Rise of the machines: China looks to become global leader in robotics

[TaiShang]

Rise of the machines: China looks to become global leader in robotics

Published time: 1 May, 2018 05:34

Chinese firms are making serious progress in industrial robotics, a sector that has historically been dominated by Japanese and European rivals. That’s according to the latest report by ABI Research.
“The top four Chinese industrial robotics vendors reported a topline growth of 20 percent year-on-year in 2016 and a similar figure is expected for next few years,” says Lian Jye Su, principal analyst at research and advisory company ABI Research. “Their Japanese and European counterparts were either contracting or experiencing low single-digit growth in the same period.”



The surge demonstrated by China’s robotics suppliers was reportedly boosted by intense government pressure and strong investments in research and development by the corporations. In 2013, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology introduced the Guidance on Promotion of Development of the Robot Industry to boost robot development by 2020.

Meanwhile, Chinese robotics companies and internet giants have been heavily investing in key robotics technologies. According to the report, China is projected to become the biggest single market of industrial robots with total shipments of 134,000 this year.

However, Chinese suppliers still have a long path to travel to compete with such industry veterans as India's GreyOrange, Switzerland's Buchs-based Swisslog, California's Fetch Robotics and Germany’s Magazino in international markets. In addition, Chinese robotics suppliers are still lagging in terms of key components, according to the report.

“Chinese robotics vendors are still sourcing key robotics components from international companies. Top reduction gear vendors, for example, mainly come from Japan, while German firms have been in the leading position of gripper and machine vision technology,” the analyst says, adding that US startups have succeeded in developing actuators, LIDAR technology, and soft material handling.

“There will be a long road ahead before Chinese robotics suppliers fully develop in-house solutions but given what we have observed from other technology sectors, it is a matter of when, not if,” Lian Jye Su stresses.

https://www.rt.com/business/425558-rise-china-robotics-companies-research/

 

[thesolar65]

I need urgently a robot for cooking....my dishes.....is it available?

 

[TaiShang]

I need urgently a robot for cooking....my dishes.....is it available?

I think not yet.

But, there was this funny news recently. I think progress is being made. LOL.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/home/robot-cooking-machine/

 

[ashok321]

I need urgently a robot for cooking....my dishes.....is it available?

Get a Nepali maid and a dishwasher.

 

[war&peace]

Get a Nepali maid and a dishwasher.

I find that in future...humans will be much more isolated and be a lot more psychological diseases will be common.

 

[TaiShang]

Tencent Leads $820 Mln Investment in Robot Maker Ubtech

By Hou Qijiang and Han Wei, May 04, 2018 02:35 AM

Ubtech produces consumer humanoid robots for business, entertainment and educational purposes. Photo: VCG

Shenzhen-based artificial intelligence and humanoid robotic company Ubtech Robotics Inc. Thursday completed fundraising of $820 million led by internet giant Tencent Holdings.

The funding round valued six-year-old Ubtech at $5 billion. Ubtech founder and CEO Zhou Jian said the company will use the capital to enhance research capacity, expand in overseas markets and recruit talent.

Other participating investors include Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Haier, Telstra, China Minsheng Bank, Juran Zhijia, CreditEase and Green Pine Capital, as well as CDH Investments, which led Ubtech’s previous $100 million funding in 2016.

Ubtech is a developer of consumer humanoid robots for business, entertainment and educational purposes. The company’s products are available in more than 40 countries.

The investment marks another push by Tencent into the emerging AI market. The social media giant has already partnered with Ubtech in robot development, and they jointly launched the educational robot QrobotAlpha in December 2017. Previously, Tencent invested in U.S. robot maker Marble and Canadian robot developer Kindred Systems. Both companies specialize in robots for logistics purpose.

https://www.caixinglobal.com/2018-0...vestment-in-robot-maker-ubtech-101243189.html

 

[Bussard Ramjet]

Tencent Leads $820 Mln Investment in Robot Maker Ubtech

By Hou Qijiang and Han Wei, May 04, 2018 02:35 AM

Ubtech produces consumer humanoid robots for business, entertainment and educational purposes. Photo: VCG

Shenzhen-based artificial intelligence and humanoid robotic company Ubtech Robotics Inc. Thursday completed fundraising of $820 million led by internet giant Tencent Holdings.

The funding round valued six-year-old Ubtech at $5 billion. Ubtech founder and CEO Zhou Jian said the company will use the capital to enhance research capacity, expand in overseas markets and recruit talent.

Other participating investors include Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Haier, Telstra, China Minsheng Bank, Juran Zhijia, CreditEase and Green Pine Capital, as well as CDH Investments, which led Ubtech’s previous $100 million funding in 2016.

Ubtech is a developer of consumer humanoid robots for business, entertainment and educational purposes. The company’s products are available in more than 40 countries.

