Español
Português
Việt Nam
日本語
русский 
عربي 
Deutsch
한국어
Türkçe
Français
Italiano
With the continuous development of science and technology, the application field of robot technology is more and more extensive, and industrial robots have become an indispensable part of the manufacturing industry.
Data show that in 2022, China's industrial robot sales accounted for more than half of the world, ranking first in the world for ten consecutive years. In the first half of 2023, China's industrial robot production reached 222,000 sets, an increase of 5.4%.
According to the "14th Five-Year Plan" robot Industry Development Plan jointly issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other departments, by 2025, China will become the source of global robot technology innovation, high-end manufacturing agglomeration and integrated application of new heights. At present, the trend of machine replacement in some areas is obvious, and the scale of China's industrial robot industry will be further expanded.
At the "Robot Technology Application and Industrial Innovation Development Forum" during the 23rd China International Industry Fair (hereinafter referred to as the "Fair"), the industry generally believes that industrial robots have broad development prospects, and the research and development of specific fields and specific customers is also guiding enterprises to new development.
Long-term improvement
For the future development trend of China's industrial robots, there are generally two views in the industry: first, from the perspective of penetration and demand, industrial robots have a broad space for development; The second is that the industry shrank in the post-epidemic era, and the industry is inevitably pessimistic.
According to the latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the production of domestic industrial robots last year was 443,000 sets, down 4.8% year-on-year, and the project delay caused by the epidemic and supply chain shortage was the main reason for the decline in production.
The last time industrial robots experienced negative annual growth was in 2019, down more than 6 percentage points year-on-year. In 2020 and 2021, domestic industrial robot production has increased significantly, with year-on-year growth of 19% and 45% respectively. Participants in the forum generally believe that in the long term, industrial robots have a lot of room for growth in the future.
On the one hand, with the gradual disappearance of the demographic dividend, the decline in the number of labor population, rising labor costs, and the aging of front-line workers will become increasingly serious, according to the data of CIIC Consulting, 32% of enterprises are facing labor shortage and labor shortage in 2022.
"China is a big manufacturing country, and the problem of labor shortage is the most fundamental driving force for the development of the industrial robot industry." Jiangsu Furen Group deputy general manager Yuan Jianbin said at the forum.
For example, Guan Jian, vice president of Youai Zhihe robot, said that when communicating with a wafer factory customer, it was found that the annual full rate of a first-line work can only reach 70%, and this year's data only reached 49%, "This data means that each of these workers has to do two people's work, the labor pressure is very large, and the demand for labor is also very tight."
On the other hand, the penetration rate of industrial robots in various industries is still limited. Yuan Jianbin said that in some areas, such as vehicle production, 3C, etc., robot coverage is relatively high, but there are nearly 90% of the industry has not realized the automated production of robots.
"Many of the challenges in the industry haven't really been solved, such as autonomous mobility, intelligence, ease of human-machine collaboration, etc." CAI Hua, vice president of domestic marketing for Hikang Robots, said that the industry still needs to discover more scenarios and values.
With the deepening of automation upgrading and the increase of consumer personalized demand, rapid, repetitive and large-scale rigid production can no longer meet the needs of the industry, and flexible production has become a new engine for industry upgrading, and is also promoting the further development of industrial robots.
According to Gaogong robot forecast, 2023 China's industrial robot market growth rate of 20% to 25%, will still maintain rapid growth, Gaogong robot said that this expectation is a combination of this year's robot order backlog and the downstream industry demand judgment.
From the perspective of downstream demand, the new energy industry is still the largest source of increment in the industry, and the demand for industrial robots is expected to exceed 20%. In addition to new energy vehicles, power batteries, and photovoltaics, the power of the energy storage battery industry is expected to further increase the thickness of the new energy industry.
Demand leads the way
Even with a broad space for development, industrial robots also face multiple challenges in the process of penetration.
"Every new scenario and industry we face requires deep learning and exploration." Guan Jian said that applications that may belong to the same industry, but belong to different segments will have essential differences, and the demand for characteristics is also targeted and improved by industrial robot manufacturers.
"Every industry has some different standards, and the more advanced automated manufacturing, the more likely it is to have its own standards." Guan Jian said.
This also means that the research and development of industrial robots should be targeted at the specific industry itself to meet the multiple needs of customers, many of which have extremely high requirements. CAI Hua, for example, said that in some industries, the accuracy requirements have reached beyond the human eye; Guan Jian also said that there are industry requirements for a level 1 dust-free production scene, so how to remove the dust pollution caused by its mobile robot in the friction process has become a problem for enterprises to think about.
"Don't make a product out of the scene." Blue core technology vice president Cheng Yangxuan said that the product should be based on the application of the occasion, the application of the environment, the application of the object to do some relatively customized development.
This is also reflected in this year's Expo. For example, 3C, automotive and other industries have increasingly high precision requirements for collaborative robots. In response to this, the card saving robot has released 2.5d visual positioning technology, and the accuracy can reach 0.2mm in fine positioning mode. In view of the safety hazard problem of robot falling caused by sudden power failure in the production process, the Yujiang CRA series is equipped with electromagnetic lock, which can enable the robot to fall less than 1mm when it is enabled up and down or suffers an unexpected power failure, effectively avoiding damage to the end tools or workpieces.
"We will continue to face new challenges, and now it has passed the era of a robot enterprise going it alone, and it needs the joint collaboration of the upstream and downstream industry chain." Guan Jian said.
In addition to the product itself, manufacturers are also focusing on further improving convenience and ease of use for customers, providing complete solutions, and exerting greater value of robots. The adaptability to the scene and the convenience of the client are becoming new competition points in the industry.
"Even if our AGV products move from point a to point b to complete the customer's requirements, but in fact the customer's requirements are more than that, we need to help enterprises better production, such as where the raw materials exist, how much to store, what kind of production beat is, according to what kind of rhythm to move, how to store after handling, and so on." Cheng said that behind this is a set of management processes, the test is the depth of understanding of the relevant manufacturers for specific industries.
"Focus on delivery, product development, signing the order does not mean success, but can be used well in the customer's scenario." Cheng Yangxuan said.
Manufacturers to do research and development for customer needs is also guiding the manufacturers to show the advantages of the segmentation field. Guan Jian lamented that this year's Expo has been very different from three years ago: three years ago, the products of various manufacturers are closer, but this year has appeared different positioning and different orientation, each enterprise in the three years are exploring different paths.
"Based on the advantages of their own research and development, to expand their own robot applications in this small subdivision, today's may be only a small hole, but behind it may be a peach blossom." Guan Jian said.