Interpretation of "Made in China 2025": Promoting the Development of Robotics

"Made in China 2025" stands at a new historical height, starting from a strategic overall perspective, clearly proposing the action plan for the first decade of implementing the manufacturing power strategy in our country. It emphasizes "high-end CNC machine tools and robots" as one of the key areas to be vigorously promoted, stating that the development of the robot industry should "focus on the demand for industrial robots in automotive, machinery, electronics, hazardous materials manufacturing, national defense and military industry, chemical industry, light industry, as well as service robots in medical health, household services, education, and entertainment. Actively develop new products, promote the standardization and modularization of robots, and expand market applications. Break through the technical bottlenecks of robot bodies, reducers, servo motors, controllers, sensors, and key components and system integration design and manufacturing technologies." It also clarifies that the main development focus of the robot industry in our country for the next decade is primarily in two directions: first, to develop a series of products for industrial robot bodies and key components, promote the industrialization and application of industrial robots, and meet the urgent needs of our manufacturing industry's transformation and upgrading; second, to break through key technologies of intelligent robots and develop a batch of intelligent robots to actively respond to the challenges of a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation.

1. Demand-oriented, enhance innovation capabilities, and expand market applications

According to different application environments, the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) divides robots into two categories: industrial robots in manufacturing environments and service robots in non-manufacturing environments. Industrial robots are a general term for robots used in industrial production, and they are important factory automation equipment in modern manufacturing; service robots are non-productive robots that serve humans, mainly applied in unstructured environments that are relatively complex, capable of obtaining information about the external environment through their own sensors and communication, thus making decisions and completing corresponding tasks.

1. China has become the world's largest industrial robot market, with potential still to be tapped.

Industrial robots mainly refer to multi-joint mechanical arms or multi-degree-of-freedom robots aimed at the industrial field, used in aspects such as handling, welding, assembly, processing, painting, and cleaning in the industrial production process. In 2014, global industrial robot sales reached a historical high of 225,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 27%. The driving force for market growth mainly comes from the Asian region, especially China and South Korea.

In recent years, the demand for robots in the Chinese market has grown rapidly, making it an important global robot market. In 2014, China's industrial robot sales reached 56,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 52%, once again becoming the world's largest industrial robot market. Users have shifted from foreign-funded enterprises and Sino-foreign joint ventures to domestic enterprises and even small and medium-sized enterprises. Many companies in the developed coastal industrial areas of China use products for export, with high quality requirements, and more and more companies are replacing industrial workers with robots. In the Pearl River Delta region, the annual growth rate of industrial robot usage has reached 30%, especially in fields such as assembly, dispensing, handling, and welding, where a wave of robot usage has emerged.

Although China has been the world's largest industrial robot market since 2013, the density of industrial robots in manufacturing is still very low. In 2013, China's industrial robot density was only 30 units per 10,000 industrial workers, less than half of the global average, and the gap is even larger compared to countries with higher levels of industrial automation such as South Korea (437 units per 10,000 industrial workers), Japan (323 units per 10,000 industrial workers), and Germany (282 units per 10,000 industrial workers). The domestic industrial robot market still has huge potential.

As a major manufacturing country, China has always been in a backward position in the application of industrial robots. Except for the automotive industry, the application of robots in general manufacturing, which is large in quantity and wide in scope, is basically in a spontaneous, scattered, or sporadic state. With the development of factory automation in our country, industrial robots will also be rapidly promoted in other industrial sectors such as electronics, metal products, rubber and plastics, food, building materials, civil explosives, aviation, and medical equipment.

The degree of application of industrial robots is an important indicator of a country's level of industrial automation. The development of industrial robots in our country should focus on accelerating the development needs of intelligent manufacturing, coordinating both supply and demand sides of robots. On one hand, improve the innovation capabilities of our robot manufacturing enterprises, promote the standardization, modularization, and systematization of robots, reduce usage costs, and enhance integration application levels, thereby expanding the scope of market applications; on the other hand, actively carry out pilot applications of self-owned brand robots, focusing on a number of typical application demonstration projects that have outstanding effects, strong driving force, and high relevance, to promote the use of industrial robots to transform and upgrade traditional manufacturing.

