2019 Zhengzhou Machine Tool Exhibition｜What are the prospects and trends of the robot industry?

Currently, new technologies represented by the Internet, big data, and artificial intelligence are integrating with the manufacturing industry at an accelerated pace, promoting the development of intelligent manufacturing. The emergence of new technologies and new products in robots has become an important driving force for a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation. It not only provides an important breakthrough for the development of advanced manufacturing industry, but also provides strong support for improving people's lives.

So, what is the current prospect of the robot industry, and what are the development trends in the future? At the 2018 World Robot Conference, robotics experts from all over the world looked at the market and talked about the future.

Rapid industrial development

Since the first industrial robot was launched in the United States in 1959, robots have been widely used in all walks of life, constantly integrating into and profoundly changing people's lives. In the field of equipment manufacturing, robotic arms are replacing workers' hands with their strong load-bearing capacity and precise grasping operations; in the field of logistics, intelligent warehousing robots and autonomous vehicles (AGV) continue to improve transportation efficiency; in the field of life services, Household cleaning robots and service robots are becoming personal nannies and secretaries in many homes...

"In 2017, the overall growth rate of China's robot industry reached a new high, and the average growth rate in the past five years has been close to 60%." Regarding the market situation of China's robots in 2017, Qu Daokui, President of Xinsong Robot Automation Co., Ltd., analyzed that from In terms of robot type, the sales of multi-jointed robots increased by 35.51T in 2017, becoming the domestically produced model with the most annual sales for the first time. Since multi-jointed robots have high requirements for control and accuracy, the rapid growth of their sales has also promoted the improvement of the quality of my country's robots to a certain extent.

As far as application industries are concerned, the purchase volume of electronic and electrical equipment and equipment manufacturing and automobile manufacturing industries increased by 62.6% and 61.1% respectively year-on-year. "But these industries mainly purchase foreign brand robots, and the market share of domestic brands is very low. It can be seen that there is still a big gap between domestic robots and foreign countries in high-end application fields." Qu Daokui pointed out that the application of domestic robots has been It involves 110 industries in 39 major categories of the national economy, which also shows that my country has strong market demand for the robot industry.

"Looking at the global industrial robot market, the compound growth rate from 2011 to 2016 reached 12%. The main application areas are material handling and welding. The main application industries are automobile and electronic manufacturing. The main usage area is China." 2018 World Robot Conference At the meeting, Jeff Bernstein, chairman of the American Robotics Industry Association, couldn't help but lament the rapid rise of China's robot market.

Looking back at the U.S. market, in the first half of 2018, robot orders in the automotive industry fell by 66% year-on-year, while robot sales in other industries increased by 55% year-on-year. "At present, the automotive industry is still the main contributor to the growth of the robot market. If we want to maintain a good development momentum in the market, we must continue to expand its application fields and strive to make it available to more small and medium-sized enterprises and industries. It’s affordable,” Jeff Bernstein said.

Opportunities and challenges coexist

Faced with such broad industry prospects, domestic and foreign robot companies will certainly not miss the opportunity for development. As a leading domestic robot company, SIASUN Robotics Automation Co., Ltd. has set its development sights on a new generation of robots in recent years. "We believe that robots have entered the 2.0 era. The most important sign is that the indicators for measuring their performance have changed from the past equipment speed, accuracy, load and reliability to whether the robot has autonomous decision-making capabilities, movement and interaction capabilities." Qu Daokui believes that new performance also puts forward higher requirements for the company's technology research and development capabilities.

From dual-arm collaborative robots with high flexibility, autonomous obstacle avoidance, and rapid configuration to snake-arm robots with a high degree of freedom; from composite robots that use augmented reality technology to achieve harmonious human-machine interaction to artificial intelligence such as navigation control algorithms Intelligent technology completes the mobile robot that performs hand in hand with dancers... Xinsong Company always seizes opportunities with technological innovation. "At present, the development trend of robots is not limited to the field of industrial manufacturing. By combining with technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and big data, it has already entered various industries such as art and literature." Qu Daokui said.

Regarding the in-depth integration of robots and artificial intelligence, Liu Qingfeng, chairman of iFlytek Co., Ltd., feels the same way. He believes that robots must not only have stable hardware and good appearance, but more importantly, have front-end interaction capabilities and background decision-making capabilities.

"Our research has found that today's robots learn through massive data, and their skills such as translation and chess playing can surpass those of 90% professionals, but their independent reasoning ability is not as good as that of a 6-year-old child." In Liu Qingfeng's view, the third wave of artificial intelligence The core of Inspur is to use more new algorithms represented by deep neural networks to give machines the ability to understand, think, learn and make decisions, so as to support robots to enter all aspects of social life better and faster.

Karel Alout, a global senior partner at McKinsey, believes that the main challenge facing Chinese robot companies is that most of their products are concentrated in the low-end market, and sometimes they are unable to produce more complex robots. In addition, China only holds less than 11 TP3T industrial robot patents, and intellectual property rights in this field are relatively scarce.

Build a global industrial cooperation ecosystem

With the acceleration of globalization, it is impossible for any country or industry to be immune to the challenges faced by it. Building a global ecological chain that conforms to the concept of mutual benefit and win-win has become a broad consensus in the entire robotics industry.

"We have always adhered to open cooperation and are committed to working with other countries to build a new ecosystem of global industrial cooperation." Xin Guobin, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that world-renowned robots and key parts companies, such as ABB Group Corporation, KUKA Robot Co., Ltd. Most of the companies have invested in building factories and established R&D and production bases in China; Xinsong Company is preparing to build R&D centers in the European Union, North America and Japan; Qingdao Baojia Automation Equipment Co., Ltd. and Japan's Fujitsu Co., Ltd. jointly established a robot application research institute. Carry out in-depth development and customized design of industrial robots and integrated systems... A series of international exchanges and collaborative cooperation such as technical research, standard formulation, achievement transformation, and talent training are being promoted in an orderly manner.

"The combination of robots and artificial intelligence must rely on industrial ecology." Liu Qingfeng said that the future of artificial intelligence requires greater openness and cooperation. On the one hand, a single deep learning algorithm can no longer meet the application of artificial intelligence in the field of robots. "Artificial intelligence "Intelligence + Robots" requires close cooperation between entrepreneurs and scientists with professional knowledge; on the other hand, in addition to innovative cooperation in source technologies, countries should also communicate more on related systems such as ethics, humanities and law, and build a more sound system social security system and legal system.

Qu Daokui said that while building a good external development environment, the autonomous adaptability of robots to the environment, that is, "flexible intelligence", also needs to be further improved. Through the continuous integration with new technologies, the robot ecosystem has changed, and technological adjustments and breakthroughs must be made accordingly so that robots can have better performance, higher intelligence, and broader development space.

The 2019 Zhengzhou Industry Fair, 2019 Zhengzhou Machine Tool Exhibition, and 2019 Zhengzhou Industrial Automation Exhibition will be grandly opened at the Zhengzhou International Convention and Exhibition Center on June 4-6, 2019! With an exhibition area of 65,000 square meters, thousands of exhibitors are looking forward to your arrival.