Made in China 2025 promotes the development of robots
"Made in China 2025" stands at a new historical height, starting from the strategic overall situation, and clearly proposes the first ten-year action plan for China to implement the strategy of building a strong manufacturing country, with "high-end CNC machine tools and robots" as one of the key areas to be vigorously promoted, Propose the development needs of the robotics industry Actively research and develop new products to promote standardized and modular development of robots, expand market applications, and break through the integration of key components and systems such as robot bodies, reducers, servo motors, controllers, sensors, and drivers, focusing on industrial robot applications such as automobiles, machinery, electronics, dangerous goods manufacturing, national defense and military industry, chemical industry, and light industry, as well as service robot applications in healthcare, home services, education and entertainment Technical bottlenecks such as design and manufacturing technology And in the roadmap for technological innovation in key areas, it is clear that the development focus of China's robotics industry in the next decade is mainly in two directions: first, to develop a series of products for industrial robot bodies and key components, promote the industrialization and application of industrial robots, and meet the urgent needs of China's manufacturing industry transformation and upgrading; The second is to break through the key technology of intelligent robots, develop a batch of intelligent robots, and actively respond to the challenges of the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation. 1、 Guided by demand, enhancing innovation capabilities, and expanding market applications, the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) divides robots into two categories based on different application environments: industrial robots in manufacturing environments and service robots in non manufacturing environments.
"Made in China 2025" stands at a new historical height, starting from the strategic overall situation, and clearly proposes the first ten-year action plan for China to implement the strategy of building a strong manufacturing country, with "high-end CNC machine tools and robots" as one of the key areas to be vigorously promoted, Propose the development needs of the robotics industry Actively research and develop new products to promote standardized and modular development of robots, expand market applications, and break through the integration of key components and systems such as robot bodies, reducers, servo motors, controllers, sensors, and drivers, focusing on industrial robot applications such as automobiles, machinery, electronics, dangerous goods manufacturing, national defense and military industry, chemical industry, and light industry, as well as service robot applications in healthcare, home services, education and entertainment Technical bottlenecks such as design and manufacturing technology And in the roadmap for technological innovation in key areas, it is clear that the development focus of China's robotics industry in the next decade is mainly in two directions: first, to develop a series of products for industrial robot bodies and key components, promote the industrialization and application of industrial robots, and meet the urgent needs of China's manufacturing industry transformation and upgrading; The second is to break through the key technology of intelligent robots, develop a batch of intelligent robots, and actively respond to the challenges of the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation.
1、 Demand oriented, enhancing innovation capabilities, and expanding market applications
According to different application environments, the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) divides robots into two categories: industrial robots in manufacturing environments and service robots in non manufacturing environments. Industrial robots are a general term for robots used in industrial production and are important factory automation equipment in modern manufacturing; Service robots are non productive robots that serve humans. Service robot technology is mainly applied to unstructured environments with complex structures. They can obtain information about the external environment through their own sensors and communication, making decisions and completing corresponding work tasks.
1. China has become the world's largest industrial robot market, but its potential still needs to be tapped
Industrial robots mainly refer to multi joint robotic arms or multi degree of freedom robots aimed at the industrial field, used for handling, welding, assembly, processing, painting, clean production and other aspects in industrial production processes. In 2014, global sales of industrial robots reached a historic high, reaching 225000 units, a year-on-year increase of 27%. The main driving force for market growth comes from the Asian region, especially from China and South Korea.
In recent years, the demand for robots in China has grown rapidly and has become an important global market for robots. In 2014, the sales of industrial robots in China reached 56000 units, a year-on-year increase of 52%, once again becoming the world's largest market for industrial robots. Users have shifted from foreign-owned enterprises and Sino foreign joint ventures to domestic enterprises and even small and medium-sized enterprises. Many enterprises in developed coastal industrial areas in China use their products for export and have high requirements for product quality. More and more enterprises are using robots to replace industrial workers. In the Pearl River Delta region, the annual growth rate of the use of industrial robots has reached 30%, especially in the fields of assembly, dispensing, handling, welding, etc., which has sparked a wave of robot usage.
Although China has been the world's largest market for industrial robots since 2013, the density of industrial robots in the manufacturing industry is still very low. In 2013, the density of industrial robots in China was only 30 units per 10000 industrial workers, less than half of the global average. Compared with South Korea (437 units per 10000 industrial workers), Japan (323 units per 10000 industrial workers), and Germany (282 units per 10000 industrial workers) with higher levels of industrial automation, the gap is even greater. The domestic industrial robot market still has enormous potential.
