OFweek Robotics Network
On April 18, 2024, the "2024 "Robot +" Industry Application Innovation and Development Blue Book" created by Veken Industry Research Center was released at the "OFweek 2024 (13th) China Robot Industry Conference". The Blue Book aims to provide an in-depth analysis of the development status, future trends and challenges of China's robotics industry. The report comprehensively shows the whole picture of the robot industry from multiple dimensions such as macro background, industry trends, industrial policies, industry prospects, industry hotspots, case analysis, industry lists and core manufacturers. The report pointed out that in the context of the development of new quality productivity, robots, as a typical representative of new quality productivity, are a strong support and driving force for the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries.
01 Macro background
Robots are a typical representative of new quality productivity
Machine substitution plays an important role in the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, quality improvement, cost reduction and efficiency improvement. According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the output of industrial robots in mainland China has increased from more than 30,000 units in 2015 to 429,500 units in 2023, an increase of nearly 12 times in 8 years, and an average annual compound growth rate of nearly 38%. However, robots are not only born for traditional industries to reduce costs and increase efficiency, but also to help overcome the inherent disadvantages of low degree of automation, low efficiency and low informatization in traditional industries, and lead traditional industries to transform to high quality, high efficiency, intelligence and digitalization. As a typical representative of new quality productivity, robots are a strong support and driving force for the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries.
"Robot +" multi-scenario development goals
On January 19, 2023, 17 departments jointly issued the "Robot +" Application Action Implementation Plan, proposing the short-term goal of the development of robots in the mainland: by 2025, the density of robots in the manufacturing industry will double compared with 2020, the depth and breadth of application in the service robot and special robot industry will be significantly improved, more than 100 kinds of innovative application technologies and solutions for robots will be broken, and more than 200 typical application scenarios of robots with high technical level, innovative application modes and significant application results will be promoted.
At the same time, it is proposed to deepen the application of "robot +" in ten key areas, including manufacturing, agriculture, construction, energy, trade and logistics, medical and health, elderly care services, education, commercial community services, safety emergency and extreme environment applications. After experiencing "speed and passion" in the development of the mainland robot industry, higher quality has become the core of the present and the future, with the continuous integration of the intelligent depth and breadth of the application industry, to achieve from "robot + industry application" to "robot empowerment industry".
02 Industry trends
Inventory of major events in 2023
1. The first share of humanoid robots UBTECH was successfully listed
In December 2023, UBTECH successfully landed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and officially became the first listed company in the field of humanoid robots. UBTECH is one of the few market players in the field of humanoid robots in the world, and has successfully commercialized humanoid robots. The successful listing of UBTECH is an important milestone in the humanoid robot industry.
2. Tesla's humanoid robot Optimus II was launched
On December 13, 2023, Musk showed off Tesla's second-generation humanoid robot, Optimus. The new generation of Optimus is equipped with a number of advanced technologies such as actuators and sensors designed by Tesla, a 2-DOF drive neck, a faster response 11-DOF dexterous hand, a tactile sensor (10 fingers), an integrated electronics and wiring harness for the actuator, a foot force/torque sensor, and an articulated toe. The prototype iteration of Tesla's humanoid robot is about to enter the "mass production realization" link, which marks that Tesla's humanoid robot project has entered a new stage.
3. The development of humanoid robots has entered the fast lane, and the "Guiding Opinions on the Innovation and Development of Humanoid Robots" has been officially released
On November 2, 2023, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Guiding Opinions on the Innovation and Development of Humanoid Robots", proposing that by 2025, the innovation system of humanoid robots in mainland China will be initially established, and a number of key technologies such as "brain, cerebellum, and limbs" will make breakthroughs to ensure the safe and effective supply of core components. The whole machine products have reached the international advanced level, and have achieved mass production, and have been demonstrated and applied in special, manufacturing, people's livelihood services and other scenarios, and explored the formation of effective governance mechanisms and means.
4. The "Robot +" Application Action Implementation Plan was officially released
On January 18, 2023, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, together with 16 other ministries and commissions, issued the "Robot +" Application Action Implementation Plan, clarifying the goals for 2025: doubling the density of robots in the manufacturing industry, significantly improving the in-depth application of service robots and special robots, and significantly enhancing the ability of robots to promote high-quality development.
5. ZAP, the world's leading radiosurgical robot company, has its headquarters in Suzhou
On April 7, 2023, ZAP, the global leader in the next generation of radiosurgical robots and a global pioneer in the field of non-invasive brain surgical robots, led the ZAP-X-photonic surgical robot China headquarters project officially signed a contract in Suzhou. The project will establish a headquarters base integrating production, R&D and sales, injecting strong impetus into building a first-class innovation cluster in the medical device industry.
