Interpretation of "Made in China 2025": Promoting the Development of Robotics

　　Made in China 2025, from a new historical perspective and strategic overview, clearly sets out the action plan for the first decade of China's implementation of the strong manufacturing strategy. It identifies "high-end CNC machine tools and robots" as one of the key areas to be vigorously promoted, proposing that the development of the robot industry should "focus on the needs of industrial robot applications in automobiles, machinery, electronics, hazardous goods manufacturing, national defense and military industry, chemical industry, light industry, etc., as well as service robot applications in medical health, home services, education and entertainment, etc. Actively research and develop new products, promote the standardization and modularization of robots, and expand market applications. Break through technical bottlenecks in robot bodies, reducers, servo motors, controllers, sensors and drivers, and system integration design and manufacturing technologies." The technological innovation roadmap for key areas also clarifies that the focus of China's robot industry development over the next ten years will be in two main directions: firstly, developing a series of industrial robot bodies and key components, promoting the industrialization and application of industrial robots, and meeting the urgent needs of China's manufacturing industry transformation and upgrading; and secondly, breaking through key technologies for intelligent robots, developing a batch of intelligent robots, and actively responding to the challenges of the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation.

　　I. Demand-oriented, enhancing innovation capabilities, and expanding market applications

　　According to different application environments, the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) divides robots into two categories: industrial robots in manufacturing environments and service robots in non-manufacturing environments. Industrial robots are a general term for robots used in industrial production and are important factory automation equipment in modern manufacturing; service robots are non-productive robots that serve humans. Service robot technology is mainly used in unstructured environments, which are relatively complex in structure. They can obtain information about the external environment through their own sensors and communication, and then make decisions and complete corresponding tasks.

　　1. China has become the world's largest industrial robot market, with potential yet to be tapped

　　Industrial robots mainly refer to multi-joint manipulators or multi-degree-of-freedom robots for industrial fields, used in industrial production processes for handling, welding, assembly, processing, painting, and clean production. In 2014, global industrial robot sales reached a record high of 225,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 27%. The driving force behind market growth mainly came from Asia, especially China and South Korea.

　　In recent years, the demand for the Chinese robot market has grown rapidly, and it has become an important global robot market. In 2014, China's industrial robot sales reached 56,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 52%, once again becoming the world's largest industrial robot market. Users have expanded from mainly foreign-funded enterprises and Sino-foreign joint ventures to domestic enterprises and even small and medium-sized enterprises. Many enterprises in the developed coastal areas of China use their products for export, requiring high product quality, and more and more enterprises are using robots to replace industrial workers. In the Pearl River Delta region, the average annual growth rate of industrial robot use has reached 30%, especially in assembly, dispensing, handling, and welding, where a boom in robot use has emerged.

　　Although China has been the world's largest market for industrial robots since 2013, the density of industrial robots in the manufacturing industry is still very low. In 2013, China's industrial robot density was only 30 units per 10,000 industrial workers, less than half of the global average, and the gap is even greater compared with South Korea (437 units per 10,000 industrial workers), Japan (323 units per 10,000 industrial workers), and Germany (282 units per 10,000 industrial workers), which have a higher degree of industrial automation. The domestic industrial robot market still has huge potential.

　　As a major manufacturing country, China has been lagging behind in the application of industrial robots. Except for the automotive industry, the application of robots in general manufacturing industries with large quantities and wide ranges is basically spontaneous, decentralized, or scattered. With the development of factory automation in China, industrial robots will also be rapidly promoted in other industrial sectors, such as electronics, metal products, rubber and plastics, food, building materials, civilian explosives, aviation, and pharmaceutical equipment.

　　The application level of industrial robots is an important indicator of a country's level of industrial automation. The development of industrial robots in China should focus on the needs of accelerating the development of intelligent manufacturing in China, coordinating both the supply and demand sides of robots. On the one hand, it should improve the innovation capabilities of China's robot manufacturing enterprises, promote the standardization, modularization, and systematization of robots, reduce the cost of use, and improve the level of integrated application, thereby expanding the scope of market applications; on the other hand, it should actively carry out pilot applications of independent brand robots, and focus on a number of typical application demonstration projects with outstanding results, strong driving force, and high relevance, to promote the use of industrial robots to transform and upgrade traditional manufacturing industries.