2. Our service robot industry should be demand-oriented and develop with focus.

Service robots include specialized service robots and household service robots, with a wide range of applications, mainly engaged in maintenance, repair, transportation, cleaning, security, rescue, monitoring, as well as medical, elderly care, rehabilitation, and assistance for the disabled. Service robots are a new type of intelligent equipment and a strategic high-tech product, which will have a larger market space than industrial robots in the future.

In the past five years, the global service robot market has shown rapid growth. According to statistics from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), in 2013, global sales of professional service robots and personal/household service robots reached 21,000 units and 4 million units, with market values of $3.57 billion and $1.7 billion, respectively, representing year-on-year growth of 4% and 28%. In the coming years, the global service robot market will continue to grow rapidly. With significant breakthroughs in cloud robot technology through mutual learning and knowledge sharing, the production costs of small household auxiliary robots will be greatly reduced, forming an emerging market of at least $41.6 billion by 2020; on the other hand, although the development of assistive robots for the disabled has started slowly, it is predictable that there will be rapid growth in the next 20 years.

Currently, the research and development of service robot technology internationally is mainly led by the United States, Japan, China, Germany, and South Korea. The development of service robots in our country lags behind that of industrial robots. Compared with countries like Japan and the United States, our research and development in the field of service robots started relatively late, and there is still a significant absolute gap compared to developed countries. However, compared to industrial robots, the gap is smaller. Service robots generally need to be developed in conjunction with specific demand markets, and local enterprises are more likely to develop and occupy a good market position by combining specific environments and cultures, thus maintaining a certain competitive advantage; on the other hand, foreign service robots also belong to emerging industries, and most service robot companies have been established for a relatively short time, so our service robot industry faces significant opportunities and development space.

From the development trend, it is expected that our professional service robots will achieve industrialization ahead of personal/household robots, especially medical robots and inspection robots for hazardous special environments. As our country enters an aging society, the demand for medical care and rehabilitation will increase, and at the same time, due to people's pursuit of quality of life, personal/household robots will have a broader market space in the future.

2. Break through technical bottlenecks and enhance industrialization capabilities.

Robots integrate modern manufacturing technology, new material technology, and information control technology, representing intelligent manufacturing. Their research and development, manufacturing, and application have become important indicators for measuring a country's technological innovation and manufacturing level, attracting high attention from manufacturing powerhouses around the world.

The development of our robot industry can be traced back to the 1980s when the Ministry of Science and Technology included industrial robots in the science and technology tackling plan. The former Ministry of Machinery Industry organized the tackling of various types of industrial robots such as spot welding, arc welding, painting, and handling, and other ministries also actively supported the projects, forming the first peak of China's industrial robots. Subsequently, mainly due to market demand, the independent research and development and industrialization of robots experienced a long period of stagnation. After 2010, the installed capacity of robots in our country has increased year by year, beginning to develop towards the entire robot industry chain.

The development of the robotics industry includes R&D testing, the industrialization of robot bodies and components, system integration technology, services, etc. Each link is very important. The development of China's robotics industry chain is a long and arduous process. Overall, most of China's robot companies are concentrated in the integration field, with processing and assembly companies accounting for the majority. In terms of original research on core and key technologies, high-reliability basic functional components, system process application solutions, and mass production of mainframes, there is still a considerable gap compared to developed countries. In terms of key components, precision reducers, servo motors, and drivers are heavily reliant on imports. Although the country has made significant investments in this area over the years, the original market scale and level of industrialization were not high enough to drive the development of core components, resulting in unsatisfactory outcomes.

It can be seen that the insufficient strength of China's robotics technology restricts the scale of industrialization, and the small scale in turn restricts the development of technology, all of which affect the industrialization process of robotics. To improve the market competitiveness of domestic robots, on the one hand, it is necessary to expand the production of domestic robots and increase the production capacity of domestic robot companies; on the other hand, it is necessary to promote the localization of key components of domestic robots and enhance the production capacity of key components to meet the needs of domestic robot capacity expansion.

In the past two years, the country has placed great emphasis on intelligent manufacturing and robotics. Multiple departments, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Science and Technology, are actively promoting the development of the robotics industry, advancing the development of independent brand robotics from multiple aspects such as top-level design, fiscal and financial policies, demonstration applications, and talent cultivation. Support policies are becoming increasingly comprehensive and detailed. The roadmap for China's robotics industry and the relevant work of the "13th Five-Year Plan" for the robotics industry are also steadily advancing. This will greatly promote the ability of Chinese robotics companies to break through technological bottlenecks and enhance industrialization capabilities.

