It can not only carry, grind, weld, but also sell, puzzle, water... At the 23rd China International Industry Expo held in Shanghai recently, the robot exhibition area of more than 50,000 square meters has become one of the largest and most participated in the whole industry chain platform in the world. In addition to the dizzying "show skills", many robot booths also blew three new winds of diversification, intelligence and ecology.
From manufacturing to services, downstream applications are "diversified"
The Industry Fair is a national-level exhibition in the industrial field of mainland China, and robots are the highlight exhibition area of the entire Industry Fair. According to reports, the robot exhibition area of this industry fair brought together more than 350 upstream and downstream related enterprises in the industrial chain at home and abroad, and launched more than 300 new robot technologies, new products and new applications.
In people's traditional impression, robots are often used to do simple and hard jobs such as handling and spraying. With the continuous advancement of robot technology, its downstream application scenarios are becoming more and more diversified. In addition to increasing efficiency for traditional industries such as automobiles, daily chemicals, and electronics, it also empowers emerging fields such as new energy vehicles, photovoltaics, and biomedicine.
At the 23rd China International Industry Fair held in Shanghai recently, visitors stopped to watch in front of a group of ABB robot static display exhibits. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Fang Zhe
With the increasing number of new energy vehicles, fast charging has become a rigid need. The local robot brand Jieka brought a new energy vehicle charging robot at the Industry Expo. After sensing that the car is parked, the charging robot will automatically come to remove the charging gun and insert it into the car charging interface. By accurately identifying the planned path, the robot can complete the whole process of plugging and unplugging electric vehicles, and is currently "on duty" at some charging stations.
"It's a robot, it's an infinite possibility" – the Swiss industrial giant ABB unveiled a series of innovative robot products and solutions at its robot booth of nearly 800 square meters, including the first industrial education robot. With a payload of 3.5 kg, the robot has a 10% smaller footprint and 20% lighter than its predecessor. Students using this robot will learn to deploy robotic automation in different fields and applications.
At the 23rd China International Industry Fair held in Shanghai recently, a robot showed the Rubik's Cube game at the booth. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Fang Zhe
In addition to manufacturing, robots in the service sector are also shining. Brewing coffee, spelling Rubik's cube, egg carving... The robot "skill value" at the industry fair is full. At this year's Industry Fair, the local robot brand Fei Xi brought intelligent physiotherapy solutions based on adaptive robot products. This product combines advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, 3D vision, and intelligent sensing, which can simulate the physical relaxation and treatment of human hands on human soft tissues.
According to the "Robot +" Application Action Implementation Plan issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other 17 departments at the beginning of this year, by 2025, the density of robots in the mainland manufacturing industry will double compared with 2020, the depth and breadth of application of service robots and special robot industries will be significantly improved, and the ability of robots to promote high-quality economic and social development will be significantly enhanced.
Working alongside people, robots are becoming more and more "intelligent"
In recent years, the rapid development of artificial intelligence and other technologies has brought new possibilities to the robot industry. Walking in the robot exhibition area of the Industry Fair, you can feel that the current robots are becoming more and more "intelligent" and "smart".
Collaborative robots are a major trend in the development of the robot industry, and there are hundreds of collaborative robots exhibited at this year's Industry Fair. Compared with traditional industrial robots, which have a large load and format, and usually need to work in a "safety cage", collaborative robots are more flexible and safe, and can work together with people to meet the needs of small-batch, diversified and flexible production.
At ABB's booth, collaborative robots for laboratory applications were exhibited for tasks such as dosing, mixing and pipetting to collaborate with researchers. "The biomedical industry is more of a small workstation. To be automated in these places, there are many human-computer interaction scenarios, and collaborative robots are more suitable for these scenarios. Wang Tong, head of marketing and sales for China of ABB's robotics business unit, said.
At the Jika booth, the reporter tried to approach a collaborative robot and found that its movement speed was reduced, and when trying to touch the robot with his hand, it automatically stopped. "This is the vision protection camera of the jika, which can flexibly set the protection area, support multi-level protection, and make human-robot collaboration safer." Wang Lei, marketing manager of Jieka Robot, said.
According to reports, in order to further improve the robot's perception and decision-making ability, Jieka first exhibited its self-developed 2.5D visual positioning technology at the Industry Fair, which can realize dynamic estimation of spatial posture and accuracy of 0.2 mm in precise positioning mode.
Jiang Yao, chairman of local robot brand Jebot, said: "We are very optimistic about the development of the collaborative robot market, and will increase investment in the future, continue to develop and innovate, and help China's high-end intelligent manufacturing." ”
Conquer key components and promote the "ecology" of the robot industry chain
In recent years, the mainland robot industry has achieved vigorous development. Statistics show that in 2022, the operating income of the mainland robot industry will exceed 170 billion yuan, and the output of industrial, service and special robots will grow rapidly. In the same year, the installed capacity of industrial robots in mainland China accounted for more than 50% of the world, ranking the world's largest market.
Including key components such as controllers, servo motors and reducers, it was a major constraint to the development of domestic robots. In the past, most of the three core components were produced by European and Japanese companies. At this year's Industry Fair, many domestic supply chain enterprises "posted" the latest results, and the "ecology" of the robot industry is increasingly perfect.
For example, at the joint booth of Midea and KUKA at this year's Industry Fair, a high-precision harmonic gear reducer product was exhibited. Chen Shixing, the relevant person in charge of Midea, introduced that since 2019, Midea has begun to develop harmonic reducers, and finally achieved mass production in 2022. This reducer is aimed at aerospace, semiconductor production and other fields that require extremely high product accuracy.
Silan Technology Co., Ltd. from Shanghai Zhangjiang Science City exhibited a variety of lidar at the Industry Fair. Chen Dexi, a staff member of Silan Technology, said: "Sensors such as lidar are key components of intelligent manufacturing, and we hope that through our efforts, domestic robots can 'see' more accurately and 'walk' more smoothly." ”
"It is foreseeable that the development of the robot industry will be deeply integrated in the future, and the industrial chain will continue to improve, and the pace of intelligent manufacturing will be further promoted." Huang Huijie, president of Shanghai Robot Industry Technology Research Institute, said. (Reporter He Xinrong, Gong Wen, Gao Shaohua)