The development of collaborative robots cannot rely on cheapness, but on platformization!

　　From the perspective of manufacturers, we do not agree with the logic of low-price substitution. Relying on simple price wars and low-price strategies cannot promote the continued expansion of the collaborative robot market. The concept of "cost-effectiveness" that users value should first be "easy to use" rather than "cheap". —— Cao Yunan, Chairman and CEO of ELITE Robotics

　　During the CCTV Spring Festival Gala in the Year of the Ox, a "calligraphy robot" that could write the Chinese character "Fu" attracted a lot of attention, demonstrating the dexterity of collaborative robots. In fact, this was just a "small test" for collaborative robots, and their abilities are far from that.

　　Collaborative robots have played a huge role in the industrial field. Simply put, traditional industrial robots ensure safe and autonomous work by isolating themselves from human contact, while collaborative robots complete tasks independently or sequentially in a shared space or in close contact with humans. As an important branch of modern industrial robots, collaborative robots have attracted much attention since their introduction, and have developed rapidly in recent years.

　　According to the forecast of Gaogong Robot Industry Research Institute (GGII), by 2023, the global sales of collaborative robots will reach 80,000 units, with a market size of nearly 12 billion yuan. This means that following the wave of collaborative robot financing that began in 2020, domestic collaborative robots have entered another explosive cycle.

　　"Collaborative robots not only improve productivity, but also change production relations. They liberate humans from heavy, dangerous, mechanical and repetitive labor, allowing people's wisdom and abilities to be reflected in more high-value-added work." Cao Yunan, chairman and CEO of ELITE Robotics, said in an interview with Science and Technology Daily, "Collaborative robots truly work side by side with humans. From this point of view, they are like human robot colleagues."

　　Rather than “saving effort”, it is better to say “empowering people”

　　"Collaborative robots are also called human-machine collaborative robots. Their biggest features are that they can be flexibly deployed, are safe and reliable to use, and are easy to use. The user experience is greatly improved compared to traditional industrial robots." said Cao Yunan.

　　It is understood that in order to ensure the safety of workers, the movements of traditional industrial robots are often restricted within safety fences. Workers can only enter the safety fence after stopping or limiting the robot's high-precision, high-speed operations (such as welding, handling and stacking, polishing, etc.).

　　Collaborative robots can interact with humans at close range in shared spaces. There is no need for safety fences and they can work directly with workers on a production line, removing obstacles to human-machine collaboration while ensuring employee safety.

　　"Rather than saying that collaborative robots are for 'saving labor' for humans, it is more appropriate to understand them as 'empowering people'." Cao Yunan said that taking traditional welding robots as an example, employees in charge of operating them need to master welding knowledge and certain programming skills, while collaborative robots with simplified programming functions greatly lower the programming threshold, allowing workers with only welding experience to easily complete programming operations based on the interface settings, making them easier to use.

　　In addition to being safe, flexible and easy to use, high efficiency is also a highlight of collaborative robots. Traditional industrial robots have pain points such as high manufacturing and deployment costs, which discourage some small and medium-sized enterprises. "Collaborative robots have a shorter integration cycle, less loss from line downtime, and eliminate hidden costs including maintenance costs and line change costs. The return on investment cycle is usually within 12 months. In other words, using collaborative robots for one year can help users save the salary of one worker." Cao Yunan said.

　　Adaptable to more diverse work areas

　　Based on his judgment and thinking on the market, Cao Yunan divided the adaptation scenarios of collaborative robots into two categories: the first category is the incremental market part that can be realized by collaborative robots, such as compound transfer robots equipped with automatic guided vehicle (AGV) functional modules, power robots, medical assistance robots, etc.; the second category is the existing market part, such as in the tightening process of automobile lights and engine blocks. Based on a comprehensive comparison of various dimensions such as deployment methods, spatial accessibility and comprehensive costs, collaborative robots are more adaptable than industrial robots.

