Will commercial cleaning robots explode in popularity? Robot product capabilities still need to be improved!

With the continuous growth of the commercial robot market, the huge potential of the commercial cleaning field is destined to become a strategic market that all major players are vying for. As this "battle" continues, the amount of capital and the quality of marketing are no longer the absolute factors that determine the outcome. The product itself has become the only "decisive factor" that affects the outcome of the battle.

The market is huge, so why is the “purchasing power” insufficient?

According to data, in 2021, the scale of China's commercial cleaning market will reach 48.82 billion yuan. iResearch believes that by 2025, China's commercial robot market is expected to show sustained high growth to a scale of nearly 100 billion yuan, among which commercial cleaning robots will grow to about 74.9 billion yuan.

On the one hand, the aging population is increasing, labor costs are rising year by year, and fewer and fewer people are willing to work in the cleaning industry. It is foreseeable that there will be no one available in the future. On the other hand, the growing demand for cleaning and the improvement of cleaning standards have given commercial cleaning robots broad application potential.

Although the market prospects are promising, at the current stage, commercial cleaning robots have not yet been widely used, and the rate of replacing human labor is not high. Taking commercial property cleaning as an example, my country has 30 billion square meters of property management area, but the coverage rate of commercial cleaning robots is still less than 20%. The reason is that in addition to the low level of awareness of robots, the most important thing is that the value of most commercial cleaning robots is not enough to break the balance of labor costs.

In the decision-making process, end users will comprehensively consider factors such as the robot's function, price, efficiency and brand, among which function and price are the decisive factors. Judging from market feedback, most commercial cleaning robots currently have poor intelligence and performance, especially in commercial scenarios such as high-transparency obstacles (glass guardrails, glass walls, etc.) commonly seen in shopping malls, high-risk scenarios (escalators, revolving doors, etc.), and similar obstacles or scenarios such as fallen objects, narrow passages, shelves in supermarkets, etc., the robot's obstacle avoidance effect and stability are often insufficient. At the same time, the current price of robots is mostly between tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands, and the replacement value is not obvious, resulting in low willingness of end users to buy.

It can be seen that to break the current dilemma, it means that we must "work hard" in terms of function and price. Today, as the competition in the robot industry enters the second half, the focus of competition of all robot companies is returning to the product itself. The amount of capital and the quality of marketing are no longer decisive factors. Who can take the lead in terms of function and price will directly determine the future market share. For INDEND, which has always served the upstream of the industrial chain, this is also an opportunity.

As a leading domestic supplier of key robotics technologies, INDEMIND has extensive experience in key robotics technologies and product development, including navigation, obstacle avoidance, decision-making, and AI interaction. It also has full-stack technical capabilities for building products from 0 to 1 for robotics companies. In response to current industry needs, RBN100 commercial robotics AI solutions have been specially developed.

The solution is based on the INDEMIND OS Fusion system, adopts a multi-fusion architecture with binocular stereo cameras as the core, supports mainstream sensors of different categories on the market, and meets the development of core functions such as commercial robot navigation and positioning, intelligent obstacle avoidance, path planning, and decision interaction. The solution has the reliability of industrial-grade robots and the flexibility of small robots, and is more cost-effective, and can be widely used in various commercial robot products.

In terms of application, the RBN100 commercial robot AI solution has multiple functional advantages:

• Real-time mapping of large scenes

The RBN100 commercial robot AI solution supports the autonomous creation of full-scene two-dimensional maps, three-dimensional maps, and semantic maps, with map construction accuracy reaching the centimeter level. It also supports dynamic map updates and intelligent restricted areas.

•Multi-mode path planning

Based on massive data from more than 100 usage scenarios, INDEMIND has a deep understanding of various work scenarios such as cleaning, delivery, guidance, security, etc. It can provide efficient, scientific and safe path planning according to operational requirements. It also provides a path optimization mode to further improve the robot's operating efficiency.

• Intelligent recognition

Supports recognition of semantics of various commercial scenarios, and can effectively recognize and detect common commercial scenarios such as escalators;

Based on binocular active and Lidar, the INDEMIND detection algorithm can detect highly reflective objects such as glass guardrails and revolving doors;

It supports the detection of dynamic semantics such as pedestrians and pets, effectively improving the safety of robot operation.

•3D obstacle avoidance

In commercial scenarios, there are often many low obstacles and high-reflective obstacles or scenes, which have a great impact on the operation of the robot. The RBN100 commercial robot AI solution supports low obstacle avoidance (ground plugs, table and chair bases, etc.); high-reflective obstacle avoidance (glass guardrails, revolving doors, etc.); full-height obstacle avoidance (desktops, warning lines, etc.), ensuring that the robot can operate safely and stably in complex environments.

• Active safety

Since commercial scenarios are basically in dynamic change, the robot's "on-the-spot judgment" ability is crucial. When facing a dynamic environment, a robot equipped with the RBN100 commercial robot AI solution can make real-time potential risk judgments (pedestrians, pets, and fast-moving objects), and make avoidance strategies in advance based on risk classification, combining reliability and flexibility.

• Rapid deployment

The robot equipped with the RBN100 commercial robot AI solution does not require the participation of technical personnel. Users can deploy and use it independently, and the operation is simple. No pre-deployment is required. The robot can build maps independently, support multi-layer maps and global scheduling, and also support intelligent elevator control systems to achieve flexible operations on multiple floors.

The RBN100 commercial robot AI solution improves robot performance while also reducing costs. Depending on the development needs of different robot companies, the cost can be as low as RMB 2,000, and the cost of a complete chassis including navigation can be as low as RMB 5,000. Combined with relatively mature operating unit technology, the entire machine can be controlled from project establishment to mass production in as little as 2 months, which can help robot companies shorten their R&D time by an average of 6-9 months and save 80% of the R&D costs of nearly 10 million yuan.

As a technology-driven industry, it has extremely high technical barriers. With the upgrading of technology, operating costs are constantly increasing, and the difficulty of research and development is becoming increasingly higher. Obviously, cooperation with upstream AI technology suppliers in the industry chain is undoubtedly an effective way to reduce costs, increase efficiency and achieve rapid implementation

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