　　2. China's service robot industry should be demand-oriented and develop in a focused manner

　　Service robots include special service robots and household service robots. The application range of service robots is very wide, mainly engaged in maintenance, repair, transportation, cleaning, security, rescue, monitoring, as well as medical, elderly care, rehabilitation, and disability assistance. Service robots are a new type of intelligent equipment and a strategic high-tech product, with greater market space in the future than industrial robots.

　　Global service robots have shown rapid growth in the past five years. According to statistics from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), in 2013, global sales of professional service robots and personal/household service robots reached 21,000 units and 4 million units respectively, with market values of US$3.57 billion and US$1.7 billion respectively, representing year-on-year growth of 4% and 28% respectively. In the next few years, the global service robot market will continue to grow rapidly. With major breakthroughs in cloud robotics technology for mutual learning and knowledge sharing, and a significant reduction in the production cost of small household assistant robots, a new market of at least US$41.6 billion will be formed before 2020; on the other hand, although the development of disability assistance robots has been slow, it is predictable that there will be rapid growth in the next 20 years.

　　Currently, the technological research and development of service robots internationally is mainly led by the five countries of the United States, Japan, China, Germany, and South Korea. The development of service robots in China lags behind that of industrial robots. Compared with Japan and the United States, China's research and development in the field of service robots started relatively late, and the absolute gap with developed countries is still relatively large. However, compared with industrial robots, the gap between domestic and foreign countries is relatively small. Service robots generally need to be developed in combination with specific market needs, and domestic enterprises are more likely to combine specific environments and cultures to develop and occupy a good market position, thereby maintaining a certain competitive advantage; on the other hand, foreign service robots also belong to emerging industries, and most service robot companies have been established for a relatively short time, so China's service robot industry faces great opportunities and development space.

　　From the development trend, China's professional service robots are expected to achieve industrialization before personal/household robots, especially medical robots and robots for inspection and exploration in dangerous and special environments. As China enters an aging society, the demand for medical care, nursing, and rehabilitation will increase, and at the same time, due to people's pursuit of higher quality of life, personal/household robots will have a wider market space in the future.

　　II. Breaking through technological bottlenecks and enhancing industrialization capabilities

　　Robots integrate modern manufacturing technology, new materials technology, and information control technology, and are representative products of intelligent manufacturing. Their research, development, manufacturing, and application have become important indicators of a country's technological innovation and manufacturing level, attracting great attention from major manufacturing powers around the world.

　　The development of China's robot industry can be traced back to the 1980s, when the Ministry of Science and Technology included industrial robots in the national science and technology research and development plan. The former Ministry of Machinery Industry took the lead in organizing research and development of industrial robots of various types, such as spot welding, arc welding, painting, and handling, and other ministries and commissions also actively supported projects, forming the first boom in China's industrial robots. After that, mainly due to market demand, independent research and development and industrialization of robots experienced a long period of stagnation. After 2010, China's robot installation capacity increased year by year, and began to develop towards the entire robot industry chain.

　　The development of the robot industry includes research and development, industrialization of robot bodies and components, system integration technology, and services. Each link is very important. The development of China's robot industry chain is a long and arduous process. Overall, most Chinese robot companies are currently concentrated in the integration field, with the majority being processing and assembly enterprises. In terms of original research on core and key technologies, highly reliable basic functional components, system process application solutions, and mass production of mainframes, there is still a considerable gap with developed countries. In terms of key components, key components such as precision reducers, servo motors, and drivers are heavily reliant on imports. Although the country has made considerable investment and support in this area for many years, due to the low market scale and industrialization level in the past, it has not been enough to drive the development of core components, resulting in unsatisfactory results.

　　Therefore, China's insufficient robot technology strength restricts the scale of industrialization, and the small scale in turn restricts the development of technology, which affects the industrialization process of robots. To improve the market competitiveness of domestic robots, on the one hand, it is necessary to expand the output of domestic robots and improve the production capacity of domestic robot companies; on the other hand, it is necessary to promote the domestic production of key components of domestic robots and improve the production capacity of key components to meet the needs of the expansion of domestic robot production capacity.

