my country's own brand robots are growing rapidly and their application scope is expanding continuously

At a press conference on the theme of "Vigorously Developing High-end Equipment Manufacturing Industry" held by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently, Guo Shougang, deputy director of the First Department of Equipment Industry of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that the scale of China's robot industry is growing rapidly, and the operating income of the entire robot industry will exceed 130 billion yuan in 2021. Among them, the output of industrial robots reached 366,000 units, a 10-fold increase from 2015, firmly ranking first in the world's largest industrial robot market.

The booming robotics industry is greatly changing people’s production and lifestyles, and injecting strong impetus into economic and social development.

Deeper and wider application range

Robot dogs sing and dance, simulated humanoid robots show off their singing skills, delivery robots deliver goods, robot "doctors" perform surgery remotely... In recent years, with the accelerated integration of various technologies such as artificial intelligence, 5G, and new materials and robotics technologies, robots are showing their prowess in more and more fields, constantly giving birth to new industries, new models, and new business formats.

At the China Robotics Industry Development Conference held recently, Wang Tianmiao, president of Zhongguancun Zhiyou Research Institute and honorary director of the Robotics Institute of Beihang University, said that labor shortages and cost increases have driven the rapid growth of robots, which is a long-term rigid demand in the market. In this growth, robots are showing a trend of wider application and deeper application.

Robot application scenarios are becoming increasingly diverse. According to Wang Weiming, director of the First Department of Equipment Industry of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the application of industrial robots in China has covered 60 major industries and 168 medium industries in the national economy. In 2021, the output of service robots in China reached 9.214 million units, a year-on-year increase of 48.9%. While the market for special robots is growing steadily, high-complexity products such as space robots, deep-sea robots, and surgical robots have achieved important breakthroughs.

"In the past, robots were mostly used in the mobile phone or automobile industries, but now they are also being used in new energy, service and agricultural fields." Wang Tianmiao said that in the past, robots were used by large enterprises, but now small and medium-sized enterprises and even enterprises with only a few dozen employees are also using them. Statistics show that in 2021, the density of robots in my country's manufacturing industry reached more than 300 per 10,000 people, an increase of about 13 times compared with 2012.

Service robots are widely used in catering, education, medical care , logistics and other fields. For example, at the just concluded 2022 China International Fair for Trade in Services, Meituan displayed automatic delivery vehicles and delivery drones , realizing automated delivery through intelligent scheduling and further improving efficiency. Tianyancha data shows that as of now, there are more than 439,000 service robot-related companies in China, of which more than 79,000 new registered companies were added from January to August this year.

Special robots can now fly in the sky and in the sea. The large and small robotic arms in the space station can collaborate in extravehicular operations in space. Self-powered soft robots can dive and drive 10,000 meters deep under the sea. There are also robots that can complete tasks intelligently and efficiently in high-risk industry scenarios such as petrochemicals and ships.

Domestic substitution is accelerating

While the scale of my country's robot market is growing rapidly, the domestic robot industry is developing rapidly, benefiting from policy guidance and market demand, with sales growth and market share continuing to increase.

According to statistics from the Robotics Branch of the China Machinery Industry Federation (China Robot Industry Alliance) and the International Federation of Robotics, in 2021, my country's industrial robot market sold a total of 271,000 industrial robots, a year-on-year increase of 50.1%, and the growth rate was 30.1 percentage points faster than the previous year. Among them, foreign brand robots sold 184,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 49.7%, and the growth rate was 26 percentage points faster than the previous year; domestic brand industrial robots sold 87,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 50.8%, and the growth rate was 38 percentage points faster than the previous year. In 2021, the proportion of domestic brand robots in the total market sales was 32%, an increase from the previous year.

In terms of market share, in 2021, the market share of domestic brand robots in the electrical and electronic equipment manufacturing, automobile manufacturing, and metal processing industries increased, while the market share in the food manufacturing, plastics and chemical products manufacturing industries decreased.

Robots are known as the "crown jewel of the manufacturing industry". Their research and development, manufacturing and application are important indicators of a country's scientific and technological innovation and high-end manufacturing level. Regarding the development level of my country's robotics industry, Song Xiaogang, Secretary-General of the China Machinery Industry Federation, Executive Vice Chairman and Secretary-General of the Robotics Branch, believes that my country's industrial robotics industry has initially formed a complete industrial chain. From key components to complete machines to integrated applications, each link and related components have related companies.

The application areas of domestically produced industrial robots are also expanding year by year. Song Xiaogang said that the coverage of domestically produced robots is quite deep, especially in some niche areas, such as furnace robots in the metallurgical industry, as well as robots in the furniture, ceramic sanitary ware and photovoltaic industries. These industries are not large, but they are directly related to whether the transformation and upgrading of traditional manufacturing, quality improvement, efficiency increase and environmental improvement can be successfully completed. In the future, there is still a lot of room for expansion in the scope of application.

As a leading company in the robotics industry, Siasun Robotics has successfully developed five series of products with independent intellectual property rights, including industrial robots, mobile robots, special robots, collaborative robots , and medical service robots, over the past 20 years. Its products have been exported to more than 40 countries and regions, providing industrial upgrading services to more than 4,000 international companies around the world. Public information shows that Siasun Robotics is an equipment supplier for many well-known automobile manufacturers. With the upgrading of high-end manufacturing industries and the acceleration of domestic substitution of robots, Siasun Robotics will also usher in broad development space.

Collaborative innovation is crucial

Despite the huge progress, the domestic robotics industry still has a long way to go. Zhao Jie, director of the Robotics Institute of Harbin Institute of Technology, bluntly said: "The domestic robotics industry has basically everything except special chips, but the development of the industry needs to solve the problem of precision and quality."

Zhao Jie believes that in the future, the hardware of robots may gradually move towards standardization, modularization and even unitization. The gap with the international leading level is mainly reflected in key technologies such as robot design, structure, motion control, and reliability. It should be noted that robots are products with strong electromechanical coupling, and the breakthrough of a single technology has limited contribution to the improvement of the performance of the whole machine.

How to improve the core competitiveness of domestic robots? Zhao Jie believes that we should make good use of innovation centers, engineering technology centers and national key laboratories to achieve systematic breakthroughs with the advantages of the system.

Song Xiaogang also said that the domestic robot industry does have problems with low market share and insufficient supply of high-end products. These problems are not only reflected in the finished robots, but also in parts, software and other links. The main reason is insufficient R&D innovation, including insufficient innovation ability, insufficient investment and insufficient market application.

How to resolve these contradictions that restrict innovation is a question that Song Xiaogang has repeatedly pondered. "Collaborative innovation in the industrial chain is crucial to the development of my country's robotics industry." He said that domestic robotics companies are smaller than large international robotics companies and have limited investment in innovation and research and development. Through collaborative innovation with other companies in the industrial chain, while obtaining more R&D investment, they can also develop matching robotic equipment according to the specific production needs of different companies. The development of the robot complete machine industry is driven by applications, and the complete machine drives technological progress in the field of parts and components, ultimately achieving a common improvement of the entire chain.

This idea has been supported by the policies of relevant departments. Guo Shougang said that in the next step, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will actively expand industry applications, implement the "Robot +" application action, organize precise matching of production and demand, accelerate the popularization and promotion of mature scenarios, increase product innovation in emerging fields, strengthen special applications in subdivided fields, and help various industries digitize ...