The development of the robot industry is facing a historic opportunity

At present, it has become a common challenge for all countries to realize the continuous transformation of old and new drivers and promote strong and sustainable economic growth. At the recently held Summit Forum on Skilled Talents and Made in China, Luo Junjie, Deputy Director of the Equipment Industry Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, pointed out that in recent years, China's economy has entered a new normal, and the development of intelligent manufacturing is the best way to realize the organic combination of the cultivation and development of emerging industries and the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries. In the next step, we will further implement the special project of intelligent manufacturing, continue to promote pilot demonstrations, accelerate the formulation and revision of standards and promote the application, actively cultivate system solution providers, deepen international cooperation, improve the intelligent manufacturing ecosystem, improve the quality and efficiency of the manufacturing industry, and accelerate the formation of new advantages of Chinese manufacturing.

It has become a national strategy for all countries

Luo Junjie introduced that after the international financial crisis, the global economy has entered a period of deep adjustment, the growth rate has slowed down significantly, the recovery is faltering, and major countries and regions in the world have stepped up planning and layout. At present, whether it is German Industry 4.0 or the American Industrial Internet, its core is to promote the digitalization, networking and intelligence of the manufacturing industry, which is actually intelligent manufacturing. "Made in China 2025" takes intelligent manufacturing as the main direction and breakthrough, effectively drives the breakthrough of key technologies and equipment such as robots, promotes the integrated innovation of complete sets of intelligent manufacturing equipment, and forms a number of typical new intelligent manufacturing models, with significant improvements in production efficiency, energy utilization, operating costs, and product development cycle.

Nowadays, with the Internet of Things, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and other new generation of information and communication technology and manufacturing industry to accelerate the integration, digital, networked, intelligent development, as well as the vigorous development of intelligent manufacturing, it has brought a new spring to the robot industry, robots and human production and life are more and more inseparable, mainly showing the following development characteristics: First, robots have become a fast-growing emerging industry. According to the estimation of relevant institutions, in 2016, the scale of the global robot industry exceeded 20 billion US dollars for the first time, an increase of 14.5%, and is expected to reach 23.2 billion US dollars in 2017. Second, robots have become an important breakthrough to boost the real economy. As an ideal carrier of artificial intelligence, robots not only gradually build a human-machine integrated smart factory with "cloud-network-end" as the infrastructure in the production field, promote the customization and flexible transformation of production methods, but also show their skills in family life, medical care, finance, transportation, commerce, logistics, etc., and widely expand application scenarios. Third, robots have become the focus of the strategic layout of major countries. Accelerating the development of robots has become the consensus of all countries in the world, and major countries around the world have promoted the development of robotics technology and industry as a national strategy.

The development of the industry presents a new trend

Luo Junjie believes that overall, the development of the future robot industry shows the following trends: First, new materials will be widely used in the field of robots. Composite materials such as lightweight and high-strength steel, magnesium-aluminum alloy and carbon fiber will be widely used in the manufacture of robot bodies and key components, promoting the lightweight and improving the motion performance of the robot, and greatly reducing the ratio of the robot's weight to load. At the same time, cutting-edge technologies such as liquid metal control technology and electrical signal muscle control technology will also strongly promote the use and popularization of new materials in the field of bionic robots and flexible robots.

Second, cloud service technology accelerates the overall improvement of robot application level. The robot only needs to connect to the cloud server, which effectively realizes data exchange and knowledge sharing, and provides users with a new robot service method that is infinitely scalable and used on demand.

Third, artificial intelligence will promote the continuous enrichment of robot application scenarios. With the help of artificial intelligence technologies such as speech recognition, semantic understanding, and visual processing, as well as the influence of sensitive tactile technology, brain-computer interface technology, and virtual reality control technology, robots can break through the existing cognitive limitations and significantly improve the human-computer interaction experience.

Fourth, robots have gradually shifted from simple product competition to complex and integrated ecological competition. In the future, the market competition in the field of robotics will go beyond the boundaries of enterprises, and the form will gradually change from the original product competition to the competition of the industrial ecology.

