Collaborative robots are developing rapidly. Will they become a new investment trend by taking advantage of policy dividends?

Collaborative robots are a hot topic in the field of robots in recent years . They are hailed as a new type of labor in industrial production. Collaborative robots are designed to work with human workers, reduce manual burden, and improve production efficiency and quality. The significance of collaborative robots for production and life lies in improving efficiency, reducing costs, enhancing safety, providing a better work-life balance, and promoting technological progress. These impacts are not limited to the business world, but also extend to society and everyone's life.

In 2008, Universal Robots of Denmark launched the world's first collaborative robot, UR5. After 15 years of development, the use of collaborative robots in the manufacturing industry has become a popular trend.

With the support of policies, collaborative robots are developing rapidly

The Chinese government encourages "returning to people-oriented, technological innovation, and technological empowerment" and has begun to attach great importance to the development of the robotics industry. A number of policies have been introduced, including the "Robot+" Strategy, the "14th Five-Year Plan" Intelligent Manufacturing Development Plan, and the "14th Five-Year Plan" Robot Industry Development Plan.

The national goal is to make China a global source of innovation in robotics technology, a gathering place for high-end manufacturing, and a new highland for integrated applications by 2025. "Made in China 2025" is one of the important initiatives of the Chinese government in promoting intelligent manufacturing, aiming to promote the transformation and upgrading of China's manufacturing industry. This includes supporting the development of intelligent manufacturing and robotics technology, and providing policy support for the research and development and application of collaborative robots.

In addition, China has also actively promoted the formulation of relevant standards and specifications to strengthen the supervision and safety management of artificial intelligence technology. The government also encourages industry, academia and research to strengthen cooperation and accelerate the development and commercialization of collaborative robot technology. Overall, the Chinese government attaches great importance to the development of collaborative robots and provides policy support, financial support and standard support to promote the application and promotion of collaborative robot technology in various fields.

Robot prices drop, going against the wind becomes the key

The characteristic of collaborative robots is that they can perform "standardized" job duties through automation, freeing people from some simple, boring, repetitive and dangerous jobs. This can not only solve the problem of labor shortage, but also greatly improve the efficiency of production lines. By providing robot skills training to existing employees, ordinary workers can be upgraded to robot engineers, and employees can engage in more valuable work, which is conducive to improving employee loyalty and allowing enterprises to enter a virtuous circle of employment.

Although the growth rate of collaborative robots in the market segment has declined, the 29% sales growth far exceeds the industry average. In 2019, China's collaborative robots accounted for 5.36% of the overall industrial robot sales, up 1.32 percentage points. GGII expects that the sales share of collaborative robots will reach more than 6.5% this year.

The price of industrial robots has been falling for many years, and collaborative robots are no exception. This is not all bad. "Cost drives innovation", in an industry environment where the fittest survive, the overall price decline will reward those companies that innovate and truly do research and development.

The potential of collaborative robots cannot be ignored

In the two important segments of parallel robots and SCARA (Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm, a robot arm used for assembly operations), the companies with the largest market share in China are ABB of Switzerland and EPSON of Japan, but Chinese companies are beginning to occupy an important position.

In 2019, the domestic SCARA market share increased to 39%, and the parallel robot market share reached 75%. Representative SCARA companies such as Delta, Inovance, and Zhongweixing are almost the same size as international second-tier brands; the leading domestic parallel robot companies include Bokent, Astro Boy, and Huasheng Control, among which Bokent's market share is second only to ABB.

Collaborative robots, with their flexibility, safety, low cost and ease of use, are penetrating into more manufacturing scenarios - from delicate machine tool work to heavy palletizing tasks, collaborative robots have become one of the important assets of enterprises with their diverse functions and all-weather working characteristics. It is estimated that by 2026, the global sales of collaborative robots will reach 180,000 units, and the market size will be close to 23 billion yuan.