From August 18 to 21, the 2022 World Robot Conference was held in Beijing. more than 130 companies brought more than 500 exhibits to the show, and more than 30 of them were world premiere new products. Some exhibits made the audience feel friendly, such as the robot that can make pancake fruit, which makes people drool; some exhibits made the audience laugh and have fun, such as more than 100 robot dogs tied with cloth tigers and danced in groups on the red carpet.
Some exhibits made the audience feel subtle, such as an engineer and “same face” simulation robot together, which made people worry about how to do if it is used to engage in face recognition bank card theft?
At such an exhibition, you will definitely think: what kind of robot do I want? Your ideas will determine the future of a super industry.
The idea of replacing humans with robots to complete heavy production line work is becoming a reality. 2021, the density of industrial robot use in the global manufacturing sector has reached 126 units per 10,000 people, nearly doubling from 66 units per 10,000 people in 2015, and the trend of “machine for human” is obvious.
Applications are the driving force behind the rapid development of the robotics industry. The development of industrial robots in China has benefited from this. The transformation and upgrading of traditional industries and the high-quality development of new energy vehicles, photovoltaic batteries, integrated circuits and other emerging industries are inseparable from industrial robots. China has been the world’s largest consumer of industrial robots for many years, with 52 major industry categories and 143 industry medium categories in the national economy using industrial robots. 2021 China’s industrial robot sales reached 256,300 units, up 49.5% year-on-year.
Demand is driving technological progress and industrial growth. The precision reducer, which controls the movement of the robot’s “joints”, is one of the core components of the robot, which had been monopolized by foreign enterprises for decades, but has now been broken through by many domestic enterprises. In 2021, China’s industrial robot production reached 366,000 units, up 67.9% year-on-year.
Behind the continuous positive development of the robot industry, it is important to see that, compared with international robot giants, domestic robot enterprises still have the problems of small market value and weak profitability. Robotics companies should consider how to meet market demand more in order to open up a larger blue ocean. From the demand analysis, the industrial robot market is just right, and the growth potential is still sufficient. Similarly from demand analysis, the future market prospect of non-industrial robots such as service robots is much larger than that of industrial robots. Whoever dominates non-industrial robots in the future will be able to dominate the global market. Products that can be sold into thousands of households are the big blue ocean industry, and who doesn’t want a robot at home?
From technology-driven to business-driven, we can’t relax the requirements of technological innovation, but we must start from consumer needs and try to turn consumers’ dreams into reality. To do this, stronger positive design capabilities and original technology accumulation are needed. For example, many people want robots to help humans complete boring household chores, an idea that has only partially become a reality. 2021, China’s floor cleaning robot sales scale of 11 billion yuan, up 17% year-on-year, the market volume for the first time more than the United States, retail sales accounted for 32% of the global. The “lazy man’s economy” has given rise to a rapidly growing market for floor cleaning robots, yet there are many more needs that are not being met, such as nanny robots and elderly robots. The unmet needs are not because we don’t know about them, but because we haven’t made a product that satisfies the market. After all, it’s much harder to do than to think.
The robot dog at the robotics conference can be a pet or a rescue, depending on what your needs are. What kind of robot do you want? The answer to this question determines the future picture of society. We expect robots to become as common as smartphones, and we expect everyone’s dreams about robots to come true.
