In 2017, the output of industrial robots in China increased by 68.1% year-on-year. At the same time, the manufacture of industrial robots continues to break through three critical core component technologies, such as speed reducers, servo controls, and servo motors, which have been criticized by the industry. This has become a typical example of the acceleration of China's manufacturing industry to the high end of the industrial value chain.

There is technology to talk about high-end

In Hunan Province Industrial Robot Industry Demonstration Park exhibition hall, there is a 6-axis industrial robot named "Changsha No. 1". "Changsha 1"'s brain-control feedback system, which integrates innovative data-related algorithms, has powerful information processing capabilities. This is also the industry's first to implement robotic hardware hardware, intelligent hardware products, localization of the robot.

Control systems, servo motors, and speed reducers are the three key components of industrial robots, but they have long depended on imports. Because of this, the six-axis or higher high-end industrial robot market used in automobile manufacturing and other fields is mainly occupied by Japanese and European and American companies, and domestic six-axis industrial robots account for less than 10% of new installed industrial robots in the country.

Do not overcome the core technology, and talk about moving to the high-end industry. “In 2017, technological innovation drove a significant transformation and upgrading of the industrial robot industry.” Yu Jianing, director of the Industrial and Economic Information Institute of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said in an interview with the Economic Daily reporter that in terms of key components, domestic manufacturers have overcome control systems, servo motors, and deceleration. In the areas of key core components and parts, the control system has basically reached the international advanced level, and key components gradually achieve localization, which will have a positive effect on reducing the cost of domestic robots and improving the market competitiveness and market share of domestic robots. . In addition, in terms of software, artificial intelligence technologies such as speech recognition and image recognition have reached the international advanced level, and robot body optimization design and performance evaluation, high-speed, high-precision control and other technologies have made remarkable progress.

Previously, due to the lack of core technologies, robots with six axes or more were difficult for domestic industrial robots. According to the latest data from the China Robotics Industry Alliance, for the first time in 2017, the multi-joint robot became the first model of sales of domestic industrial robots. “The increase in the proportion of six-axis robots represented by multi-joint robots indicates that the structural adjustment and upgrading of domestic robot products is proceeding in an orderly manner,” said Song Xiaogang, executive director and secretary general of the China Robotics Industry Alliance.

Breaking low-end repeat supply

According to statistics, there are more than 1,000 companies that manufacture robots in China, of which more than 200 are robotics manufacturing companies. Most of them are mainly assembled and processed, and they are at the low end of the industrial chain, with low industrial concentration and overall small scale. At the same time, more than 50 industrial parks focusing on the development of robots have emerged in various places. Many parks tend to attract investment, light technology innovation, and lighter personnel training.

In the high-end of the industry chain, Japan and Germany have obvious advantages. The advantages of the former lie in the R&D of key components of industrial robots (reducers, servo motors, etc.), and the latter's advantages lie in raw materials, body components, and system integration.

From the perspective of applications, overseas robots account for 84% of the most difficult and most widely used welding fields in the world; high-end applications are concentrated in the automotive industry, and foreign companies account for 90% of the total.

“At present, an important manifestation of the active promotion of structural reform on the supply side of China's industrial robot industry is to work hard on the word “broken”, vigorously eliminate ineffective supply, and promote the elimination of excess capacity.” Yu Jianing said.

In response to the problems of redundant construction of the robot industry, low end of high-end industries, and overcapacity at the low end, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the Implementation Measures for Standardized Management of Industrial Robots Industry in 2017, which stipulates industrial robot companies that meet the “indication conditions for industrial robots industry”. According to the principle of voluntary implementation of announcement management, strengthen industry monitoring, and guide the healthy and orderly development of the industry.

At present, the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, and Northeast China have formed a certain scale of robot industry clusters and have found their respective advantages. For example, the Yangtze River Delta region has Jiangsu, Shanghai, and Zhejiang as its core areas, and the advantage lies in the solid foundation of the electronic information technology industry. The Pearl River Delta region has the advantage of a control system.