　　In recent years, the country has attached great importance to intelligent manufacturing and robots. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and other departments are vigorously promoting the development of the robot industry, promoting the development of independent brand robot industry from top-level design, financial and tax policies, demonstration applications, talent cultivation, and other aspects, and the supporting policies are becoming more comprehensive and refined. China's robot industry roadmap and the relevant work of the "13th Five-Year Plan" for the robot industry are also steadily progressing. This will greatly promote Chinese robot companies in breaking through technological bottlenecks and improving industrialization capabilities.

　　At present, for China's robot industry, it is no longer a question of whether to attach importance to it, but a question of how to view this industry and how to cultivate and develop this industry in an orderly manner. For various issues such as market demand, technological innovation models, and funding support methods for the robot industry, local governments' support policies for the industry are expected to become more refined.

　　3. Accelerate the research and development and production of next-generation robots and seize the next commanding heights of robot technology and industry development

　　With the development of robot technology, robots are divided into general robots and intelligent robots according to different functions. Among them, general robots refer to robots with only general programming capabilities and operating functions. Most of the robots currently produced in China belong to this category; there is no uniform definition of intelligent robots. Most experts believe that intelligent robots must at least have the following major functional characteristics: First, they have the ability to adapt to uncertain operating conditions; second, they have the ability to flexibly operate complex objects; third, they have the ability to closely cooperate with people; fourth, they have the ability to interact naturally with people; fifth, they have human-machine cooperation safety characteristics. Whether it is modern industrial robots or service robots, they will eventually develop into intelligent robots with learning capabilities. We generally call intelligent robots the next generation of robots. With the continuous progress of technologies such as 3D visual perception/cognition and force sensors, and the deep integration with new-generation information technologies such as industrial Internet, cloud computing, and big data, the intelligence level of the next generation of robots will be further improved, and their perception of the outside world will be further enhanced. They can complete dynamic and complex tasks, achieve multi-machine collaboration, and collaborate with humans.

　　In order to further seize the international market and enhance the competitiveness of manufacturing in the global market, various economic powers are eager to try, formulating development plans to seize the development opportunities of advanced robot technology. At present, the German government is promoting the "Industry 4.0" strategy, building "smart factories", and creating "smart production". One of its key topics is the interactive cooperation between people and machines, and between machines and machines. In 2013, the United States proposed the "American Robot Development Roadmap", which will focus on manufacturing to overcome the strong adaptability and reconfigurable assembly of robots, anthropomorphic dexterous manipulation, model-based integration and supply chain design, autonomous navigation, perception in unstructured environments, education and training, and the inherent safety of robots working with humans. In early 2015, the Japanese government announced the "Japan Robot New Strategy" and clearly proposed in its five-year action plan to "develop data terminalization, networking, and cloud computing technologies in the next generation of robots". In recent years, the South Korean government has successively issued a number of policies aimed at fostering the research and development and application of the third generation of intelligent robots. In 2012, South Korea announced the "Robot Future Strategy Network 2022", focusing on supporting Korean companies to enter the international market and seize the opportunity of intelligent robot industrialization. With the vigorous promotion of the United States, Japan, Europe and other technologically advanced countries, in the past 5 years, prototypes of the next generation of robots, demonstration applications, and even practical systems have emerged continuously.

　　From China's current perspective, the market demand for the next generation of industrial robots is not yet fully mature, but the research and development and reserve of strategically significant common technologies are particularly urgent. At present, China's development of the next generation of robot industry should first focus on consolidating the technological foundation of the robot industry, and strive to promote the industrialization process of existing robots and accelerate the promotion and application of independent brand robots in the domestic market. Explore new technological research and development models, encourage scientific research institutions and enterprises to give full play to their respective advantages, and establish a national-level platform for the research and development and reserve of cutting-edge and common technologies for the next generation of industrial robots, breaking through the core technologies of the next generation of robots based on China's national conditions and needs, developing prototype systems and products of the next generation of robots, and promoting the industrialization process to seize the international commanding heights of the next generation of robots. For robot products used in different fields, different development strategies should be implemented: on the one hand, with enterprises as the core and a common technology platform as the support, priority should be given to the development of the next generation of industrial robots, promoting the docking of production and demand, and seizing the commanding heights of development; on the other hand, market-oriented, grasping the characteristics of domestic demand, developing service robots such as medical, elderly care, and assistance to the disabled, and special robots operating in special service environments.