Technology empowers a better life, service robots open up a new picture of life

Foreword: With the in-depth development of China's digital economy, the process of industrial digitalization continues to accelerate, and the proportion of big data in industrial decision-making is getting higher and higher. Tianyancha Data Research Institute hereby launched the "Tianyanxinzhi" column, relying on Tianyancha big data to sort out the industrial pattern and development context, interpret the latest developments in the industry and investment and financing trends, and provide reference for decision-making by all parties. This article is the eighth part of the Tianyan Xinzhi Industry Analysis series.

Have you ever imagined that a loyal "servant" will take care of your daily life, cook delicious meals, clean the house, chat and talk with you when you are in a low mood, and even save people from trouble and fire and never tire and work hard, just like Like R2 in Star Wars [Note 1], it is naive and endearing.

All of these, like a wonderful picture of a sci-fi movie, are taking service robots as a carrier, from a fantasy virtual world into the real life of ordinary consumers, from a cool "toy" to a practical tool at home, the industry of service robots An inflection point is coming.

The lazy economy promotes the accelerated rise of service robots

Order takeout on your mobile phone and have it delivered to your door. Buy a dishwasher to automatically wash dishes without hurting your hands. Turn on the sweeping robot and mop the floor clean. If you want to eat hot pot, come to a hot self-heating small hot pot. If you want to listen to music and call a smart speaker, wonderful music will sound, and the lazy economy has become popular in the lives of young people.

Growing up in the information age, the consumption habits of young people represented by the post-90s and post-00s have shifted from subsistence to enjoyment and development. As the aborigines of the mobile Internet, consumption is more intelligent, personalized, interesting, etc., and dare to try and consume.

Taking sweeping robots as an example, with the gradual improvement of people's living and consumption level in recent years, coupled with the accelerated pace of modern life and work, many young people lack time and are unwilling to spend time cleaning their rooms, and sweeping robots are very popular. During the "Double Eleven" period in 2021, a well-known domestic cleaning robot brand's omni-channel sales increased by 107% year-on-year on the 2020 Double 11, which is evident in its popularity.

The lazy economy is becoming more and more intelligent and advanced, and various products such as sweeping robots, educational robots, and accompanying robots have been launched one after another. With the continuous upgrading of the "smart level" of products, good products that meet the consumer needs of the new era are emerging, accelerating the rise of the service robot industry.

Service robots can do everything from cleaning, emotional companionship to surgery

The types of service robot products range from single sweeping robots, accompanying robots, educational robots to high-end surgical robots. The product types are becoming more and more abundant, and it has become a reality to build a better life with science and technology. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2020, the operating income of service robot and special robot manufacturing enterprises above designated size was 52.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 41%. The robotics industry has also become an important driving force for the development of the digital economy.

Sweeping robots, cleaning is also a very "disgusting" thing, especially for lazy people, who are not willing to spend time and physical effort to sweep the floor, so you can let the intelligent sweeping robot help you. The sweeping robot can automatically plan the path, which can realize the cleaning work of the whole family without colliding with the furniture, and is highly intelligent. Generally speaking, the suction power is relatively large, whether it is fine dust or larger particles, it is a piece of cake for it, and it can restore a clean and tidy home for you.

During the epidemic, in addition to the surge in sales of medical and medical products, which have become essential for people's home isolation and protection, as they stay at home for longer, they pay more and more attention to personal and family hygiene, cleaning and disinfection. According to a report by JD.com, sales of sweeping robots surged by 60% during the 2020 epidemic. Smart cleaning appliances are being sought after by more and more consumers.

Surgical robots are one of the most popular projects in the past two years. I once thought that surgery can now be given to robots with confidence. In the past, people thought that surgical robots were only auxiliary tools. But with the endless news reports, people's understanding of "surgical robots" in the cognitive range has been completely subverted. For example, "the world's first robot-assisted spinal surgery was completed", "300 surgical robots in the urology department of Guizhou Provincial People's Hospital" and so on. Although these surgical robots cannot perform operations autonomously at present, according to this pace of development, in the future, we should not be far from realizing autonomous operations for some minor operations that are completely separated from manpower.

According to the latest data from IFR [Note 2], the sales of medical robots will account for 55% of the total turnover of service robots in 2020. This was largely driven by robotic surgery equipment, the most expensive type in the segment, whose turnover rose 11 percent to $3.6 billion.

