum cleaner market. AI visual recognition, 3D structured light and other technologies have been successfully applied to sweeping robots, which has pushed forward the technology of the sweeping robot industry as a whole.

When will domestic robots start to overtake on curves? Taking sweeping robots as an example, the relevant person in charge of Roborock Technology told the Global Times reporter that the development of China's sweeping robot industry should be seen in the global market process. Although my country's intelligent sweeping robot industry has developed relatively late, technological innovation breakthroughs have enabled us to Overtaking on a curve has become the world's largest robot vacuum cleaner market in just a few years. In the sweeper circuit, the development of technology defines different development periods, but the core competitiveness is navigation and obstacle avoidance technology. In recent years, with the continuous development and improvement of AI technology and laser and vision technology, its integration with intelligent sweepers has also become one of the mainstream development directions of the industry. Home service robot products represented by sweeping robots are in technical performance and consumption. Experience has been significantly improved.

"Comparatively speaking, a major advantage of domestic robots is that they take a practical route, have relatively simple functions, and focus on solving a practical problem." Xiang Ligang, chairman of the Information Consumption Alliance, said in an interview with a reporter from the Global Times that in the past people had The impression of the robot is that it can turn somersaults and transform, and it is a kind of "cool" existence. This is the development field that European and American companies are good at. This kind of robot seems to be high-tech and expensive, but because it has no practical use, it often sells poorly. In China, robots, especially in the service category, sell very well. For example, robots used in restaurants, hotels and other scenarios can help deliver meals and luggage, and the price is only tens of thousands of yuan. In many factories in China, the tasks with simple operation and high repetition are also done by robots. They are equipped with sensors to avoid roadblocks and have basic functions such as intelligent identification of roads. They do not need to "show off their skills" like European and American companies.

Through the introduction of robots, some practical difficulties in the store can be effectively solved, and the work of "simple, repetitive, and high-frequency" machines can be completely handed over to robots. For example, she said that the reason why the waiters were not enough at the peak of the meal was that the waiters were not only responsible for serving the food, but also taking care of various service tasks such as receiving the table, checking out, and meeting the needs of guests. Now the catering industry is gradually transforming in the direction of artificial intelligence, with the help of robots to make detailed divisions, and optimize the manpower to do more meaningful work to improve services.

"China's R&D capabilities in the field of robotics are in no way inferior to those of European and American companies. The industrial chain forms a closed loop from production R&D to sales and after-sales, with almost no difficulties." Chi Xiaomin said that some products need to be adjusted and gradually improved according to the actual situation during use, which is the strength of Chinese companies. The robot can make adjustments according to the actual situation during use. For example, the tray can be disassembled and assembled according to the needs, and the route can also be changed according to the environment to complete multiple distribution tasks.

The relevant person in charge of Stone Technology also told the Global Times reporter that there are many brands of sweepers in the domestic and foreign markets, and the homogeneity of products in the low-end market is more serious, while the algorithm technology of domestic brands is far ahead. "It is clear that domestic brands have strong resilience and endogenous power in supply chain capabilities, technological innovation and brand building, which are our core advantages."

What are the challenges

According to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) World Service Robot Statistical Report, with the huge social problems brought about by global aging and the rise of people's economic and living standards, the market demand for service robots is growing, and the rise in technology has also brought diversification of service robots. By the end of 2021, the global service robot market will reach USD 47.69 billion.

However, if domestic robots want to enhance brand awareness in domestic and foreign markets, they still need to work hard. Statistics show that the penetration rate of sweeping robots is far less than that of almost every washing machine. The penetration rate of sweeping robots in inland cities in China is only 1%, and even in developed European markets, the overall penetration rate is only 10%. "European and American waiters will adjust the service according to the needs of the guests at work, but China pays more attention to efficiency and the service quality is not high. After the epidemic subsides, once overseas consumers have demand for human waiters, the promotion of such service robots may not be as smooth as expected.

In addition, domestic robots may also encounter difficulties when they go out to sea. Xiang Ligang said that foreign infrastructure construction is not complete in China, and the popularity of the latest communication technology is not as good as that in China. Some robots controlled by 5G technology will be difficult to control in foreign markets. Moreover, the data storage of robots involves the laws and regulations of the other country, and Chinese companies need to coordinate and solve some practical problems in the process of landing.