6. Shanghai Fanuc Phase III project was officially opened
In November 2023, Shanghai Fanuc Phase III project was officially opened, Shanghai Fanuc Phase III project is located in Shanghai Robot Industrial Park, with a total investment of 1.58 billion yuan, covering an area of 300,000 square meters, is the world's largest robot base of Fanuc Group outside Japan, known as the "super smart factory" in the field of robotics. The completion of the project will promote Shanghai's robot industry to a new height, and the annual output value is expected to reach 10 billion yuan.
7. The 2023 World Robot Conference was held in Beijing
On August 16, 2023, the World Robot Conference was successfully held in Beijing. The conference focused on robotics technology and cutting-edge trends in the industry, exchanged academic views, combined with key scenarios to show the innovative application of robots to empower thousands of industries, and carried out high-level competitions around brain-computer interface, human-computer collaboration and other content. At the same time, the expo also gathered more than 30 key parts enterprises to display the latest research results, highlighting the strength of China's robot industry to strengthen the chain and supplement the chain and key core technology innovation.
8. "Top Ten Frontier Hot Areas of Robotics (2023-2024)" was released
On August 21, 2023, at the World Robot Conference, the report "Top Ten Frontier Hot Areas of Robotics (2023-2024)" was released for the first time. The report points out that the top ten frontier hot areas of robotics technology in the coming year include: embodied intelligence and vertical large models, humanoid and quadruped bionic robots, three-dimensional perception models and multimodal information fusion.
9. The "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Emergency Robots" was officially released
In December 2023, the Ministry of Emergency Management and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Emergency Robots", proposing that by 2025, a number of advanced emergency robots will be developed to greatly improve the scientific, professional, refined and intelligent level. The issuance of the "Guiding Opinions" will effectively promote the accelerated implementation of emergency robots.
10. Apollo humanoid robot has been purchased by the U.S. government and the Department of Defense
Apptronik's success in securing purchase orders from the U.S. government and the Department of Defense speaks volumes about the strength of the product when it released its first commercial humanoid robot, Apollo, in September 2023. The successful acquisition of the purchase order of the Apollo humanoid robot by the U.S. government and the Department of Defense not only demonstrates the government's importance and support for robotics, but also means that robotics will be further expanded in the military field. This event has a positive role in promoting the development of the robot industry and enhancing its application in various fields of society.
Regional development trends
From the perspective of regional distribution, domestic robot industry chain related enterprises are mainly concentrated in East China, South China and other coastal economically developed areas. According to statistics, by the end of 2023, there will be more than 350,000 enterprises related to the robot industry chain in East China, accounting for more than 40% of the number of enterprises related to the national robot industry chain; The number of enterprises in South China is close to 200,000, accounting for nearly a quarter.
1. Pearl River Delta
The robot industry in the Pearl River Delta region has a strong foundation for development, and the industrial clusters represented by Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Foshan and Dongguan are in the forefront of the country in terms of innovation and influence. In terms of industrial robots, the Pearl River Delta region has cultivated a number of domestic advanced independent brand ontology, key components and system integrator enterprises, and the output of industrial robots accounts for one-third of the national total; In terms of service robots, the Pearl River Delta region has rich product types and many application scenarios, and has developed a series of domestic leading products in the fields of education and entertainment, medical care, trade logistics, and housekeeping services; In terms of special robots, some companies have leading advantages in R&D and manufacturing of public safety, emergency rescue, and line inspection. On the whole, some local enterprises in the Pearl River Delta region have strong technical strength and strong market competitiveness in robot control systems and servo systems, such as Yuejiang, Kuka, Longshen, Hexin, Huacheng Industry and other enterprises. A good atmosphere of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship and a strong foundation for development provide a good opportunity for the development and growth of robot enterprises in the Pearl River Delta region.
2. Yangtze River Delta
The Yangtze River Delta is an important advanced manufacturing base in China, and it is also a relatively developed region in China. At present, the Yangtze River Delta region has established the most complete and systematic robot industry ecosystem in mainland China, forming industrial clusters represented by Shanghai, Kunshan, Wuxi, Changshu, Xuzhou and Nanjing, which are in the forefront of the country in terms of industrial scale efficiency, industrial innovation ability and industrial innovation environment. The Yangtze River Delta region brings together global giants including the four major families and well-known domestic leading enterprises such as Xinshida and Estun, and has a number of specialized, special and new "little giant" enterprises such as Green, Jieka, Turing, Timi, Guozi, Shanghai Gaoxian, Mingsai, XCMG Transmission, HCFA, etc., with a relatively complete robot industry chain.
3. Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei
From the perspective of the development of the robot industry in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, its biggest feature lies in the coordinated development model of the industrial chain with complementary advantages and interconnection. Beijing has leading advantages in the fields of medical robots, logistics and unmanned delivery robots, collaborative robots, etc., and has gathered a number of specialized and new "little giant" enterprises such as AUBO, Yunji, Ruijie, TINAVI, and Kangli Youlan. Tianjin focuses on the development of industrial robots, hybrid robots, underwater robots, light collaborative robots and industrial drones, etc., and gathers robot companies such as Deep Blue, World Transmission (Tianjin), Fuzhen, and Demingfu. Hebei is deeply engaged in parallel robots, mobile robots and special robots, and actively promotes the development of characteristic industrial clusters such as Tangshan and Langfang. On the whole, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has carried out the "weaving network project" of the regional industrial chain through policy coordination and guidance, giving full play to the advantages of the three places, focusing on the intersection of the robot industry chain in the three places, and carrying out various forms of cooperation such as joint research and development, technical services, supply chain collaboration, platform docking, achievement transformation and business incubation, which has realized the precise docking of resources and the optimization of the industrial chain system, which has largely promoted the development of the robot industry in the region.
Industry technology development trends
Cross-industry technology convergence trends. With the increasing maturity of a new generation of digital technologies such as mobile Internet, Internet of Things, big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, the in-depth application of digital technology in the robot industry has become possible. With the characteristics of high speed, low latency and large connection, 5G technology connects industrial robots to the industrial Internet, making it an inseparable part of the industrial intelligent manufacturing system. Through the industrial Internet, the working condition data of the robot is transmitted in real time, which can detect the operating status of the industrial robot, analyze the work efficiency, and judge and warn potential faults. Artificial intelligence technology can significantly enhance the functions of robots, so that robots have the ability to perceive and make decisions. In addition, robots are also more and more closely integrated with emerging technologies such as lidar, satellite remote sensing, geographic information system (GIS), virtual reality, cognitive science, biotechnology, and new material technology, with continuous enrichment of forms and functions.
The development trend of intelligent informatization. In the future, the digital factory intelligent manufacturing model with "Internet + robot" as the core will become the development direction of the manufacturing industry, and the perfect integration of robots, Internet, information technology and intelligent equipment in the manufacturing industry will be realized in a real sense, covering the production, quality, logistics and other aspects of factory manufacturing, which is a typical representative of intelligent manufacturing. Combined with industrial Internet technology, machine vision technology, human-computer interaction technology and intelligent control algorithm and other related technologies, industrial robots can quickly obtain processing information, accurately identify and locate operation targets, eliminate the interference of the factory environment and the diversity of the size and shape of the operation target, realize multi-robot intelligent collaborative production, and meet the diversified and refined needs of intelligent manufacturing.
The development trend of human-machine/multi-machine collaboration. In view of the current problems of industrial robots, such as insufficient operational flexibility, weak online perception and real-time operation ability, human-machine/multi-machine collaboration is its future development trend. Through the research and development of key technologies such as multimodal perception, environmental modeling, and optimized decision-making of robots, the human-computer interaction experience and human-machine collaboration efficiency are strengthened, and the complementary advantages of robots and humans at different levels such as perception, understanding, and decision-making can be realized, which can effectively improve the complex operation ability of industrial robots. At the same time, through the research and development of multi-machine collaboration technology of industrial robots, the distributed collaborative control of swarm robots is realized, and its collaborative work ability improves the execution efficiency of tasks, and the redundancy characteristics improve the robustness of task applications, and can complete various difficult, high-precision and distributed tasks that cannot be completed by a single system.
Application Trends
New business models are emerging. At present, the mainstream business model of the domestic robot industry is that enterprises sell products to users to obtain income. However, due to the high value of some robot products, some enterprises with weak capital and technical strength, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, lack of purchase funds, and do not have the ability to carry out maintenance, maintenance and application development after robot installation, so it hinders the promotion of robot applications. In recent years, in some application scenarios, the robot leasing model has gradually emerged. Taking the latest explosion-proof quadruped robot product launched by Qiteng Robot as an example, because the product is the only product in the world that can be mass-produced and obtain an explosion-proof certificate, the unit price of the product is high, therefore, Qiteng Robot provides customers with two modes of use; Customers can choose to rent on a monthly basis or purchase directly, with the lease starting from 48,000 yuan per month and the direct purchase starting from 1.38 million yuan. It is expected that with the further integration of digital technology and robots and the expansion of robot application scenarios, more new business models will emerge.
