March 29, 2018 Source: Nanfang Daily

       Last year, China's industrial robot production ratio increased by more than 80%. With the tightening of the company and the deepening of user needs, many challenges in industrial development are becoming increasingly apparent.

Midea's first road show "industrial robot"

On March 21, Midea announced that Midea will inject capital into KUKA China's subsidiary business and jointly establish three joint ventures to expand its business in the three fields of industrial robotics, medical care and warehousing automation to adapt to the Chinese market in smart manufacturing and intelligence. The rapid development of medical and intelligent logistics, new retail and other aspects, the development of products and solutions suitable for the needs of Chinese customers, to achieve a comprehensive high-speed growth of the automation business sector. After the establishment of the new company, Midea will own 50% of the joint venture company, and KUKA Group owns 50% of the shares.

This is the first time that Midea has announced its development plan after the acquisition of KUKA, demonstrating the common planning and layout of the US KUKA for the robot business segment.

KUKA Global CEO Till Reuter said: "The joint venture company has made our development plan in China more specific and specific, and also provided a strong guarantee for KUKA's global success. The strong alliance between KUKA and the United States This kind of cooperation has taken us one step closer to becoming China’s number one goal."

Fang Hongbo, chairman of Midea Group, said: By establishing a joint venture with KUKA, we have deeply integrated the superior resources of both parties and realized the closed-loop integration of the US version of the industrial Internet. Externally, we continue to deepen the industrial and consumer robot market. A wide range of needs, from a higher perspective to promote the evolution of the "human-machine new generation" in the Chinese market.

It is reported that Swika's Swisslog's business in mainland China will also be integrated into the US KUKA joint venture, in line with China's rapid development in the medical and warehousing retail industry, further develop products and solutions that meet the needs of Chinese customers. The program achieves a comprehensive high-speed growth of these two aspects of business.

Specifically, the KUKA Supervisory Board has approved its general industrial business in China and Swisslog Holding AG (hereinafter referred to as “Ruishig”, a subsidiary of KUKA, which implements advanced automation solutions for hospitals, warehouses and distribution centers. The plan is to merge the business in China and establish a joint venture with Midea Group Co., Ltd. to undertake the above business. The shareholders of the joint venture company will each hold 50% of the shares. The establishment of the joint venture company will further promote the penetration of the KUKA business in the Chinese market. expand.

Specifically, Midea will build a new production base in China's Shunde Science and Technology Park for new product development. In this regard, the United States said that until 2024, the robot production capacity reached 75,000 units per year.

China's industrial robot production is growing rapidly

Recently, Miao Wei, Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that the path of upgrading the manufacturing industry must first be automated, and digitalization should be done on the basis of automation, that is, production equipment and digitalization of production management. Then connect the device and the device through the network, that is, network. Finally, to be intelligent, is to add some artificial intelligence.

Insiders pointed out that under this trend, as China further promotes the 2025 strategy and consumption upgrade, the inevitable result is a sharp increase in demand for robots. According to data released by the International Robotics Federation, China has become the world leader in industrial automation at a record rate. At present, the annual sales of industrial robots in China have reached the highest level in all countries with a record: in 2016, sales reached 87,000 units, with an annual growth rate of 27%. From 2018 to 2020, sales of industrial robots in China will increase by 15% to 20%.

The latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that in January-February this year, China's industrial robot production increased by 25.1% year-on-year, and industrial robot manufacturing investment increased by 81.8%.

The bulletin of the National Bureau of Statistics last year showed that the new kinetic energy new industry and new business mode accelerated growth. The annual output of industrial robots was 130,000 sets (sets), an increase of 81.0%, of which only 12,682 sets were produced in December last year, a year-on-year increase of 56.5%.

From 2018 to 2020, it is the most important three-year development of China's industrial robot industry. The development of the last three years will directly affect the achievement of the "Robot Industry Development Plan (2016-2020)".

With the expansion of such giants and some vertical professional companies, the newly started factory will be mass-produced in 2018 and 2019. Industry organizations predict that domestic industrial robot production will double in the next three years. By 2020, the domestic industrial robot production will exceed 250,000 units.

China will account for one-third of the global consumer market

Industrial robots are mainly used in manufacturing, including discrete manufacturing and process manufacturing. IDC expects the global market for industrial robots to reach $111 billion in 2020.

China has been the world's largest consumer market for industrial robots since 2013 and has remained so far. In 2015, the market share exceeded one-quarter, and it is expected to reach one-third this year.

In the past two years, domestic manufacturing companies have continued to exert their strength. Xinsong Company released flexible multi-joint robots more than a year ago. This means that in the field of human-machine cooperation robots, Chinese robotics companies and foreign well-known enterprises stand on the same starting line, and the capital advantage is transformed into the representative of the new force of the industrial robot industry. In the case, it is the US$4 billion acquisition of KUKA.

Taking Guangdong as an example, the development of the industrial robot industry has formed an agglomeration effect. The industry in the region is centered on Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Based on the traditional CNC industry, it has advantages in the control system. Industrial robots are used more. In addition to the beauty, Guangzhou CNC, Gu Gao, Okay, Jiateng and Qiqi are also emerging. , Leibai and other well-known enterprises.

It is worth noting that the various elements of the robot industry chain are changing. The upstream component manufacturers have expanded from the traditional three core component reducers, servo motors and controllers to advanced sensor modules and digital chips. The midstream has not only increased commercial and commercial applications. The ontology manufacturers of consumer robots have also introduced software providers with core technology capabilities such as cloud services, artificial intelligence, and robotic operating systems. Downstream robot users have also rapidly penetrated from traditional industrial enterprises to different social fields.

The practical application of industrial robots needs to be deepened

With the expansion of demand and the initial development of industrial development, the challenges ahead are also very clear.

Researchers from China’s Xintong Institute told reporters that at present, when robot companies expand their application scenarios and cooperate with traditional industries to customize specific application scenarios, they lack the in-depth knowledge of relevant industries, and their understanding of user needs is not thorough. Lack of intrinsic robotics expertise and the accumulation of past successful experience, in the process of digital transformation, how to apply robots and related technologies to effectively solve their own problems, the degree of matching between robotics technology and problem-solving problems is ambiguous.

At the same time, the intelligence of current robot products is still insufficient. Existing products are mostly in a relatively simple and initially intelligent form, and the human-computer interaction experience in complex scenarios is still not ideal, which is difficult to match user requirements. In software, the intelligent function and connotation of the product is slightly rough; on the hardware, the fine electromechanical system and related control technology and the overall design of the robot are still insufficient. At this stage, the intelligent robot can not complete the physical movement of the human body. It is impossible to provide smarter, safer, more reliable and cost-effective services.

From the point of view of the capital market, at present, users' expectations for robots are highly speculated. It is hoped that "universal" robots can replace human beings to do a lot of complicated and boring work, and can realize personalized audio-visual interaction and emotional communication between human and computer. Natural integration and continuous functional upgrading, while investors hope to quickly realize business realization, easy to fall into the misunderstanding of quick success, affect the layout of medium and long-term technology research and development, experience accumulation and market penetration, these are also problems in the development of robots.