A brief discussion on the new industry trend of collaborative robots and lithium batteries

If we talk about the hot areas in the industry in recent years, collaborative robots will undoubtedly occupy a place. According to incomplete statistics from Gaogong Robot, since 2020, there have been 50 financing events in the field of collaborative robots, and 21 of them have raised funds of over 100 million yuan. Among them, companies such as Elite Robotics, Luoshi, Jieka Robotics, Aubo, and Yuejiang Robotics have completed two or even three rounds of financing within a year.

If we talk about the fastest growing and most prosperous industries in recent years, the lithium battery industry is undoubtedly the best.

Gaogong Robot has sorted out the production expansion situation of the lithium battery industry. According to incomplete statistics, as of March 2022, domestic and foreign power battery companies including CATL, BYD, Sinovation, EVE Energy, Honeycomb Energy, Guoxuan High-tech, and Envision Power have planned to add nearly 2,000GWh of new production capacity, most of which will be completed and put into production before 2025. If calculated based on the investment in power battery equipment per GWh of approximately RMB 240 million, it is estimated that the new lithium battery equipment market demand from 2021 to 2025 will exceed RMB 480 billion. Lithium battery equipment manufacturers have huge market demand.

So, what kind of sparks will be created when collaborative robots, the "new darling" of the robotics industry, meet the hottest lithium battery industry?

First of all, from the definition, a collaborative robot is a robot designed to interact closely with humans in a shared working space. Its advantage is that it can adapt to different work platforms with small spaces and variable travel distances. At the same time, it can adapt to flexible production. When switching production lines, it can operate quickly in a shorter time and better ensure production safety.

Data from the Gaogong Robot Industry Research Institute (GGII) show that China's sales of collaborative robots reached 18,623 units in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 87.62%; the market size was 2.039 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 76.84%; from 2016 to 2021, the average annual compound growth rate of collaborative robot sales and market size was 51.94% and 41.46%, respectively.

In the application of the lithium battery industry, collaborative robots can be quickly deployed to address the current problems in the industry, such as single-machine automation, manual product switching, long delivery cycles, and low production line intelligence. This enables flexible production and shortens the investment return cycle for single-station automation upgrades.

However, due to the limitations of their own load and cycle time, collaborative robots are mainly used in the production of batteries (small batteries) and are less used in the production of power batteries.

Specifically, in the production process of digital batteries, because there are many types of battery products and frequent model changes are required, SCARA is used in a relatively large amount, but some scenarios have also begun to introduce collaborative robots. Currently, collaborative robots are mainly suitable for the needs of consumer soft-pack batteries, and can realize side ironing, gluing, labeling, welding, loading and unloading, palletizing and other processes.

An industry insider said that there is still a lot of room for the application of collaborative robots in many processes of lithium battery production, especially in scenarios such as semi-automatic lines and trial production lines in the mid- and late-stage processes that require human-machine collaborative production. Collaborative robots are simple to use, flexible, safe and efficient, low-cost, lightweight, and human-machine collaborative, and are more suitable for flexible manufacturing.

The relevant person in charge of Elite Robotics said that lithium batteries are an industry with highly mature automation. Elite is optimistic that with more refined management in the future, there will be opportunities to introduce collaborative robots at single work stations, especially in consumer lithium batteries.

From the perspective of the companies that have entered the market, collaborative robot manufacturers such as Elite Robotics, JEKA Robotics, Yuejiang Robotics, AUO, SIASUN, and Han’s Robotics are all involved in the lithium battery industry.

SIASUN's DUOCO series collaborative robots, based on precise force control, can accurately complete complex, highly flexible positioning and plug-in assembly tasks in narrow assembly environments, improving the precision and accuracy of assembly. The dual-machine workstation combined with the DUCO MIND controller can achieve flexible grasping without positioning, thereby improving assembly efficiency.

Aiming at the specific scenarios of the lithium battery industry, Jieka Robot has developed a customized flexible solution to replace people with robots. So far, Jieka Robot has successfully delivered collaborative robot automated production lines to many well-known lithium battery companies. Depending on the production line conditions, the payback period is approximately 1-1.5 years, and each robot can replace 4-6 workers per day.

Elite Robot's collaborative robot products are compatible with external software such as end effectors, and mobile devices. Its solutions can further possess comprehensive capabilities such as visual perception, force perception, and remote operation. They have been widely used in automation upgrades and renovations in the fields of , 3C, automotive parts, metal processing, food and beverage, smart home appliances, electricity, medical care, and new retail.

Han's Robotics' Elfin series collaborative robots adopt a unique dual-joint module design. One motion module contains two joints, forming a unique kinematic structure. They have been successfully used in the battery pack screw fastening process, effectively solving the problems of skewed screws and inadequate installation caused by manual screw fastening. At the same time, Han's Robotics' collaborative robots have also been applied in the back-end of battery cell production and the PACK stage.

YUJING Robotics' CR5 collaborative robot is equipped with YUJING's safety skin solution, which can meet the needs of many scenarios such as precision assembly, grinding, loading and unloading;

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In addition, another important form of collaborative robot application in the lithium battery industry is the composite robot that cooperates with the mobile robot chassis, end effector, etc. Based on its movable and operable characteristics, the composite robot can be widely used in mobile loading and unloading, mobile assembly and other links in the lithium battery industry.

GGII believes that in the next few years, the demand for lithium batteries in the industry is expected to continue to grow at a high rate, with the main driving forces being as follows: 1. Power battery companies are accelerating their expansion, and the lithium battery equipment market will maintain a high growth trend. 2. The energy storage market will be another growth point for the demand for lithium batteries in the future.

In short, in the foreseeable future, the market space of the lithium battery industry will continue to expand and will be one of the "blue oceans" that collaborative robot companies will compete for.

Editor: Huang Fei