Empower traditional downstream industries and broaden emerging application fields. The early robots were mainly used in the industrial field to replace the heavy physical labor of workers or to work in high-precision and harsh environments, mainly in automobile manufacturing, shipbuilding, chemical industry, 3C electronics and other industries, engaged in handling, loading and unloading, welding, spraying and other work. In recent years, the application field of industrial robots has begun to expand to high-precision and high-sensitivity scenarios such as assembly, grinding, and polishing. In the field of mobile robots, with the continuous progress of various technologies, the development of mobile robots has gone through different stages such as magnetic stripe, two-dimensional code technology, laser navigation and visual autonomous navigation, the iterative update speed of new products has accelerated, and the application scenarios have increased day by day, gradually transitioning from simple point-to-point handling scenarios to the application of the whole factory in all scenarios, from traditional industries such as warehousing and logistics, automobiles and parts manufacturing to emerging industries such as lithium batteries, photovoltaics, panels, and semiconductors. In the field of service robots, with the application of various sensors such as vision and pressure, the optimization of control algorithms and the development of artificial intelligence technology, the intelligence level of robots has been greatly improved, and they have entered daily life such as cleaning services, education and entertainment, family companionship, welcome shopping guides, and food delivery. In the field of special robots, with the continuous improvement of functions, external forms and braking methods, the application scenarios have been continuously expanded, and robots have been widely used in logistics and distribution, emergency rescue, medical surgery, deep-sea exploration, space exploration, national defense and other scenarios.
Lightweight, flexible and human-machine collaboration capabilities are constantly improving. With the continuous improvement of R&D level, continuous innovation in process design, and the application of new materials, industrial robots are developing in the direction of miniaturization, lightweightness and flexibility, and their refined operation capabilities are constantly enhanced. At the same time, with the development of sensors such as haptics, force sense, machine vision, voice recognition, and artificial intelligence technologies and their integration with robots, robots can perceive people's positions and actions, and understand people's instructions, so as to achieve human-machine collaboration and human-machine integration; In the industrial field, robots and humans can perform production tasks together in the same space; In the field of life, robots can provide various services to humans in close proximity. With the improvement of the intelligent level of industrial robots, their functions have gradually expanded from operational tasks such as handling, welding, and assembly to processing tasks, and human-machine collaboration has become an important direction for the future research and development of industrial robots. Human-machine collaboration combines human cognitive ability with the work efficiency of robots, making the operation of industrial robots safer and simpler, so as to meet the needs of more application scenarios.
Industry outlook
The aging situation in mainland China is severe, and the transformation of the manufacturing industry has driven the long-term demand for industrial robots. The tide of intelligent manufacturing and digital transformation promotes the application of industrial robots, and national policies help the development of industrial robots. New technologies represented by AI continue to improve the depth and breadth of industrial robot applications. A variety of factors promote the continuous improvement of the scale of the mainland industrial robot market. According to the estimation of Veken Industry Research Center, the scale of China's industrial robot market will reach 62.44 billion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 14.3%. Driven by the downstream of new energy vehicles and photovoltaic industries, the mainland industrial robot market is expected to develop further in the future, and is expected to be close to 80 billion yuan in 2025.
Figure 1: China's industrial robot market size (100 million yuan)
Source: Veken Industry Research Center
Housekeeping and logistics are important application scenarios for service robots at this stage, and applications such as public services, entertainment, and medical rehabilitation are developing rapidly. The housekeeping and logistics fields represented by sweeping robots and AGVs are important basic disks for service robots. In the context of the intensification of the aging population in mainland China and the increase in labor costs, the market size of public service robots represented by catering distribution and shopping mall welcome, as well as entertainment and medical rehabilitation service robots is expected to increase rapidly.
Compared with industrial robots, service robots have a wider range of applications and greater growth potential. In 2023, the market size of service robots in mainland China will reach 50.48 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 27%.
Figure 2: China's Service Robot Market Size (100 million yuan)
Source: Veken Industry Research Center
With the continuous release of the application demand for special robots in downstream industries such as electric power, fire protection, and rail transit, the mainland has paid more attention to the development of the special robot industry, and has successively introduced a number of policies to promote the development of the industry. In March 2021, the "14th Five-Year Plan" proposed to strengthen the innovative application of advanced technology and equipment in the fields of deep mining and major disaster prevention, and promote the replacement of robots in dangerous positions; In June 2022, the Ministry of Emergency Response's "14th Five-Year Plan for the Construction of Emergency Rescue Forces" proposed to carry out research and development of technologies and equipment such as highly intelligent rescue robots and underwater rescue robots.
With the support of policies, the mainland special robot market has developed steadily. In 2023, the market size of special robots in mainland China will reach 17.11 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18%, and it is expected to be close to 23 billion yuan in 2025.
Figure 3: China's Special Robot Market Size (100 million yuan)
Source: Veken Industry Research Center
03 Industry list
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