It seems that it is not difficult for robots to gradually acquire “sharp eyes”, “skillful hands” and “tactile sense”, but behind it is a big leap in the robot industry chain, including core technology research and development, key components, core technology equipment and core industrial software.
From 2016 to 2020, 302 robot enterprises have developed and grown in Zhongguancun, with prominent advantages of industrial clusters, according to the Zhongguancun Administrative Committee. With the continuous “ice-breaking” expansion of core technologies, Zhongguancun has opened a new situation of running with the global robot industry and leading in some fields.
Robots are powering the real economy
Nearly 5,500 robots were busy in the intelligent warehouse of more than 300,000 square meters. All orders were delivered in two days, totaling 13.19 million orders. The delivery efficiency was twice that of the manual warehouse.
At present, the whole line of smart logistics products of Jizjia has been implemented in pilot cities through cooperation with China Mobile, Suning Logistics and ZTE. In the next step, Jizhijia will cooperate with the three major operators and other platforms to build a 5G-based AI robot intelligent logistics base in Beijing to accelerate the replacement of key components of warehousing and logistics robots.
Quantification of beans, powder, coffee powder weighing, brewing, cleaning filter paper, washing filter cup, brewing finished…… In 3 minutes, a cup of delicious hand-brewed coffee is ready. A chubby robot in the shape of Baymax has become the star barista at Tongrentang Health Shuangjing store. The robot, called Master Zhika, developed by Orion, is slightly larger than average, but its two flexible arms work accurately, smoothly, and professionally.
Today, all kinds of service robots developed by Orion Star have been applied in cultural tourism scenic spots, large shopping malls, schools, exhibitions, museums, medical institutions, hotels, KTV and many other scenes, and the total service of tens of thousands of robots has exceeded 200 million people. “There will be no so-called offline enterprises, all enterprises will be ‘online’, there will be no traditional enterprises, all enterprises will be intelligent.” Wang Bing, chief strategy officer of Orion Sky, said the core goal of service robots is to become a driving force for real economic growth.
Core technology “ice-breaking” expansion
“If key components cannot be independently produced and are completely imported, it feels like a ‘sword’ hanging over my head and I don’t know when it will fall down.” The chairman of a robot company has expressed his concern to reporters.
For a long time, many of the core components of China’s robot enterprises have been dependent on imports for a long time, and the high price has become one of the important factors restricting the development of China’s robot. Independent research and development of core components has become a key link and target of technological innovation in the robot industry during the 13th Five-Year Plan period.
The high precision RV reducer used by robot joints is one of the key parts of the robot, accounting for about 40% of the total cost of the robot. This kind of products have been occupied by Japanese enterprises in the absolute market for a long time. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, Beijing Zhitong Precision Transmission Technology Company made a major breakthrough in this field. “The precision of our high-end gear reducer is the same as that of Japanese companies.” Beijing zhi tong chief scientist Zhang Yueming introduced, zhi Tong RV reducer products have officially entered the Japanese and European and American markets, participate in international competition, show the strength of China.
In order to enable robots to perceive the world sensitively and accurately, how to create a pair of intelligent robot “eyes” is also one of the key problems in robot innovation. As the core component of robot environment sensing system, lidar technology was once controlled by mainstream manufacturers abroad. Zhongguancun enterprise Beixing Photonics focuses on the research and development and manufacturing of solid-state lidar. The performance data of its independently developed lidar products are all better than those of similar foreign enterprises, and can be replaced by localization.
Normally, robots don’t have a “sense of touch”, but when they have multi-dimensional force sensors, they can have a “sense of touch”, which can be used in high-end robots such as medical surgical robots and precision assembly robots. Previously, the six-dimensional force sensor core technology, which requires high precision and control ability, has been controlled by mainstream foreign manufacturers for a long time. Fortunately, at present, the performance of the six-dimensional force sensor products developed by Beijing Blue Point and Beijing Kunwei has basically reached or exceeded the level of similar foreign products, and the cost performance is higher.
During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, zhongguancun has formed a new force enterprise in the field of upstream core parts and components of robots, and the autonomous and controllable territory of domestic robots has been expanding.
Industrial cluster effect is prominent
As more and more core technologies achieve autonomy and control, Zhongguancun robot enterprises have gained a lot of help in reducing costs and enhancing competitiveness, creating conditions for efficient industrial agglomeration and rapid development.
Off-line programming software for industrial robots is a high-end application supporting the development of industrial robots. Five years ago, software developed by foreign companies sold for hundreds of thousands of units, even far more than the price of a robot body. In recent years, the offline programming software of PQArt industrial robots independently developed by China Airlines Has broken the technical blockade and monopoly of foreign products in this field, and reduced the cost of offline programming software used by domestic robot enterprises and developers to one third of the original.
As one of the most basic and core parts of the robot, the “skillful hand” of the robot costs more than 100,000 yuan, which has held back many domestic robot enterprises. In the national key RESEARCH and development project of “Development of Practical multi-finger dexterous Hand for Service and Industry”, Inspire Robot participated in the project as a core member and successfully developed the first commercial five-finger dexterous hand in China, which greatly reduced the cost of dexterous hand and provided more possibilities for the commercialization of domestic robots.
In the field of industrial robots, Alobo, Luoshi, software, timing, China Airlines is realistic; In the field of service robots, Orion Sky, Kangli Youlan, Youbixuan, Yunji, Da scrambling; In the field of special robots, Lingtian Intelligent, Harbin Institute of Technology robot, Jingpin Special outfit, Boya Road, etc. The field of intelligent logistics robot jizhijia, Jingdong number department…… In recent years, zhongguancun robot quality enterprises accelerated growth, industrial cluster effect is increasingly prominent.
Zhongguancun Administrative Committee related person in charge of the introduction, in the happy results at the same time, we should also see that some of the core parts of China’s robot industry in product performance and foreign countries still have a certain gap, some products still rely on imports.
During the “14th Five-year Plan” period, Zhongguancun will strive to break through the core components of industrial robots such as harmonic reducer, servo motor and driver, encoder, robot operating system, offline programming software and other technologies in the field of robotics, and form a more globally competitive robot industry chain.
