The scale of China's robot industry has increased by nearly 30% annually in the past five years, and the industry has entered the explosive period

(Source: Economic Information Daily)

Core tip: As a disruptive technology that will lead the world in the future, the robot industry is accelerating the creation of new business forms and showing an explosive growth trend.

As a disruptive technology that will lead the world in the future, the robot industry is accelerating the creation of new business forms and showing an explosive growth trend. The reporter of Economic Information Daily learned from the 2018 World Robotics Conference that the scale of the global robot industry last year exceeded $25 billion, an increase of 20.3%, and is expected to reach nearly $30 billion in 2018. At the same time, the robot industry has entered a period of vigorous development in China, with an average annual growth rate of 29.7% since 2013.

The reporter learned that China is strengthening the top-level design for the development of the robot industry, actively building an open resource sharing platform for the industry, and accelerating the construction of a collaborative innovation system for the robot industry.

The robot industry is booming

In recent years, with the introduction of central and local support policies, the robot industry has entered a period of vigorous development in China. The reporter of Economic Information Daily learned from the 2018 World Robotics Conference that the scale of China's robot industry reached nearly 7 billion dollars in 2017, and is expected to reach 8.74 billion dollars in 2018. Since 2013, the average annual growth rate has reached 29.7%, becoming an important force for the stable growth of the global robot industry. Especially in the field of industrial robots, China exceeded 100000 units for the first time last year, more than 130000 units, up 68.1% year on year. From January to June this year, nearly 74000 industrial robots were produced, up 23.9% year on year.

Miao Wei, Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said at the conference that China has always attached great importance to the development of the robot industry, and will promote the technological progress and industrial development of robots as an important measure to implement the strategic deployment of a powerful manufacturing country. With innovation as the guide, demand as the driving force, and enterprises as the main body, we will give full play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation, and expand the core technology research and development, industrial chain construction, and application fields Positive progress has been made in the development of regional agglomeration.

With the accelerated integration of the new generation of information and communication technologies such as the Internet of Things, cloud computing and artificial intelligence with the manufacturing industry, the development of digitalization, networking and intelligence has also injected new impetus into the global robot industry. According to the statistical analysis of the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), the scale of the global robot industry in 2017 has exceeded $25 billion, with an increase of more than 20%. It is expected that it will reach $30 billion in 2018. Industry experts believe that the robot industry will maintain a rapid growth trend at present and in the future, with an annual growth rate far higher than that of industry and equipment manufacturing.

At the same time, robots are becoming an important breakthrough in boosting the real economy. "The vigorous development of China's robot industry and the gradual maturity of the market have brought about a new round of investment boom." Xu Xiaolan, vice president and secretary-general of the China Electronics Society, told reporters that the "Robot Industry Development Plan (2016-2020)" jointly issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance clearly proposed to use the central financial science and technology plan fund to support the research and development of qualified robots and their key components. It is a common practice for all countries to support the industry to become bigger and stronger. It can give full play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation, and make the robot industry a breakthrough to drive the transformation and upgrading of other industries and cultivate new economic drivers.

Intelligence has become an important development direction

Generally speaking, robots can be divided into three categories: industrial robots, special robots and service robots. Many interviewed experts said that robots not only expanded their application in the manufacturing field, but also accelerated their expansion to the service field. In addition to family entertainment, emotional care, educational demonstration, public scenes, they were also widely used in medical rehabilitation, emergency rescue, scientific research and other important fields.

In terms of industrial robots, China is the largest country in the application of industrial robots. Larger robot manufacturers in the world have set up branches in China, and even many manufacturers have moved their headquarters to China. In terms of service robots, China's market sales reached only 1.28 billion US dollars in 2017. However, with the accelerating trend of population aging and the continued strong demand for medical and education, China's service robots have huge market potential and development space.

"Intelligence is an important development direction of the robot industry. The core of AI technology is to make industrial robots more intelligent, and its symbol is human-machine cooperation. Robots will develop into intelligent devices with different degrees of perception and cognitive ability, and widely participate in, assist and serve human production, life and social governance in the way of independent feedback and decision-making." Xu Xiaolan said.

Qu Daokui, the founder and president of Xinsong Robot Automation Co., Ltd., believes that the new generation of robots has formed a new ecosystem. "The development and breakthrough of technology have made robots enter the 2.0 era. One of the important signs is that robots have changed from the past weighing indicators of machinery and equipment, namely speed, accuracy, load and reliability, to independent decision-making ability, movement ability, operation ability and interaction ability".

Strengthen guidance and coordinated development

Although China's robot industry is developing rapidly, it still faces many challenges, such as the core technology needs to be broken through, the application field needs to be expanded, and the laws and regulations system needs to be improved. "We will further deepen the supply-side structural reform, create a good development environment, improve innovation ability, strengthen talent cultivation, consolidate the industrial foundation, and strive to promote the high-quality development of the robot industry," said Miao Wei.

It is understood that China is currently strengthening the top-level design of the development of the robot industry, actively building an open resource sharing platform for the industry, and accelerating the construction of the collaborative innovation system of the robot industry.

In order to promote the healthy development of China's robot industry, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other departments have issued a series of supporting measures. As early as April 2016, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued the "Robot Industry Development Plan (2016-2020)", which requires the formation of a relatively complete robot industry system in China within five years. According to the deployment of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the relevant industrial promotion policies in the next stage will address two key issues, one is to promote the development of the robot industry towards the middle and high end, and the other is to standardize the market order and prevent the disorderly development of the robot industry.

"At present, the development of China's robot industry is going through a critical stage from quantitative expansion to high-quality development." Luo Junjie, deputy director of the Equipment Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said earlier that the first step in the future is to promote the improvement of robot quality and move forward to the high-end industry. Focus on solving some "stuck neck" problems, make full use of the robot innovation center to jointly build a national robot innovation platform, and break through key common technologies such as human-computer interaction, compliance control, functional bionics, and intelligent perception.

"Secondly, it is necessary to prevent disorderly competition and standardize the development of the industry." Luo Junjie said that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has released a list of enterprises that meet the "Industrial Robot Industry Standard Conditions". Next, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will further implement the standard management of the industry, guide the centralized collection of policy resources, and at the same time use industrial organizations such as the China Robot Industry Alliance to promote industry self-discipline and improve the robot detection and certification platform, Formulate urgently needed standards for the industry. Third, we should focus on cultivating world-class robot industrial clusters and promote the integration and development of large and medium-sized enterprises.

(Source: Economic Information Daily)