The investment marks another push by Tencent into the emerging AI market. The social media giant has already partnered with Ubtech in robot development, and they jointly launched the educational robot QrobotAlpha in December 2017. Previously, Tencent invested in U.S. robot maker Marble and Canadian robot developer Kindred Systems. Both companies specialize in robots for logistics purpose.

https://www.caixinglobal.com/2018-0...vestment-in-robot-maker-ubtech-101243189.html

Using all core parts sourced from Japanese vendors. Also, Ubtech's products are hardly leading edge.

 

[Daniel808]

Rise of the machines: China looks to become global leader in robotics

Published time: 1 May, 2018 05:34

Chinese firms are making serious progress in industrial robotics, a sector that has historically been dominated by Japanese and European rivals. That’s according to the latest report by ABI Research.
“The top four Chinese industrial robotics vendors reported a topline growth of 20 percent year-on-year in 2016 and a similar figure is expected for next few years,” says Lian Jye Su, principal analyst at research and advisory company ABI Research. “Their Japanese and European counterparts were either contracting or experiencing low single-digit growth in the same period.”



The surge demonstrated by China’s robotics suppliers was reportedly boosted by intense government pressure and strong investments in research and development by the corporations. In 2013, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology introduced the Guidance on Promotion of Development of the Robot Industry to boost robot development by 2020.

Meanwhile, Chinese robotics companies and internet giants have been heavily investing in key robotics technologies. According to the report, China is projected to become the biggest single market of industrial robots with total shipments of 134,000 this year.

However, Chinese suppliers still have a long path to travel to compete with such industry veterans as India's GreyOrange, Switzerland's Buchs-based Swisslog, California's Fetch Robotics and Germany’s Magazino in international markets. In addition, Chinese robotics suppliers are still lagging in terms of key components, according to the report.

“Chinese robotics vendors are still sourcing key robotics components from international companies. Top reduction gear vendors, for example, mainly come from Japan, while German firms have been in the leading position of gripper and machine vision technology,” the analyst says, adding that US startups have succeeded in developing actuators, LIDAR technology, and soft material handling.

“There will be a long road ahead before Chinese robotics suppliers fully develop in-house solutions but given what we have observed from other technology sectors, it is a matter of when, not if,” Lian Jye Su stresses.

https://www.rt.com/business/425558-rise-china-robotics-companies-research/

Who have Market, Capital, and Master plan will become a Leader

 

[Beast]

Using all core parts sourced from Japanese vendors. Also, Ubtech's products are hardly leading edge.

These report is over biased. To claim most and all is misleading.

 

[TaiShang]

China sees booming robotics industry

(Xinhua) 08:22, May 11, 2018

China's robotics industry saw steady development in 2017 with about 1,686 robotics companies established last year, according to a report released at the ongoing 5th China Robot Summit.

Robotic dogs at the 5th China Robot Summit in Yuyao, China’s Zhejiang Province, May 10, 2018. [Photo: IC]

By the end of 2017, the number of robotics companies in China exceeded more than 6,500, mainly located in China's Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta, said the report.

In 2017, the global robotics industry market reached 23.2 billion U.S. dollars, with annual growth of 17 percent between 2012 and 2017.

China became the largest market for industrial robots in 2013. In 2017, sales of China's industrial robots hit 4.22 billion dollars, up 24 percent year on year, while sales of service robots totaled 1.32 billion dollars, up 28 percent year on year.

http://en.people.cn/n3/2018/0511/c90000-9458875.html

 

[cirr]

Nation gears up for robotics race

2018-05-11 11:06 China Daily Editor: Mo Hong'e

An exhibitor calibrates a robot before the opening of the World Robot Conference. (Photo: China Daily/Wang Zhuangfei)

China will ramp up resources to build a globally competitive robotics industry by attaching high importance to tackling core technological bottlenecks, an official from the country's top industry regulator said.

Luo Junjie, deputy director of the industrial equipment department at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said more efforts are needed to cultivate high-end products after China produced over 130,000 industrial robots last year, accounting for one-third of the world's annual production volume.

"We have approved a plan to build a national robotics innovation center, which will focus on tackling common bottlenecks such as human-machine interaction technologies and compliant control," Luo said at a news conference for the 2018 World Robot Conference in Beijing.

According to Luo, the plan is designed to help the country lead the world in the race toward a smarter, automated society by accelerating the development of high-end industrial and service robots.

As robotics becomes increasingly intertwined with artificial intelligence, big data and other technologies, the 2018 World Robot Conference, which will be held in Beijing from Aug 15 to 19, will feature a slew of competitions such as a brain control technology contest to find promising robotics research and development teams.

Xu Xiaolan, secretary-general of the Chinese Institute of Electronics, one of the organizers of the 2018 World Robot Conference, said more than 300 industry experts and senior company executives from around the world will attend the annual robotics event this year to share their views on the booming industry. Companies such as ABB Group of Switzerland and Fanuc from Japan will also demonstrate their latest products.