As a manufacturing powerhouse, China has always been in a backward position in the application of industrial robots. Except for the automotive industry, the general manufacturing industry, which has a large quantity and a wide range of applications, is basically in a spontaneous, scattered or scattered state of robots. With the development of factory automation in our country, industrial robots will also be rapidly promoted in other industrial industries, such as electronics, metal products, rubber and plastics, food, building materials, civil explosives, aviation, medical equipment, and so on.
The application level of industrial robots is an important indicator of a country's level of industrial automation. The development of industrial robots in our country should revolve around the need to accelerate the development of intelligent manufacturing in our country, coordinate the supply and demand sides of robots, on the one hand, improve the innovation ability of Chinese robot manufacturing enterprises, promote the standardization, modularization, and systematic development of robots, reduce usage costs, improve the level of integrated applications, and thus expand the scope of market applications; On the other hand, we will actively carry out pilot projects for the application of independent brand robots, focusing on a number of typical application demonstration projects with outstanding effects, strong driving force, and high relevance, and promoting the use of industrial robots to transform and improve traditional manufacturing industries from point to area.
2. China's service robot industry should be demand oriented and focus on development
Service robots include specialized service robots and household service robots. Service robots have a wide range of applications, mainly engaged in maintenance, repair, transportation, cleaning, security, rescue, guardianship, as well as medical, elderly care, rehabilitation, disability assistance and other work. Service robots are a new type of intelligent equipment and a strategic high-tech product, with a larger market space in the future than industrial robots.
Global service robots have shown a rapid growth trend in the past five years. According to statistics from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), the global sales of professional service robots and personal/home service robots reached 21000 units and 4 million units respectively in 2013, with a market value of 3.57 billion US dollars and 1.7 billion US dollars, representing a year-on-year increase of 4% and 28%, respectively. In the coming years, the global market for service robots will continue to grow rapidly. With significant breakthroughs in mutual learning and knowledge sharing in cloud robotics technology, small household assistive robots will significantly reduce production costs and form an emerging market with a cumulative total of at least 41.6 billion US dollars by 2020; On the other hand, although disability assistance machines have started slowly, it is predicted that there will be high-speed growth in the next 20 years.
At present, the technology research and development of service robots internationally is mainly led by the United States, Japan, China, Germany, and South Korea. The development of service robots in China lags behind industrial robots. Compared with countries such as Japan and the United States, China started research and development in the field of service robots relatively late, and there is still a significant gap compared to developed countries. But compared to industrial robots, the gap between domestic and international is relatively small. Service robots generally need to be developed in conjunction with specific demand markets, and local enterprises are more likely to develop in conjunction with specific environments and cultures to occupy a good market position and maintain a certain competitive advantage; On the other hand, foreign service robots are also emerging industries, and most service robot companies have been established for a relatively short period of time. Therefore, China's service robot industry faces significant opportunities and development space.
From the perspective of development trends, professional service robots in China are expected to achieve industrialization ahead of personal/household robots, especially medical robots and hazardous special environment inspection and exploration robots. With China's entry into an aging society, the demand for medical, nursing, and rehabilitation is increasing. At the same time, due to people's pursuit of higher quality of life, personal/household robots will have a broader market space in the future.
2、 Breaking through technological bottlenecks and enhancing industrialization capabilities
Robots integrate modern manufacturing technology, new material technology, and information control technology, and are representative products of intelligent manufacturing. Their research and development, manufacturing, and application have become important indicators of a country's technological innovation and manufacturing level, attracting high attention from world manufacturing powers.
The development of China's robotics industry can be traced back to the 1980s. At that time, the Ministry of Science and Technology included industrial robots in the science and technology research and development plan. The former Ministry of Machinery Industry led the organization of industrial robot research and development for models such as spot welding, arc welding, painting, and handling. Other ministries also actively supported projects, forming the first wave of industrial robots in China. Subsequently, mainly due to market demand, the independent research and industrialization of robots experienced a long-term stagnation. Since 2010, the installed capacity of robots in China has been increasing year by year, and it has begun to develop towards the entire robot industry chain.
The development of the robotics industry includes research and development experiments, industrialization of robot bodies and components, system integration technology, services, etc., and each link is very important. The development of China's robot industry chain is a long and arduous process. Overall, most robot enterprises in China are concentrated in the integration field, with processing and assembly enterprises accounting for the majority. There is still a considerable gap compared to developed countries in terms of original research on core and key technologies, high reliability basic functional components, system process application solutions, and mass production of hosts. In terms of key components, precision reducers, servo motors, and drivers heavily rely on imports. Although the country has made significant investment and support in this area over the years, the original market size and industrialization level were not high enough to drive the development of core components, resulting in unsatisfactory results.
