Robot research and industrial applications welcome new opportunities

According to the forecast of the International Robot Federation (IFR), China will become the world's largest robot market in 2014. China's robotics research and industrial applications have ushered in new historical opportunities.

In 1986, China began to implement the 863 plan, and for the first time clearly defined the development plan for the industrialization technology of robots. Research institutes such as Harbin Institute of Technology and Shenyang Institute of Automation have successively started the exploration of robots. During the "11th Five-Year Plan" period, various universities and colleges have extensively carried out research and exploration in basic technology fields such as robot modularization, volume, structure, design, and functional components.

China is transforming from labor-intensive to modern manufacturing. It is becoming indispensable to introduce robots on the road of transforming industrial production to automated production. Under this background, during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period, China has introduced a series of plans and policies that are conducive to the development of the robot industry, including industrial transformation and upgrading, development of high-end manufacturing equipment, and intelligent manufacturing equipment. In addition, as China gradually moves into an aging society, the number of disabled people is huge, and objectively all of them will bring enormous market opportunities to home robots such as medical care, services, and education. The combined effect of these factors will surely become a booster for the development of the Chinese robotics industry.

However, Huang Qingji, dean of robotics and machine automation at the Institute of Robotics and Engineering of Nanjing University of Technology, recently stated that the research level of China’s robots, especially those capable of forming industrial scale, is still in its infancy, especially in order to obtain short-term benefits. , Copy and copy, lack of long-term development of innovative plans, weak innovation capabilities, core technology and key components are subject to control, lack of market competitiveness.

“In the face of this opportunity, how to develop domestically produced core technologies and core key components and how to take the lead in the development and industrialization of next-generation robots, that is, intelligent robots and their key technologies, will determine China’s robotic research and industrial applications. Whether it can be truly developed and whether China's independent brands can obtain the key to the robot market, said Huang Qingjiu.