Where is the future of collaborative robots heading?

Preface

Since its advent, collaborative robots have attracted global attention and have become partners in human work due to their safety and flexible functions.

Since the world's first collaborative robot was put into commercial use in 2008, there are now more than 60 manufacturers involved in collaborative robots. "Collaborative robots" have begun to gain popularity and are highly recognized by people from all walks of life. This is the reason why collaborative robots have achieved rapid development.

Since 2015, the global collaborative robot market has grown at an average annual rate of more than 50%, much higher than the growth rate of the traditional industrial robot industry.

In the long run, collaborative robots, as the prototype of intelligent robots, have wider applications and more possibilities, and the future market prospects are promising. As the world's largest robot market, China has always been a "battlefield".

Hanwha Robotics launched its first collaborative robot, HCR-5, in Seoul, South Korea on March 30, 2017. Today, there are three mature products, HCR-3, HCR-5, and HCR-12, on the market. It can be said that the company is developing very rapidly.

Today we invited Zhu Guanyong, Sales Director of Hanwha Robotics, to discuss the future trends of collaborative robots in the Chinese market.

Q1- The future of collaborative robots -

Q: Hello Mr. Zhu, how big do you think the future market space for collaborative robots will be? Which industries will be the main development direction in the future?

Answer: The concept of collaborative robots has been deeply rooted in people's minds in recent years, and there are more and more practical applications, especially in areas with high labor costs and high flexible production requirements.

Overall, it is still in its initial stages and in the stage of exploring its application boundaries.

We believe that in the future, in addition to working more collaboratively with humans in industrial scenarios, collaborative robots will have a broader space in non-industrial scenarios due to their safety performance characteristics.

Driven by market demand and domestic and foreign robot brands, the future development space of domestic collaborative robots will be immeasurable.

From an industrial perspective, the main application directions will continue to focus on the automotive industry, metal and mechanical processing, 3C electronics industry, plastics industry, food/pharmaceuticals/cosmetics and other fields; at the same time, scientific research, education and training, health, services and automation of various non-industrial scenarios will also develop rapidly.

According to incomplete statistics, in 2018, China's sales of collaborative robots reached 6,320 units, a year-on-year increase of 49.9%; the market size reached 930 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 47.62%; from 2014 to 2018, the average annual compound growth rate of collaborative robot sales and market size was 80.15% and 64.83% respectively.

We optimistically predict that in the near future, the annual usage of collaborative robots in China will reach more than 100,000 units.

Q2- Core Competitiveness -

Q: Facing such a large-scale market in the future, Hanwha Robotics is the first Korean company to have collaborative robots, and it has been able to develop so rapidly in China. What do you think is Hanwha's core competitiveness?

Answer: As we all know, Hanwha Group is a Fortune 500 company with a long history, rich management experience and innovative spirit. Hanwha Precision, a subsidiary of Hanwha Group, has a good user reputation and brand image in China.

The Robotics Division, which is based on Hanwha Precision Machinery, has formed a research and development team of more than 100 people to conduct basic research and product development. Relying on Hanwha's years of technical accumulation and manufacturing experience in aviation, precision machinery and security products, Hanwha Robotics focuses on user needs, takes customer on-site applications as the basis, and continuously improves product quality and perfects product functions.

In addition, Hanwha has a number of experienced system integrator partners and has achieved many successful cases, helping end users to obtain the most optimized automation solutions in multiple fields.

In short, Hanwha Robotics starts from user needs, cooperates seamlessly with system integrators, accumulates strength over time, and steadily provides users with high-quality products and services.

Q3- Differentiation Advantages -

Q: Cobot products are very popular in the market. Does Hanwha have more advantages in this field?

Answer: Although there are more and more Cobot products on the market, Hanwha Robotics still maintains its own advantages.

First of all, Hanwha's HCR series continues to deepen the collaborative robot concept of "easy to use, applicable and cost-effective".

Programming and installation are extremely simple: We provide an intuitive and concise UI interface, so even beginners with no experience can learn programming and operation in a short time; an even simpler method is for the user to grab the robot arm and directly perform point-to-point and path teaching.

These are particularly effective in real applications, greatly shortening integration and debugging time and lowering the import threshold.

At the same time, we also provide simple workstation adjustment and installation guidance methods. Since the robot body is light and does not take up too much space, it has low requirements for the production line environment and can be adjusted to a variety of workstations, easily meeting the needs of multi-variety small-batch production.

As collaborative robots are widely used in various industries, the demand for robot peripherals will grow simultaneously. Therefore, Hanwha Robotics will continue to strengthen the construction of the surrounding ecosystem H-Link.

For example, HCR's robotic software Rodi system provides compatibility with major machine vision brand products in a variety of ways, allowing users to easily integrate robotic vision systems.

For common applications, we provide the simplest way - directly use Vision commands, which can be connected with mainstream vision products such as Omron, Cognex, Keyence, Baumer, etc. For complex applications, we can provide Rodi-X version to specific users upon application, and provide more diversified and personalized solutions through scripts or API.

It is particularly worth mentioning that Rodi also provides additional command programs, which are often used in robot applications such as loading, palletizing and transportation, making the originally complex programming of these applications easy and simple.

By the way, let me mention our service system. Thanks to Hanwha Precision's more than 20 years of hard work in China, it has established three major technology centers in Suzhou, Shenzhen and Tianjin. Hanwha Robotics has developed a rapid service response capability covering most areas of China.

In the future, Hanwha collaborative robots will also incorporate cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, etc. to make collaborative robots more collaborative and more intelligent.

Q4In addition to system integrators, what other sales channels does Hanwha have for its robots?

Answer: In addition to in-depth cooperation with system integrators, Hanwha will also use large-scale sales platforms in the domestic industrial field of FA (factory automation) and PA (process automation) to sell our products online, facilitate users to purchase conveniently and provide services.

In addition, we will also pay more attention to cooperation with solution providers and standard equipment manufacturers.