From this, it can be seen that the insufficient strength of robot technology in China has constrained the scale of industrialization, and the smaller scale has in turn hindered the development of technology, which has affected the process of robot industrialization. If we want to improve the market competitiveness of domestic robots, on the one hand, we need to expand the production of domestic robots and increase the production capacity of domestic robot enterprises; On the other hand, we need to promote the localization of key components for domestic robots, improve the production capacity of key components, and meet the needs of expanding the production capacity of domestic robots.
In the past two years, the country has attached great importance to intelligent manufacturing and robotics. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology and other departments are all promoting the development of the robot industry, starting from top-level design, finance and taxation, demonstration applications, talent cultivation and other aspects, and promoting the development of the independent brand robot industry. Supporting policies are becoming more comprehensive and detailed. The roadmap of China's robotics industry and the related work of the 13th Five Year Plan for the robotics industry are also steadily advancing. This will greatly promote China's robotics enterprises to break through technological bottlenecks and improve their industrialization capabilities.
At present, for China's robotics industry, it is no longer a matter of whether it is valued or not, but rather a question of how to view this industry and cultivate and develop it in an orderly manner. Regarding the market demand, technological innovation models, and funding support methods of the robotics industry, local governments are expected to refine their support policies for this industry.
3、 Accelerate the research and production of next-generation robots, seize the next high ground of robot technology and industrial development
With the development of robotics technology, robots are further divided into general robots and intelligent robots based on their different functions. Among them, general robots refer to robots that only have general programming abilities and operational functions, and most of the robots produced in China currently belong to this category; There is no unified definition for intelligent robots, and most experts believe that intelligent robots must have at least the following major functional characteristics: first, the ability to adapt to uncertain working conditions; The second is the ability to flexibly operate complex objects; The third is to have the ability to closely coordinate and cooperate with people; The fourth is to have the ability to interact with humans naturally; The fifth is to have the characteristics of human-machine cooperation security. Both modern industrial robots and service robots will eventually develop into intelligent robots with learning abilities. We generally refer to intelligent robots as next-generation robots. With the continuous progress of technologies such as 3D visual perception/cognition and force sensors, as well as the deep integration with new generation information technologies such as industrial internet, cloud computing, and big data, the intelligence level of the next generation of robots will be further improved, and their ability to perceive the outside world will be further enhanced. They can complete dynamic and complex task tasks, achieve multi machine collaboration, and work collaboratively with humans.
In order to further seize the international market and enhance the competitive position of the manufacturing industry globally, various economic powerhouses are eager to try and formulate development plans in order to seize the development opportunities of advanced robotics technology. At present, the German government is implementing the "Industry 4.0" strategy, building "smart factories" and creating "intelligent production". One of its key issues is the interaction and cooperation between humans and machines, as well as between machines. In 2013, the United States proposed the "Roadmap for the Development of Robotics in the United States", which will focus on key technologies such as strong adaptability and reconfigurable assembly of robots in the manufacturing industry, humanoid agile operation, model-based integration and supply chain design, autonomous navigation, perception of unstructured environments, education and training, and the essential safety of robots working with humans. In early 2015, the Japanese government announced the "New Strategy for Robotics in Japan" and clearly stated in its five-year action plan that it would "research and develop technologies such as data terminal, networking, and cloud computing that will be implemented in the next generation of robots.". In recent years, the South Korean government has successively issued multiple policies aimed at supporting the research and application of third-generation intelligent robots. In 2012, South Korea released the Robotics Future Strategy Network 2022, which focuses on supporting South Korean enterprises to enter the international market and seize the opportunity of intelligent robot industrialization. With the strong promotion of technological powers such as the United States, Japan, and Europe, the next generation of robot prototypes, demonstration applications, and even practical systems have continuously emerged in the past five years.
From the current perspective in our country, the demand market for next-generation industrial robots is not yet fully mature, but the research and development of common technologies with strategic significance and reserves are particularly urgent. In the current development of the next-generation robot industry in China, the first priority should be to strengthen the technological foundation of the robot industry, focus on promoting the industrialization process of existing robots, and accelerate the promotion and application of independent brand robots in the domestic market. Explore new technology research and development models, encourage research institutes and enterprises to leverage their respective advantages, and establish a national level platform for the research and development of cutting-edge and common technologies for next-generation industrial robots. Starting from China's national conditions and needs, break through the core technology of next-generation robots, develop next-generation robot prototype systems and products, and promote industrialization to seize the international high ground of next-generation robots. For robot products applied in different fields, different development strategies should be implemented: on the one hand, with enterprises as the core and common technology platforms as support, priority should be given to the development of the next generation of industrial robots, promoting the integration of production and demand, and seizing the high ground of development; On the other hand, guided by the market, grasping the characteristics of domestic demand, developing service robots such as medical, elderly care and disability assistance, and special robots operating in special service environments.
