August 21 is the first day of the opening of the main forum of the 2019 World Robot Conference. Robot industry giants from all over the world gathered together to focus on the opportunities and challenges in the era of transformation of the robot industry. Experts believe that artificial intelligence and a new generation of information technology are reshaping the robot industry. The expansion of technology and applications, and the expansion of supply and demand make the robot industry still an important driving force in promoting the conversion of old and new kinetic energy and high-quality economic development.

Intelligent robots are on the rise

From Boston Dynamics’ humanoid robot Atlas, to the intelligent monitoring of Nokia’s “Future Factory”, to surgical robots, brain-controlled exoskeleton robots, etc., showing their talents in the fields of clinical medicine and rehabilitation... The era of intelligent robots is accelerating.

"The robots of the future will be intelligent robots, no longer individuals working alone. They can communicate and interact between robots and between robots and humans. It is a diversified integration of artificial intelligence technology and mechanics." Zvi Schiller, chairman of the Israel Robotics Association, believes that intelligent robots must be intelligent in both software and hardware, and must be continuously iteratively upgraded.

Paolo Dario, a professor at the University of Santa Ana in Pisa, Italy, believes that with the continuous development of the Internet of Things, all devices are interconnected and intelligent. "Nowadays, robots can no longer be regarded as just a device that acts independently, but as a carrier that is always online and always connected. Through the connection between machine and perception, it drives the generation of self-behavior, just like humans."

"To achieve human-computer interaction and integration, robot learning is no longer a simple data input, but forms analysis and judgment in application scenarios. At the same time, we can also play a role in providing decision-making paths for the robot, but the final operation is still completed by the robot." Yang Guangzhong, a professor at Imperial College London and an academician of the Royal Academy of Engineering, said for example that robots can understand the purpose of surgical operations through tracking technology and operate on the operating table. This human-machine symbiosis model will definitely be the general trend in the field of medical robots.

With the help of artificial intelligence technology, robots have transformed from simple automation to highly intelligent, but artificial intelligence alone is far from enough. "Advanced electromechanical systems, stable, durable and affordable components, new materials, etc. jointly drive the development of robots." Bernd Lippert, chairman of the European Robot Association, said bluntly that robot application scenarios have continued to expand from industry to medical, agriculture, home services and other fields, while promoting the transformation and upgrading of various industries.

The growth rate of domestic robots has slowed down

"Since 2009, robots have always maintained rapid development. But last year, the global robot market, including the fastest-growing and largest Chinese robot market in the world, also experienced an inflection point, turning from high-speed growth in the past to low-speed growth, and even approaching zero growth." Qu Daokui, founder and president of Xinsong Robot Automation Co., Ltd., raised questions in many people's minds. Has the "cold winter" of the robot industry arrived?

Data from the International Federation of Robotics shows that global industrial robot sales reached a new high in 2018, reaching 384,000 units, but the growth rate has slowed down significantly, from double-digit growth in previous years to single digits. At the same time, my country's total industrial robot consumption last year was 135,000 units, becoming the world's largest consumer market for the sixth consecutive year. However, this data dropped by 3.75% year-on-year from 2017.

Xin Guobin, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, analyzed that although the reasons are multifaceted, including the deterioration of the international trade environment, the increasing downward pressure on the global economy, theThe development of major application industries such as automobiles and electronics is sluggish. However, from a deeper perspective, the robot industry has entered a stage of in-depth adjustment. Expanding new application areas and improving quality and efficiency have become urgent needs for the healthy development of the industry.

"In this regard, China's robot industry has shown some positive signals. For example, from the perspective of robot types, industrial, service, and special robots have begun to show a trend of coordinated development." Xin Guobin said that my country's industrial robots started earlier. In recent years, the demand for service robots and special robots has increased significantly, and the growth rate is higher than that of industrial robots.

In this regard, Qu Daokui also pointed out that due to the small proportion of service robots and special robots, although the density of industrial robots in my country is significantly higher than that of the world, the overall robot density in my country is only 97, slightly higher than the global average of 85.

Other data show that in 2018, my country’s own-brand industrial robot sales reached 43,500 units, a year-on-year increase of 16.2%, accounting for 32.2% of my country’s industrial robot sales market, an increase of 5.5 percentage points from 2017. "Although the current growth of the global robot industry is sluggish, judging from the industry cycle, China's robot industry is going through a new stage from 'winter' to 'spring' and is facing new development opportunities." Qu Daokui said.

“Robots are rapidly extending from traditional application fields such as transportation and assembly to more intelligent advanced manufacturing, medical and health, life services and other fields.” Qu Daokui said that in the next 5 to 10 years, the replacement rate of robots will reach more than 30%, while the replacement rate was less than 1% in the past 40 years of development. my country's robotics industry is in a period of great change. Technological breakthroughs, product iterations, and cross-border integration are accelerating. Enterprises are also experiencing a period of reshuffle from barbarism to rationality. Opportunities and challenges coexist, and change and subversion have become the norm, thus accelerating the adjustment and upgrading from quantitative changes to qualitative changes.

Industrial robots have huge potential

Although the slowdown in growth has become an indisputable fact, the global robot segment market is becoming diversified. "In the past, the growth of the robot industry has always centered around the automotive and electronic and electrical fields, but now, new application areas such as metals, food and beverages, plastics and chemical products have become new engines for the growth in demand for industrial robots. In the medium to long term, investment expectations for robots and automation in these key industries remain strong. Karel Irut, head of McKinsey's Asia operations consulting practice and Internet of Things, said for example that in China, for example, due to the increased demand for quality and efficiency improvements on the production side, as well as growing labor costs, companies have increased their demand for automation equipment, and industrial robot-related accessories and services have become increasingly important.

Karel Irut said that the potential productivity increase brought by automation to unit working time is about 75%, and the cost of robots is declining every year. By 2025, thanks to the scale effect, the cost will be further reduced by about 10%. Therefore, industrial robots will continue to have a profound economic impact and there will still be great market potential in the future.

Achieving large-scale and high-quality development of the robot industry is inseparable from win-win cooperation. In this regard, Xin Guobin talked about four "common points". He believed that the first is to jointly build a global collaborative innovation system; the second is to jointly improve the new ecology of the global industrial chain; the third is to jointly open up new space for industrial development and accelerate the pace of "bringing in" and "going out"; the fourth is to jointly respond to potential risks in industrial development, speed up the establishment and improvement of the legal system, and allow new robotic technologies and new products to benefit mankind more.

In addition, with the implementation of 5G, robots and 5G will collideWhat kind of sparks are there? Experts attending the meeting said that relying on new features such as high bandwidth, low latency, large capacity, and high reliability, 5G will become a new driving force to lead integrated innovation and drive growth in the field of robotics. "With the integration of 5G communication technology, industrial Internet and robotics, robots will be able to utilize cloud computing and storage capabilities without being constrained by physical conditions. We will be expected to accurately control future robots in near real-time anywhere in the world." said Rezia Morfino, President of the Italian Association of Robotics and Automation.