Educational robots, with the advent of the fragmented information age caused by the explosion of knowledge, compared with the children of the past, today's children have more homework and faster change of knowledge. In need of more companionship and teaching, educational robots fill the gap where parents cannot accompany their children to study due to busy work or other reasons.

The emergence and application of companion robots make smart homes smarter, not just simple voice control and remote control. Through key technologies such as artificial intelligence voice, humanization is added to the scene linkage, which is very warm, and smart home is no longer just a cold device linkage reaction. Aging is getting closer and closer to us. According to the statistical standards of the United Nations, we will enter a deeply aging society around 2025. For the elderly, robots with functions such as emotional companionship, health monitoring, and emergency rescue will become hot spots. product.

The dazzling array of robot products make family life more technological, and allow ordinary families to enjoy the dividends brought by technological progress, and everything behind this is inseparable from the strong advantages of Chinese manufacturing.

China's advantages have created the continuous expansion of the service robot market

With the continuous upgrading of consumer demand, the increasing expansion of consumer groups, the rapid iteration of technology, and the continuous improvement and extension of the supply chain network, China's advantages have resulted in the continuous reduction of product costs, the continuous enrichment of product categories, and the continuous expansion of the service robot market. Ordinary families have the opportunity to experience the technology of the future.

People are more and more accepting of life technology products. Since the reform and opening up, the Chinese people's perception of household products has gradually changed from "three turns and one sound", to color TV sets, front-loading washing machines, and then to automatic dishwashers in the 21st century. Technological progress has significantly improved the quality of life and convenience of life, making consumers more and more willing to accept them. The generation that grew up with the PC era, the mobile Internet, and even the AI era, the consumption of technology products is no longer limited to mobile phones and tablet computers. Household products such as sweeping robots have become an important choice for their home life. Freeing their hands and living a more meaningful and savoury life has become their consensus.

Innovation drives the rapid development of the industry. For products such as service robots, in addition to the relative hidden costs of publicity and manpower, explicit costs such as battery technology and raw materials are important obstacles that restrict the development of such products, especially large-scale commercialization. The implementation of the innovation strategy drives the industrial technology, from the research and development of materials and chips, to the iteration of indoor positioning technology, battery life and other aspects have made great progress, and the user experience has been greatly improved. According to the data of Tianyancha, among the patents related to service robots (valid patents), utility models account for the first place, appearance designs are the second, and invention patents are the third.

China has the most complete industry catalog and the best supply chain network. In this era of global connection, supply chain has become the core of global industrial development. As the world's largest manufacturing country, China has the most complete industrial catalog in the world. Coupled with China's years of infrastructure construction, China has the best supply chain network, creating the world's most cost-effective market, making any intelligent hardware product cost reduction is possible. According to the data of Tianyancha, in the geographical distribution of service robot related enterprises, the number of enterprises in Guangdong, Jiangsu and Shandong ranked the top three, of which the number of enterprises in Guangdong exceeded 60,000, ranking first.

With the further recovery of the service robot market, the continuous iterative upgrade of technology and the continuous reduction of component costs. In the future, the service robot market will have a broader space for development.

The future development of the service robot industry can be expected

Since the service robot has a financing record, a total of 815 financing events have occurred, with a financing amount of nearly 96 billion yuan. In the past 2021, there have been 113 financing incidents related to service robots, and the financing amount has exceeded 44 billion yuan, which has far exceeded the financing amount in previous years.

From the perspective of industry distribution, the number of industry financing events directly related to robots is the largest, with nearly 690; secondly, it is also involved in the fields of autonomous driving, medical hardware and drones, with more than 10 financing events.

From the perspective of round distribution, service robot financing projects are still mainly early-stage projects, and the total proportion of three rounds of seed round, angel round and A round has exceeded 50%.

From the perspective of geographical distribution, Beijing Haidian District and Shanghai Pudong New District are the top two in the district-level distribution of financing events. The traditional analysis takes the province as the unit, but this time the region is the main body of the analysis. The purpose is to more clearly see the regional characteristics of industrial development, and to use service robots to spy on China's innovation and China's consumer electronics industry chain.

From the perspective of the layout of investment institutions, Sequoia Capital China has made 28 shots and is the most popular institution for investing in service robots; ZhenFund and Source Code Capital are ranked second and third respectively.

Tianyancha Data Research Institute believes that with the continuous development and upgrading of technology and market, service robots are entering all walks of life, entering thousands of households, and serving consumers from different aspects. I believe that in the future, service robots will play a more important role in our lives and become our indispensable good partners.