China has been the world's largest market for robot applications since 2013, data from the International Federation of Robotics show. The trend has been further fueled by a corporate push to upgrade labor-intensive manufacturing plants and comes amid surging demand from the healthcare, education and entertainment sectors.

In 2016, China unveiled an ambitious plan to triple its annual production of robots used in the manufacturing sector to 100,000 in five years. It also aims to sell more than 30 billion yuan ($4.6 billion) worth of service robots by 2020 amid the increasing use of assistant robots in an aging society.

http://www.ecns.cn/business/2018/05-11/302215.shtml

 

[TaiShang]

Robots offer a helping hand in the home

China Daily, January 1, 2019

Wang Liming, a 29-year-old internet company employee in Beijing, has developed a new habit this year. After she comes home from work every other day, she turns on a robot that cleans her apartment's windows by itself.

A home service robot for the elderly makes visitors laugh at a technology expo held in Hong Kong. [Photo/China News Service]

"It's beyond my expectation. The robot measures the height and the width of a window before mapping the best route to take while cleaning. The bigger the window, the better the robot works," Wang said. "It is not a toy, but a real helping hand."

She bought the robot for about 1,800 yuan ($260) in April, and she has been using the low-noise, automated machine ever since. "It works pretty well on hard-to-reach, high-risk windows," she added.

Wang is one of a growing number of Chinese consumers who are embracing household robots to improve their daily lives, amid the rising income and rapid development of the service robotics industry.

On Nov 11, the annual Singles Day online shopping festival, sales of one of the most popular smart vacuum robots made by Ecovacs Robotics Co-China's largest in-home robotic products manufacturer-exceeded 100 million yuan within just a half hour.

Ecovacs' products, which include floor sweeping and window cleaning robots, reached a sales record of over 700 million yuan during the peak season beginning Nov 11.

"China's swelling middle-income group has rising demand for domestic cleaning, home security and surveillance robots," said Luo Jun, CEO of the Asian Manufacturing Association.

According to the International Federation of Robotics, global sales of privately used service robots are forecast to reach 35 million units by year-end, and household robots will be right at the top of more consumers' future shopping lists.

"The advancement of artificial intelligence technologies is making household robots smarter. They are no longer just eye-catching toys, but something that can really make life better and more efficient," Luo said.

One of the biggest breakthroughs is reflected in computer vision technology, which can help robots to better map out cleaning routes. The wider application of that technology also lowers production costs, luring more consumers to buy, he added.

This rising trend is not lost on senior executives. Domestic enterprises are scrambling to grasp the opportunity.

Chinese smartphone vendor Xiaomi Corp, for instance, has launched a string of smart vacuum cleaners. Priced from 1,300 to 2,500 yuan, the machines are equipped with multiple sensors and a central processing unit.

Instead of bouncing around the room and haphazardly picking up debris, Xiaomi said the robots measure the size of the room and map the best route to take.

"Robots can make doing housework interesting and cool," said Liu De, co-founder of Xiaomi.

Chinese home appliance firms, such as Haier Group and TCL Corp, are also exploring the niche market with similar products, causing the market to become increasingly crowded.

How to stand out amid the fierce competition has become a key question.

David Qian, vice-chairman of Ecovacs, said floor and window-cleaning robots have already become everyday necessities, just like washing machines in many developed countries, and future domestic robots will be more intelligent. Robots that just clean the floors won't be enough.

"While making robots versatile, it is important to ensure they are easy to use," Qian said. Suzhou, Jiangsu-based Ecovacs is set to export its smart vacuum cleaners to markets involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, having already established a strong presence in developed economies such as the United States, Germany, Italy and Japan.

Thanks to the progress of voice recognition technology, a string of home entertainment and security robots are also coming to the market. They can read out or display news and weather bulletins, enable home surveillance via livestreaming, and detect potential dangers such as smoke or suspicious movement.

In 2016, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology unveiled an ambitious plan to sell more than 30 billion yuan of service robots by 2020, to meet the demand from the healthcare, education, entertainment, medical and defense industries.

The demand for elderly care robots is particularly strong. More than 240 million people were 60 years of age or older in China in 2017, and the figure is estimated to hit 400 million in 2033, according to official data.

One company that is moving quickly to meet such demand is AvatarMind, a Nanjing, Jiangsu-based robotics maker. It has developed iPal, a humanoid robot to serve the elderly.

The iPal robot can perform Chinese opera, reacts to touch and voice inputs by turning its head toward users, and can hold simple conversations. It can also give weather reports and remind users to take their medicine.

Wang Wenping, marketing director of AvatarMind, said there are three stages in the evolution of the service robots in China: tool, governor and companion.

"China is transforming from the "tool" stage, where robots are mainly used to do household chores, to the "governor" and "companion" stages, where the main objective is social interaction," Wang added.

http://www.china.org.cn/business/2019-01/01/content_74330618.htm