Industrial development is facing new opportunities

Luo Junjie pointed out that at present, China's economic development has entered a new normal, the global technology and industrial pattern is being profoundly adjusted, and the development of the robot industry is facing new major historical opportunities.

First, positive progress has been made in scale, technology, application, and agglomeration. The scale of the industry is expanding rapidly. According to statistical analysis, in 2016, China's robot output reached 72,400 units, and it was close to 72,000 units in January ~ July this year, a year-on-year increase of 56.7%. Breakthroughs have been made in the research and development of key technologies and components. At present, speech recognition, image recognition and other technologies have reached the international advanced level, and positive progress has been made in the optimized design and performance evaluation of the robot body, high-speed and high-precision control, and the controller has approached the international level. Diversified application scenarios continue to expand. In addition to general scenarios such as home entertainment and emotional companionship, service robots in finance, medical treatment, rehabilitation, emergency rescue and other professional scenarios have gradually increased.

Second, it has good development opportunities in terms of market potential, open cooperation, and intelligence. The market is firmly based and there is still huge potential to be tapped. With the transformation of demographic structure and production methods, China's demand for industrial robots and service robots continues to grow significantly. At the same time, service robots directly face the majority of consumers and have a larger market space than industrial robots in the future; The system is open and innovative, with the concept of win-win cooperation.

Third, emerging technologies are developing rapidly, and breakthroughs are expected in the field of intelligence. China is basically on the same starting line with the world in terms of artificial intelligence technology, especially in the fields of image recognition, speech recognition, semantic recognition, etc., which has partially approached and reached the global leading level.

China's robot industry should be clear-eyed, healthy, and solid

Luo Junjie requires that we should correctly grasp the trend and characteristics of the development of the global and China's robot industry, clarify the positioning and direction, improve the ability and level, improve the foundation and environment, and promote the healthy and sustainable development of China's robot industry. First, it is necessary to be "eye-catching" and further clarify the positioning and direction of robot development. At present, the robot industry is in a period of rapid development, the actual demand of the robot market, especially the potential demand is very huge, the depth and breadth of the development of robots is very broad, and it has become the darling of various resources such as policy, capital, and talents. However, the more we should maintain a keen eye and a clear mind at such a time, and we should make overall plans from the perspective of the overall layout of the industry and the long-term interests of the enterprise, grasp the basic laws and phased characteristics of industrial development, and find an inclusive and symbiotic, open and shared, stable and sustainable development path.

The second is to "strengthen the body" and further improve the ability and level of robot development. Judging from the actual development of the current robot industry, the main task is to accelerate the ability and level of industrial development. Promote the first breakthrough of major landmark products such as fully autonomous programming intelligent industrial robots, human-machine collaborative robots, fire rescue robots, surgical robots, intelligent public service robots, and intelligent nursing robots; Vigorously develop key components such as high-precision reducers, high-performance servo motors and drives, high-performance controllers, sensors and end-effectors; Combined with the implementation of intelligent manufacturing projects, select key areas to promote the extension of industrial robots, service robots, and special robots to more fields, and implement application demonstration projects in an orderly manner.

The third is to "consolidate the foundation and cultivate the yuan" and further improve the foundation and environment for the development of robots. Robots are the product of cross-field and interdisciplinary cross-integration and development, which requires group integrated innovation and more professional and efficient R&D design and market services, and needs to inject more "vitality" into industrial development, lay a firmer foundation for industrial development, and create a better external environment for industrial development. On the one hand, it is necessary to strengthen innovation capacity building. Promote the construction of the National Robot Innovation Center, carry out key common technologies and cutting-edge technologies such as human-computer interaction, flexible control, functional bionics, and intelligent perception, and open up the industrialization channel. On the other hand, it is necessary to build more carriers for exchanges and cooperation. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will work with relevant departments to actively implement the "Manufacturing Talent Development Planning Guide", and encourage key enterprises to establish a joint talent training mechanism with domestic and foreign universities and research institutions.