Not long ago, 17 departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Public Security jointly issued the "Robot Plus" Application Action Implementation Plan (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Plan"), which clearly proposed the development goals of robots in the manufacturing industry in 2025 and the top ten application fields of robots, causing high attention from all sectors of society. The industry believes that the release of this policy means the arrival of the "robot+" era. Robots will be applied in a wider range, and manufacturing robots will usher in huge development opportunities.
Policy introduction and top-level design optimization
The Implementation Plan proposes specific development goals, namely, by 2025, the density of robots in the manufacturing industry will double compared to 2020, the depth and breadth of application in the service robot and special robot industries will be significantly improved, and the ability of robots to promote high-quality economic and social development will be significantly enhanced. Focus on the top ten key application fields, break through more than 100 innovative application technologies and solutions for robots, promote more than 200 typical application scenarios for robots with high technological level, innovative application models, and significant application results, and create a group of "robot+" application benchmarking enterprises.
At the same time, the Implementation Plan identifies ten key areas of robot application, namely, manufacturing, agriculture, construction, energy, commerce and logistics in the field of economic development, medical health, elderly care services, education, commercial community services, safety emergency response, and extreme environmental applications in the field of social and livelihood.
In order to enhance the basic support capacity of "robot+" applications, the Implementation Plan also proposes five major measures: first, to build a collaborative innovation system for robot production and use, second, to build a "robot+" application experience and experimental verification center, third, to accelerate the development and promotion of robot application standards, fourth, to carry out industrial and regional "robot+" application innovation practices, and fifth, to establish a "robot+" application supply and demand docking platform.
The introduction of the "Implementation Plan" has pointed out the direction for the development of China's robot industry. Li Wenjuan, director of the Intelligent Equipment Research Office of the Industrial Policy Research Institute of the China Academy of Electronic Information Industry Development, believes that the Implementation Plan focuses on product innovation and scenario promotion, guides autonomous brand robots to seize strategic opportunities, focuses on ten key application areas, and promotes the high-quality development of China's robot industry with application as the driving force.
Strong demand accelerates the development of industrial robots
Manufacturing is the first robot application field mentioned in the Implementation Plan. The Implementation Plan clearly states that the development of new robotic products such as welding, assembly, spraying, handling, polishing, and the expansion of robotic production equipment to relevant fields should be accelerated. Develop specialized and customized solutions and software and hardware products, accumulate experience and knowledge such as model libraries and process software packages, deeply integrate robot control software and integrated application systems, and promote large-scale applications in industries such as automobiles, electronics, machinery, light industry, textiles, building materials, and medicine, as well as subdivided fields such as sanitary ware, ceramics, photovoltaic, smelting, casting, sheet metal, hardware, and furniture, as well as glazing, trimming, polishing Application in key links such as grinding, welding, spraying, transportation, stacking, etc. Promote the construction of intelligent manufacturing demonstration factories and create typical application scenarios for industrial robots. Develop intelligent manufacturing systems based on industrial robots to assist in the digital and intelligent transformation of the manufacturing industry.
In recent years, the development of industrial robots in China has continuously accelerated. According to new data released by the China Robotics Industry Alliance, in December 2022, industrial robots from industrial enterprises above designated size nationwide completed an output of 40000 sets. From January to December 2022, the cumulative output of industrial robots from industrial enterprises above designated size nationwide was 443000 sets. In December 2022, the output of service robots for industrial enterprises above designated size nationwide was 491000 sets. From January to December 2022, the total output of service robots for industrial enterprises above designated size nationwide was 6.458 million sets.
While the domestic market is booming, China's industrial robots are also accelerating the pace of "going to sea". According to data released by the China Robotics Industry Alliance, in December 2022, China's industrial robot equipment exports amounted to $50 million, imports amounted to $180 million, and trade deficit was $130 million. From January to December 2022, China's industrial robot equipment exports totaled $610 million, imports totaled $2 billion, and trade deficits totaled $1.39 billion.
With the accelerated digital development of the economy and society, especially the acceleration of digital transformation in various industries, industrial robots have become the core equipment for major enterprises to develop intelligent manufacturing, and the density of manufacturing robots has rapidly increased. Statistics show that China has become a major global robot application market for 9 consecutive years, with industrial robot consumption accounting for more than 50% of the global total in 2021.
Industrial robots are being applied in more and more scenarios, from 25 industry categories and 52 industry categories ten years ago to more than 60 industry categories and 168 industry categories today. As we can see, industrial robots have not only been applied in high-end manufacturing industries such as aerospace, automobiles, ships, and semiconductors, but also in traditional industries such as furniture, food, building materials, and textiles, effectively solving the problems of high-risk operations, difficult precision processing, and difficult recruitment and employment.
The release of the "Implementation Plan" has ushered in a new era of "robot+". In this era, the technological innovation level of robots is rapidly improving, and application scenarios are increasingly enriched, helping more enterprises improve quality and efficiency, helping more industries transform and upgrade, and helping people achieve a better life. (Author: Huang Sheyu)