World Robot Conference focuses on China's "intelligent manufacturing"
2024-08-22
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Our reporter Chen Zishuai and Tao Mingyang ● Ren ZhongOn August 21, the 2024 World Robot Conference opened in Beijing. As a stage for global robot companies to show off their "muscles", a total of 27 humanoid robot manufacturers and more than 30 upstream and downstream companies in the humanoid robot industry chain gathered to make their debut. The Global Times reporter observed that as application areas such as intelligent manufacturing and commercial services gradually unfold, the outline of the future use scenarios of humanoid robots is gradually becoming clear. At the exhibition, many foreign industry professionals said that they are positive about further docking and integration with China's intelligent robot industry.Standing at 173cm tall, it walked onto the center of the stage independently.At the opening ceremony of the conference, the 173-cm-tall new generation "Tiangong 1.2 MAX" robot developed by the Beijing Embodied Intelligent Robot Innovation Center walked to the center of the stage independently and placed the conference badge on the launch platform with both hands. The Global Times reporter learned that the latest generation of "Tiangong" has been upgraded in terms of motion control and "brain". It imitates human dancing, bowing and other movements on the spot, and can also grasp objects according to voice commands. "Since this year, humanoid robots have been upgraded to a higher dimension, and their ability to interact with people has been significantly enhanced. In terms of industrial applications, it is expected that a batch of humanoid robots will go to factories in the next two years." Xiong Youjun, general manager of the innovation center, told the Global Times reporter.At the booth of the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, two humanoid robots were demonstrating the collaborative task of grabbing objects and then assembling them, and one humanoid robot was performing archery. Next to them, there were four "Q family" robots with different abilities and applications in different scenarios. A researcher said on the spot that their goal was to build a "big factory" of humanoid robots.The "Robot+" application scenario display was also a highlight. The conference displayed humanoid robots that were tested in new energy vehicle factories, as well as ordinary robots that have long been "familiar" in logistics, agriculture, education and other fields. At the UBTECH booth, reporters saw that their Walker S series humanoid robots can already skillfully complete tasks such as intelligent handling, sorting, and quality inspection. The person in charge of the company revealed that humanoid robots will soon be introduced into factories.At this exhibition, we can also see that robots have begun to show their strength in the medical field. At the booth of Changmugu, a robotic arm was demonstrating how to assist doctors in osteotomy. Zhao Xin, the company's marketing product manager, said, "Compared with doctors, robots can perform osteotomy more accurately, with an error within sub-millimeter." At present, this set of equipment has been approved for marketing as a Class III innovative medical device, and some large hospitals have conducted clinical trials.“I want to take them back to Nepal”Many international faces appeared at this conference, including well-known robotics scholars from all over the world, and foreign manufacturers who competed with Chinese companies. A Global Times reporter met with the chairman of the Nepal Robotics Association, Bhikash Gurung, in the foreign delegation. He told the reporter that these robots will definitely be of great use in Nepal, especially in mountainous environments, and "I want to bring them back to Nepal."At the scene, the Global Times reporter also interviewed a number of experts from Europe, who believed that China has become one of the "global leaders" in the field of artificial intelligence technology such as robots. "I have been in Hong Kong for a long time and have many colleagues in Shenzhen. We have all seen how fast the production base is built there (referring to Shenzhen). I hope my hometown Switzerland can also have such capabilities." Brad Nelson, a professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, told the Global Times reporter that he was deeply impressed by China's supply chain and manufacturing capabilities. "China is the world's largest manufacturing center, and its manufacturing industry is highly automated. It is a "big user" of robots, which will have a wide impact on the world, including telling other countries how to use robots and what kind of robots to use." Marina Beer, president of the International Federation of Robotics, said in an interview with the Global Times reporter at the conference that China is also one of the first countries to formulate an artificial intelligence strategy, and this technology has enabled China's robots to "take it to the next level."Several Korean robot companies came to participate in the conference in a "group". Lee Chang-cheol, manager of the robot division of a Korean robot system company called BRILS, told the Global Times that they signed a cooperation agreement with a leading Chinese robot company at the beginning of this year to import Chinese robot parts to South Korea. They are here to promote their own products. "I think China's robot technology has surpassed South Korea, but the market environment and needs of each country are different. I think there is room for communication and cooperation between China and South Korea in the field of robots." Lee Hyun-min, CEO of Cygbot, another Korean laser radar company, told the Global Times that a small number of their products have entered the Chinese market, "Chinese companies' laser radar technology is very advanced, and it is not easy to export to China."The United States is also acceleratingThe website of Fortune magazine in the United States said on the 19th that Elon Musk's Tesla has begun recruiting people to work on the motion capture project of its humanoid robot Optimus. The company has upgraded the robot several times to make it more suitable for human use. But Tesla's automation efforts have not yet borne fruit. Currently, the competition for automated robots is heating up. With the support of companies such as OpenAI, Microsoft and Nvidia, another American artificial intelligence robot company Figure AI has reached a business agreement with BMW, and its robots have begun to "take office" to participate in the latter's automobile manufacturing assembly line.In the global market, in addition to the United States, China is also becoming one of the important markets for the development of humanoid robots. A domestic institution released the "Humanoid Robot Industry Research Report" and predicted that the scale of China's humanoid robot market will reach 2.76 billion yuan this year; by 2029, it will reach 75 billion yuan, accounting for 32.7% of the world's total, ranking first in the world. On the 18th, Chinese startup Zhiyuan Robot also launched a humanoid robot to challenge Optimus. ▲
