China's robot market quietly rising

No country has ever erupted so much demand for robots in such a short time. After a glimpse of China's huge market potential, the global robotic giants have moved aggressively to move more resources into China.

With the support of the government, Chinese robot enterprises are committed to long-term research and development, and actively explore the way out. At the 2014 China International Robotics Conference held this week, a number of well-known robotics companies at home and abroad demonstrated their latest technology and top-end products.

China's robot market quietly rising

In addition to the traditional heavy industrial robots, one of the highlights of the show is that the man-machine interaction of the cooperative robot has also been widely used in electronics, food, medical and logistics and other major mainstream areas.

Patrick Schwa, head of the German Federation of Machinery and equipment manufacturers, says many robotic manufacturers are now developing lightweight, collaborative robots that work with people, which also represents the future trend of robotic industry. On the other hand, today's robots are not limited to traditional hands and arms, and robots have their own eyes that can perceive the surroundings and respond flexibly.

Last year China became the world's largest robot buyer, buying more than 36,000 robots, surpassing Japan, the US and Germany. Aturo Bar Roncelly, chairman of the International Robotics Alliance, said that the Chinese robot market had achieved a leap-forward in the past few years, but the density of Chinese robots is still very low compared to the international developed countries, which means there is still a lot of room for development in the Chinese market. The so-called density of robots refers to the number of robots owned by each of the 10,000 labor forces, and the average global level is 55 units. Japan and South Korea both have close to 400 units, while China has only 23.

Chinese robot makers start the Jedi counterattack. The new Pine Robot, the largest robot manufacturer in China, shows the newest type of robot with a load of up to 500 kg. Siasun Robot President Qutauqui said that Siasun has invested a lot of research and development power, now from the internal core, to the system and software and other key technologies, are autonomous copyright.

International robot giant moves frequently

In the past 4-5 years, China's automotive industry and the electronics industry, the rapid growth of robot use, industrial robot industry has become an important driver of the development.

The automobile manufacturing industry is an important reason for the demand for robots, and about 60% of China's robots are used in automobile manufacturing. At this year's China International Robotics Show, Comau the newest racer robot. This is the first production in China, the supply of global use of robots, marking the beginning of China has become the global robotics Research and Development center.

More and more international robotic manufacturers have started to set up factories in China in recent years. The first overseas plant of the German library card robot, one of the world's four largest robotic manufacturers, settled in Shanghai this March to meet the growing demand for robotic markets in Asia. Kuka Chinese CEO Kongbing said that today the development of China's robot market is not entirely limited to cars, the user base of the library card has been greatly extended to the industry outside the car. The Chinese market is growing at a rate of 15% to 20% each year, far ahead of the global average robotic capacity.

The robot "steals" away from our job?

The rising labor costs in China make the demand for robots more urgent. In the ten years from 2004 to 2013, the average wage of Chinese manufacturing workers increased by 3 times times, an average annual increase of 15%. Robot prices are down 30% each year, and investment returns are reduced to 1-3 years. Foxconn, the world's biggest generation factory, announced a three-year plan to buy 1 million robots. Qutauqui said that China in many high-risk areas of labor shortage, the development of robots just solve this part of the problem of employment difficult.

As robots are being used in an increasingly wide range of areas, the international community has begun a debate about whether robots will fight jobs. The data show that Germany is one of the most automated countries in the world, but the unemployment rate is almost the lowest in the developed world. This is also a strong proof that automation and employment are not contradictory. So the presence of robots is not enough to intimidate people into saying no to innovation. Aturo Bar Roncelly says robots can free people from simple, tedious work, and inspire them to work more creatively.