Movie offers glimpse of robotics plans
As Wandering Earth II, the sequel to China's most successful sci-fi epic, is well received in cinemas, the seemingly omnipotent industrial robots, a recurring presence in the film, offer a glimpse into the country's plan to be a global innovation hub for robotics.
A man passes a poster of Wandering Earth II at a cinema in Shenyang, Liaoning province, on Jan 23, 2023. [Photo/VCG]
The automatic mobile robots that appear in the film, for instance, are being increasingly used in the real world to facilitate industrial production. Youibot, a startup based in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, provided such robots and technical support for the film.
Meanwhile, the patrolling robots seen in the movie also undertake important tasks in reality. At offshore oil-drilling platforms, offshore wind-power stations and open-pit coal mines, the robots are used to operate and maintain equipment, according to Youibot.
Such uses of robots are part of China's broader push to cope with a graying population and leverage cutting-edge technologies to advance industrial upgrades.
The country will enhance its efforts to promote the use of robots in 10 sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture, construction, energy, and logistics, according to a plan jointly issued earlier this month by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and 16 other government departments.
China will strive to double its manufacturing robot density by 2025 compared with that of 2020, the plan said.
The manufacturing robot density, a metric used to measure a country's level of automation, reached 246 units per 10,000 people in China in 2020. The number hit 322 in 2021, surpassing the United States for the first time and ranking fifth globally, according to a report released by the International Federation of Robotics.
China is by far the fastest-growing robot market in the world, with the highest number of annual installations.