　　Compared with traditional industrial robots, lightweight and more flexible collaborative robots are very suitable for assembly, tightening, machine loading and unloading, material inspection, object picking and placing, grinding and polishing. They can efficiently solve problems such as the need to ensure personnel safety in the work area and limited installation space.

　　At present, the importance of collaborative robots is becoming increasingly prominent in the 3C (Computer, Communication, Consumer Electronics) industry. 3C is a general term for computer, communication and consumer electronic products. These products have the characteristics of fast iteration speed and complex parts. Many factories are required to produce a series of different models of products in a short period of time, and production lines are under pressure to quickly integrate and reorganize.

　　"Take the inspection station as an example. The production line may need to be switched every few hours. If a traditional mechanical platform is used to load and unload materials, it cannot meet the quick change requirements." Cao Yunan introduced, "However, the robotic arm of the collaborative robot is integrated with a modular program. When the production line is switched, the operator can directly call the program and quickly deploy the robot to execute instructions, which greatly shortens the switching and debugging time, thereby meeting the needs of switching production lines in a short time."

　　In the new consumption and new retail industries, collaborative robots are also shining. Concepts such as unmanned supermarkets, vending machines, face recognition, and touchless payment are emerging in an endless stream. Generally speaking, they all achieve "near-scene" human-computer interaction through equipment and software.

　　In addition to the above fields, collaborative robots are also playing an increasingly significant role in logistics packaging, medical care, food and other fields. They enable humans and machines to work better together, give full play to each other's advantages, and adapt to more diverse work fields. Relevant experts predict that the rapid development of robots will not lead to their replacement of humans, and human-machine collaboration will become the norm in the future.

　　Platformization and containerization may be the way out

　　With the advancement of technology and the reduction of manufacturing costs, the market acceptance of collaborative robots is getting higher and higher, and the competition is also becoming more and more fierce. According to GGII data, in 2016, the number of collaborative robot manufacturers in the world was about 30, of which about 15 were in the Chinese market; by 2020, the number of collaborative robot manufacturers in the world will exceed 110, and more than 75 in the Chinese market.

　　"From the manufacturer's perspective, we do not agree with the logic of low-price substitution. Relying solely on price wars and low-price strategies cannot drive the continued expansion of the collaborative robot market. The concept of 'cost-effectiveness' that users value should first be 'easy to use' rather than 'cheap'." said Cao Yunan.

　　The development of domestic collaborative robots also verifies this logic. Compared with the well-known veteran manufacturer, Denmark's Universal Robots (UR), the domestic collaborative robot with the highest sales volume is less than half of UR's products in China, which can be said to have a very obvious price advantage, but its sales are less than 50% of UR's.

　　"This shows that the low-price strategy is not only unable to seize the existing collaborative robot stock market, but also unable to develop replicable, mass-market application scenarios. The collaborative robot market is characterized by a long tail. Most of the demand will be concentrated in the already developed stock market, while the incremental market demand distributed at the tail is personalized and scattered. When these demands are accumulated, they will form a market that is larger than the stock market. To win this part of the market, the key is to 'specialize in one's field'," said Cao Yunan.

　　In Cao Yunan's view, collaborative robots are still just a tool for achieving automation or flexibility, and the ignition of the collaborative robot market requires the collaboration of the upstream, midstream and downstream, namely the robot original factory, robot accessories and ecology (various end effectors, sensors, software), integrators, and end users. The application of collaborative robots needs to be further polished, but the advantages of platformization have gradually emerged.

　　"Our strategy is to benchmark against the international leading level and deepen our product strength. Therefore, the new platform-level CS collaborative robot we launched is based on a completely new infrastructure. It has been fully upgraded in software including the operating interface and programming methods, as well as hardware including the teach pendant and the robot body. It demonstrates the flexibility and openness of the new generation of collaborative robots, as well as the latest achievements in human-machine collaborative automation technology." said Cao Yunan.