Discussion on China's industrial robot market

Discussion on China's industrial robot market

it is estimated that the demand for industrial robots in China will reach 32000 by 2014, becoming the world's largest demand country

industrial robots usually consist of three parts: mechanical system, control system and intelligent system. The mechanical system includes driving mechanism (such as hydraulic, pneumatic and electric) and actuator (composed of base, waist, arm, wrist and hand). The hand, also known as the end effector, can be gripper, welding gun or nozzle depending on the working purpose. The control system is responsible for calculating the spatial coordinate positioning required for the work of the hand, cooperating with the rotation of the joint axis group on the base, waist, arm and wrist, and determining the working posture of the robot. The intelligent system determines the best point-to-point or continuous moving route of the hand through computer software calculation, and carries out interference analysis to avoid collision with workpieces, fixtures and other equipment, and quickly outputs the working program, so that the command and control system can achieve the required working effect

Lei Weiming, marketing manager of digital manufacturing in the Asia Pacific Marketing Department of Siemens plmsoftware, believes that in general, today's industrial robots are a system integrating electromechanical and computer software. Enterprises must master good engineering design and analysis capabilities of machinery, servo motors, precision reducers and sensor systems, and master comprehensive computer simulation, visualization and programming capabilities, And fully understand the working standards and needs of the application industry

China's industrial robots started in the early 1970s. After more than 20 years of development, they have roughly experienced three stages: the embryonic stage in the 1970s, the development stage in the 1980s and the applicability stage in the 1990s. From the research on the significance of reusing waste thermal insulation materials in industrial robots to now, China's industrial robot industry is in continuous progress. In recent years, nearly 60 enterprises engaged in the production of industrial robots have emerged in China, including Xinsong robot, Boshi automation, Everett (Chery equipment), Juyi welding, Guangzhou CNC, Wodi, Qingdao soft control, but the degree of industrial application of products is low, and most of them are in the production scale of tens of sets

in terms of application, the market demand has surged in the past three years, and has expanded from the automotive industry to many fields such as power and electronics, machine tools, chemical industry, etc., with a large market demand space. Since 2010, the demand for industrial robots in China has surged, 1.7 times higher than that in 2009, and 51% higher than that in 2010. It is expected that the demand will reach 32000 units by 2014, becoming the world's largest demand country. This is mainly because of the rapid rise in labor costs in China, and some enterprises began to replace labor with industrial robots

foreign brands occupy most of the market

80% of China's market share is occupied by ABB, FANUC, Yaskawa and KUKA

in recent years, the popularization and application of robots has developed from a single robot work unit in the initial stage to a working group of multiple robots, and even can form a production line to complete the whole manufacturing process

speaking of the international and domestic gap, Lei Weiming said that the international and Chinese markets have common concerns about the performance of robots, such as large workspace, fast speed, short response time, high accuracy and reliability, light weight, heavy weight, high flexibility, improved operator interface, modularization, offline programming (OLP), energy saving, relatively low operating costs

however, due to the difference in labor costs, when using robots to perform production work, the Chinese market will still use manual loading, unloading and stacking, resulting in the phenomenon that the automation level is not high enough and the proportion of robot and manual labor is lower than that in foreign markets. According to the International Federation of robotics, the number in China in 2011 was 21, and the international average was 55, including 135 in the United States, 251 in Germany, 339 in Japan and 347 in South Korea

in the Chinese market, robot products from Japanese and European brands account for most of the market share. It is understood that 80% of the market share in the Chinese market is occupied by ABB, FANUC, Yaskawa and KUKA [China Plastics News] Huafeng spandex (), said the four major enterprises. Lei Weiming believes that these foreign brands take advantage of their early technological advantages and practical experience, and the performance of robots, especially the control system, intelligence and networking, is ahead of Chinese products. However, the performance of robot products locally developed in China is limited to joint assembly, point, handling, palletizing robots and other series products, which lack their autonomy, such as parts processing accuracy, painting appearance should be intact, lubrication, average and color differences are not high enough, key components are almost all imported, R & D forces are scattered and discontinuous, influential local large enterprises have low enthusiasm for independent R & D, and production batches are small, All hinder the development of China's robot industry chain

it opportunity lies in integration and cooperation

robot control system will develop towards PC based open controller

industrial robots involve interdisciplinary and interdisciplinary technologies, and their control systems can be called brains, which is also where it enterprises may make a difference

the control system is the main factor that determines the function and performance of the robot. Its main task is to control the motion position, posture and trajectory, operation sequence and action time of the industrial robot in the workspace. The key technologies such as modular and hierarchical controller software system, robot fault diagnosis and safety maintenance technology, networked robot controller technology directly affect the speed, control accuracy and reliability of industrial robots. At present, the robot control system will develop towards an open controller based on PC, which is convenient for standardization and networking, digitization and decentralization of servo drive technology, practicality of multi-sensor fusion technology, optimization of working environment design and flexibility of operation. Luo Baihui, Secretary General of the International Association of mold, hardware and plastic industry suppliers, believes that the development opportunities of software enterprises or IT enterprises in the field of industrial robots are mainly aimed at the independent development of control systems and intelligent systems, establishing an industrialization platform, supporting independent brand complete machine enterprises, driving continuous research and development with large-scale applications, and seeking technological breakthroughs. The difficulties that these IT enterprises will encounter include formulating and popularizing the standards of industrialization platform, the system integration of electromechanical and software, intelligently improving the tolerance accuracy of parts processing, improving the collaborative work ability of engineering teams, and forming an independent industrial chain structure, so as to get rid of the shackles of relying on imported technology

the special committee should be responsible for strengthening the communication between the industry and the government. Dr. NKY, a professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), said that software and complex robot systems cannot be truly separated. Although there are also some opportunities to create robot programming and simulation tools, or quality evaluation and control software tools, as well as other tools for industrial robot systems, advanced industrial robots are complex systems, which are closely integrated by hardware and software with equipment and other systems such as sensor networks, vision systems, other advanced industrial robots and factory control automation systems, So software cannot be really separated