"When we look at the AMR track or the intelligent robot track, we pay more attention to whether the founders can have a deep understanding of industry issues. What we like is that founders can recreate a product based on a deep understanding of industry issues and a deep understanding of robotics, rather than retrofitting the original robot. The reason is that modification or patchwork can not solve the problems of the industry very well, which coincides with the pain points and needs of the industry. On April 27, Huang Songyan, managing director of Linear Capital, told the surging news (www.thepaper.cn) at the Jiexiang Lingyue financing conference.
Huang Songyan believes that the barrier for startups in the AMR track lies in the recognition of the industry, "because the requirements for redesigning a product are very, very high." For example, why are the industrial robots designed by the four major families designed to be six axes? This is a question that is well worth thinking about in retrospect, because based on the needs of the industry scene, the six axes can solve all the problems in the space. ”
With this in mind, Huang Songyan invested in the "new generation of forklift AMR" manufacturer Jiexiang Lingyue. Jiexiang Lingyue recently announced the completion of nearly 100 million yuan angel round and Pre-A round of financing. Among them, the angel round is jointly invested by Sequoia China Seed Fund, Lenovo Star and Innovation Factory; the Pre-A round is jointly invested by Linear Capital and Challenger Capital, and the old shareholder Sequoia Seed Fund and Lenovo Star follow the investment.
This "new generation of forklift AMR" refers to the redefinition of forklifts based on the current scene and technology. For example, since it is an unmanned forklift, it is no longer based on "people" as the design center to operate forklifts, but with "goods" as the core, let the goods move autonomously, to emphasize the integrity and safety of robots and goods.
Specifically, "the traditional unmanned forklift usually achieves automation by adding sensors and control systems to the artificial forklift body, while the early design ideas of the artificial forklift are people-oriented, and the lack of performance relies on people's strong perception and decision-making ability to make up for it." Then if direct modification, the lack of the artificial forklift itself will be magnified, in the state of no load, especially in the full load state, because of the morphological limitations of the body, the forklift AGV has a part of the blind spot of vision, which will bring greater safety risks when operating. At the same time, the steering wheel is also driven so that the forklift has a larger turning diameter, usually twice the length of the vehicle, and its flexibility is also limited. We have to rethink forklifts from the bottom and reconstruct forklift forms. Jiexiang Lingyue CEO Lu Feng introduced.
To sum up, the goal of the Jet Elephant Lingyue 3.0 forklift AMR is to upgrade in four dimensions: no blind spots, more flexible, safer and more stable.
Careful readers will find that this upgrade has a premise, that is, to take unmanned forklifts as the core basis of thinking. Behind this reflects how the industry feels about the changes in the manufacturing industry?
"According to our observation of the intelligent logistics robot market in recent years, we will find that labor costs are constantly improving, and the labor shortage is not a topic of talking about, and many business owners are facing such practical problems." Lv Feng told the surging news (www.thepaper.cn).
According to the data of the 2019 Fourth National Economic Census Communiqué, the labor structure of the country is undergoing great changes, the most obvious embodiment of which is that a large number of secondary industry (industry) employees have shifted to the tertiary industry (service industry). Industry is facing an unprecedented "labor shortage". The prolongation of the new crown epidemic has also brought more uncertainty to manufacturing production.
At the end of December 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other 15 departments jointly issued the "14th Five-Year" Robot Industry Development Plan, proposing that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the density of manufacturing robots will double. China Mobile Robot (AGV/AMR) Industry Alliance disclosed data that in 2021, Chinese market enterprises sold 72,000 mobile robots for industrial applications (AGV/AMR), an increase of 75.61% over 2020, and market sales reached 12.6 billion yuan (overseas sales of 2.5 billion yuan), an increase of 64% year-on-year. The market penetration rate of unmanned forklift robots in the entire industry is still less than 1%.
"Logistics assurance is the production of blood. The time spent on storage, loading and unloading, waiting for processing and transportation in manufacturing accounts for 75%, and logistics costs account for nearly 30% of production costs in the manufacturing process. The catalysis of the epidemic, the increase in labor costs year by year, the demand for flexible production in small batches and multiple batches, and the three major trends of digitalization, intelligence and reshaping logistics links are accelerating logistics automation, and the inflection point of the industry has arrived. Now more than ever, production companies are looking to automated solutions to assist manpower, alleviate labor shortages, and ensure the smooth circulation of economic factors. In the long run, supply assurance will always be the focus. The scale of China's intelligent logistics market and the global logistics market is also rising at a high speed year by year. Lu Feng said.
For the inflection point of the industry, Ren Bobing, executive director of the Innovation Workshop, also mentioned when sharing the methodology of the innovation workshop selection project, "First, we will make direction predictions, which are mainly around the cutting-edge technologies in various fields of Deep Tech may bring inflection point opportunities and productization landing opportunities. Before 2018, Jiexiang Lingyue saw the opportunity of future AI robots in the logistics automation scenario, and then began to look for the direction of specific products of incubation projects. “
"Second, in terms of selection, we will look for potential high-quality CEO candidates around this field, do accurate portraits and extensive communication, and finally judge who is the most suitable CEO." Finally, when entrepreneurs are faced with how to cross-land new technologies, how to manage cash flow and lead teams, help cutting-edge technology entrepreneurs cross the 'death valley' of technology commercialization. Ren Bobing continued.
Kai-Fu Lee, chairman and CEO of Innovation Factory, said that smart logistics has entered the first year of the outbreak under the new crown extension. As an "infrastructure-based" industry that supports people's livelihood and ensures the flow of production factors, the logistics and transportation industry urgently needs to transform and upgrade to intelligent operation through platform technologies such as AI and automation.