After the first year of composite robots, where is the market going?

If the semiconductor industry is the new growth promise for domestic robots and a mountain that mobile robot companies must fight to seize, then composite robots are definitely one of the most powerful weapons that companies can use.

According to data from the Gaogong Robot Industry Research Institute (GGII), the sales volume of AGV/AMR & composite robots in China's semiconductor industry in 2021 was 946 units, most of which were composite robots, accounting for more than 70%. With the continuous advancement of composite robot-related technologies, they have begun to be applied in large quantities in many fields, among which the semiconductor industry is one of the most important application industries for composite robots.

Looking back, just a few years ago, the product of "composite robot" was still in a delicate state of "existing, but seemingly not existing" in the industry, not to mention its large-scale application in industries such as semiconductors and precision manufacturing.

So in just two or three years, from industry awareness to product launch, what major changes have taken place in composite robots?

In 2015, at the World Robot Conference, SIASUN launched China's first composite robot product.

After several years of development, 2021 was called the "first year of composite robot landing" by the media. The form of composite robots is basically fixed on the combination of "AMR + robotic arm". One of Jingzhi Robot's businesses is to customize composite robot chassis for customers. General Manager Peng Yinhua said that in addition to the "AMR + robotic arm" form, there is sometimes a combination of "AMR + robotic arm + visual platform".

In addition to the form, more changes have also taken place in the past two years.

First, at the cognitive level. As mentioned above, in the past, the industry knew about the existence of "composite robots", but its understanding was only at the conceptual level.

After nearly two years of market development, major players on the market such as UAI, Stand Robotics, SIASUN, Kung Fu Robot, Ligong, SAZHI Intelligent, Xiangong Intelligent, Jiazhi Technology, and BlueCore Technology have gradually gained popularity.

Today, the industry's understanding of composite robots has already moved from the concept to the application level. If before, people were only exploring the possibilities of the product itself, that is, "what is a composite robot", now they are focusing on the scenarios, focusing on "where else can composite robots be used?"

End customers have gone from watching to using; a large number of manufacturers have also gone from being "onlookers" to "entrants". Previously, collaborative robot companies such as Yuejiang Robotics, Elite Robotics, Han's Robotics, Aobo Robotics, and Jieka Robotics have also entered the field of composite robots.

Another obvious phenomenon that can be observed is that the production ideas of composite robot manufacturers have also changed significantly.

Weilianjia has been involved in the field of composite robots since 2018. General Manager Jia Junguo believes that in the past, many composite robot manufacturers adopted the model of "finding markets with products", which is not only inefficient but also inconsistent with market laws.

Now, after accumulating a certain number of cases, composite robot manufacturers will "design products for the market": first find the scenario, design the product, and then build the market.

As one of the early entrants into the composite robot market, Zhang Xu, marketing director of Stand Robotics, said, "Stand's understanding of demand and product PMF capabilities are not comparable to those in the early days." This transformation comes from the company's own product iteration design and market insight capabilities; more is based on the experience accumulated from the implementation of a large number of projects.

The change in production thinking from "finding markets with products" to "making products for the market" also further demonstrates the mature transformation of the composite robot market.

Nowadays, composite robots, as an advanced automated production equipment, are gradually becoming popular and applied in various industries. With the continuous increase in market demand, more and more companies are beginning to pay attention to the price and performance of composite robots.

Around 2018 and 2019, the price of a composite robot was usually between 700,000 and 800,000 yuan. According to GGII data, the average price of a composite robot in 2021 was 520,000 yuan. It can be seen that with the continuous advancement of technology and the intensification of market competition, the unit price of composite robots has dropped significantly.

Weilianjia General Manager Jia Junguo expects that in the next few years, the price of composite robots will further drop to less than 300,000 yuan.

One visible trend is that the price of composite robots will become more and more affordable. In this case, manufacturers must actively explore new technologies and production models to reduce costs, improve production efficiency, and provide customers with more cost-effective solutions.

However, Zhang Xu, marketing director of Stand Robotics, believes that when it comes to specific projects, the price of a piece of equipment should not only be considered based on the equipment itself, but also factors such as implementation difficulty and non-standard requirements. Simply lowering prices will not bring spring to the entire industry.

In fact, the competitiveness of composite robots is also reflected in the exploration and application of more scenarios. When there is no obvious gap in price, product stability, and integration capabilities, finding scenarios is more important than simply making robots.

At present, there are batch orders for composite robots in some scenarios, but most of them are concentrated in industries with higher price acceptance, such as 3C, semiconductors, medical care, aerospace, etc.

For example, in the semiconductor industry, YOUI's composite robots have been widely used. By configuring multiple YOUI wafer box handling robots and equipped with YOUIFLEET scheduling management system and YOUITMS logistics control system, YOUI's composite robots can effectively complete the automated loading and unloading between machines and electronic material racks and the refined management of the entire process of workshop logistics data, realizing flexible and intelligent production in wafer workshops.

Zhang Xu, marketing director of Stand Robotics, has a clear feeling about this. "The scale of composite robot projects in 2018 and 2019 was relatively small. Now, there are many scenarios with large-scale orders, especially CNC and semiconductors."

Jia Junguo believes that in terms of future scenario expansion, CNC data machine loading and unloading scenarios will be the first to achieve breakthroughs. Some companies that require three shifts and 24-hour duty, as well as relatively dangerous work scenarios, are in urgent need of composite robots.

As the scenarios gradually open up, composite robots will also usher in faster development. According to GGII data, the sales volume of composite robots in the Chinese market increased from 185 units to 1,169 units from 2017 to 2022, with an average annual compound growth rate of nearly 45%. It is expected that the market growth rate will maintain around 40% in 2023, and the sales volume will exceed 1,600 units.

There is demand in the market, but composite robots are still difficult to deliver in terms of both software and hardware.

A common problem is the integrated control problem of composite robots. Composite robots are mainly composed of mobile chassis, collaborative robot arms, vision and corresponding end effectors. This gives composite robots the ability to move flexibly, perceive and operate, but also brings about the compatibility problem of multiple systems.

Due to the lack of "common language" among composite robot component manufacturers, it is difficult for each system to achieve convenient embedded integration. This leads to poor "integrity" of composite robots, unstable performance, and difficulty in implementation. It also requires extremely high comprehensive capabilities of on-site deployment personnel, and troubleshooting is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Once a problem occurs, each component must be checked separately for a "full physical examination", which ultimately affects the overall deployment efficiency and operation rhythm of the project.

There are usually two ways to solve this problem.

First, enterprises can choose some "shortcuts", such as looking for professional system integrators to alleviate the problem. Jia Junguo introduced that for different AMR chassis and different robotic arms, Weilianjia can connect different components through software in a very short time without changing its standard protocol, complete the information communication between components, connect the internal components of the composite robot, and assist on-site personnel to quickly implement the robot.

The second is to achieve "standardization" in aspects such as motion chassis, perception and positioning, visual compensation and communication protocols. However, in the mobile robot industry, "standardization" itself is a long-term pain point. Compared with other mobile robots, the composite robot market is still in the early stages of development, and it seems too early to talk about standardization now.