Currently, for China's robotics industry, it is no longer a question of whether to pay attention to the industry, but rather how to view this industry and what kind of thinking to cultivate and develop it in an orderly manner. Regarding various issues such as market demand for the robotics industry, technological innovation models, and funding support methods, local governments are expected to refine their support policies for this industry.

3. Accelerate the R&D and production of the next generation of robots to seize the next high ground in robot technology and industrial development.

With the development of robotics technology, robots are classified into general robots and intelligent robots based on their functions. General robots refer to robots that only have general programming capabilities and operational functions, and most of the robots produced in China currently belong to this category; intelligent robots do not have a unified definition, but most experts believe that intelligent robots must at least possess the following major functional characteristics: first, the ability to adapt to uncertain operating conditions; second, the ability to flexibly operate complex objects; third, the ability to closely coordinate and cooperate with humans; fourth, the ability to interact naturally with humans; fifth, the safety features of human-robot cooperation. Whether modern industrial robots or service robots, they will ultimately develop into intelligent robots with learning capabilities. We generally refer to intelligent robots as the next generation of robots. With the continuous advancement of technologies such as 3D visual perception/cognition and force sensors, and the deep integration with new generation information technologies such as industrial internet, cloud computing, and big data, the intelligence level of the next generation of robots will further increase, their ability to perceive the external environment will be enhanced, and they will be able to complete dynamic and complex operational missions, achieve multi-machine collaboration, and work in cooperation with humans.

To further seize the international market and enhance the competitive position of manufacturing in the global arena, various economic powers are eager to try and are formulating development plans to seize the initiative in the development of advanced robotics technology. Currently, the German government is promoting the "Industry 4.0" strategy, building "smart factories" and creating "smart production," with one of its key topics being the interaction and cooperation between humans and machines, as well as between machines. In 2013, the United States proposed the "U.S. Robotics Development Roadmap," focusing on overcoming key technologies such as strong adaptability and reconfigurable assembly in manufacturing, humanoid dexterous manipulation, model-based integration and supply chain design, autonomous navigation, perception in unstructured environments, education and training, and the essential safety of robots working alongside humans. At the beginning of 2015, the Japanese government announced the "New Robot Strategy of Japan," clearly stating in its five-year action plan that it aims to "research and develop technologies such as data terminalization, networking, and cloud computing to be achieved in the next generation of robots." In recent years, the South Korean government has successively released multiple policies aimed at supporting the R&D and application of third-generation intelligent robots. The "Robot Future Strategy Network 2022" announced by South Korea in 2012 focuses on supporting South Korean companies to enter the international market and seize the initiative in the industrialization of intelligent robots. With the strong promotion of technological powers such as the U.S., Japan, and Europe, prototypes, demonstration applications, and even practical systems of the next generation of robots have emerged continuously in the past five years.

From the current perspective of China, the demand market for the next generation of industrial robots has not yet fully matured, but the R&D and reserve of common technologies with strategic significance are particularly urgent. Currently, in developing the next generation of robotics industry, China should first focus on solidifying the technological foundation of the robotics industry, actively promote the industrialization process of existing robots, and accelerate the promotion and application of independent brand robots in the domestic market. It is essential to explore new technology R&D models, encourage research institutes and enterprises to leverage their respective advantages, and establish a national-level platform for the R&D and reserve of cutting-edge and common technologies for the next generation of industrial robots. Starting from China's national conditions and needs, it is crucial to break through the core technologies of the next generation of robots, develop prototype systems and products for the next generation of robots, and promote the industrialization process to seize the international high ground of the next generation of robots. For robot products applied in different fields, different development strategies should be implemented: on the one hand, focusing on enterprises as the core, supported by common technology platforms, prioritizing the development of the next generation of industrial robots, promoting the matching of production and demand, and seizing the high ground of development; on the other hand, being market-oriented, grasping the characteristics of domestic demand, and developing service robots for medical care, elderly assistance, and special robots for operations in unique service environments.