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our reporter li yuyang reported from shanghai

before the large-scale application of humanoid robots, the industry needs collaborative robots to carry the banner of industrial robot application.

although the former's humanoid form is cooler and more imaginative than the latter's main form of robotic arms, collaborative robots full of muscular lines are more reassuring.

recently, the 24th china international industrial fair (hereinafter referred to as the "industrial expo") was held at the national convention and exhibition center (shanghai). the robot exhibition was one of the highlights of this industrial expo. for this purpose, the industrial expo also set up a special humanoid robot zone.

a reporter from "china business news" noticed that at the ciif, innovative achievements in the field of industrial robots were released one after another, including 132 global premieres, 87 asian premieres and 128 national premieres. for example, jaka robot launched the world's first 40kg large-load industrial collaborative robot jaka max40, and won this year's ciif robot award.

in the era of large models, humanoid robots have become a key area of ​​global investment. at this ciie, reporters observed that domestic collaborative robots including jieka robot, eston, feixi technology, and aobo intelligence have successively deployed in the field of humanoid robots. for example, jieka robot demonstrated a humanoid robot to the public for the first time. jaka k-1.

in this regard, xu qi, deputy secretary-general of the shanghai artificial intelligence industry association, told reporters that companies entering the humanoid robot and collaborative robot industry not only have innate advantages in core components, sensing technology, artificial intelligence algorithms, etc., but also have deep-rooted applications. scenarios with more data.

on september 30, the official website of the ministry of industry and information technology announced the preparation plan for the humanoid robot standardization technical committee, including four aspects: business scope, standard system, members, and work plan after establishment. according to the plan, after the humanoid robot standardization technical committee is established, it will promote international cooperation and exchanges in standardization work.

china has formed a complete collaborative robot industry chain

it is understood that compared with traditional industrial robots, the biggest difference between collaborative robots is that they can work safely next to workers. the structure can be divided into single-arm and double-arm collaborative robots. the former is more common and has the most applications. according to the number of joint axes, mainstream collaborative robots can be divided into six-axis and seven-axis. six-axis is the mainstream form of collaborative robots currently on the market, accounting for more than 90% of the market.

according to the "global collaborative robot industry development white paper 2024" (hereinafter referred to as the "white paper") released by jieka robot, global collaborative robots have mainly gone through four stages of development: first, the embryonic stage (1990s). in 1995, general motors of the united states gm launched a research project to address the pain points of the automotive industry, aiming to find ways for robots to become safe enough; the second is the technological breakthrough stage (2000-2010). in 2008, the danish company universal robots (ur) released the world's first commercial collaborative robot - ur5, which attracted market attention; the third is the rapid growth stage (2010-2020). with the success of ur, the collaborative robot market began to grow rapidly, abb, kuka traditional industrial robot giants such as , fanuc and chinese robot companies have also entered the market; the fourth is the mature and intelligent development stage (2020 to the present), collaborative robots have begun to expand into non-industrial fields such as medical care and service industries. as costs decline, , small and medium-sized enterprises can also afford it, and the integration of ai technology, especially in machine vision, natural language processing and machine learning, makes collaborative robots more intelligent.

in other words, it has only been 16 years since ur developed the world's first collaborative robot as a new species. it is understood that asia, europe and north america are the main markets for global collaborative robots, accounting for more than 90% of the market; according to the global collaborative robot sales scale in 2023, ur, card-saving robot and fanuc are the world's top three manufacturers.

compared with giants such as abb and fanuc in europe, the united states and japan, chinese collaborative robot companies advocate human-machine collaboration of "i carry water while you water the garden", which is low-cost, safe and easy to use.

since 2018, domestic collaborative robot manufacturers such as zhongke xinsong, jieka robot, elite, and feixi have begun to gradually apply their products to industrial fields such as precision device assembly, lightweight parts loading and unloading, testing, and tightening. it shows that it is far more flexible and flexible than industrial robots.

the "white paper" points out that china is one of the largest collaborative robot markets in the world. it has now formed a complete collaborative robot industry chain, with independent production and independent production of the entire industry chain from upstream core components to midstream body manufacturing to downstream system integration and application. supporting capabilities.

taking upstream core components as an example, controllers, servo systems, and harmonic reducers are the three core components of collaborative robots, and their costs account for about 70% of the overall production cost. at present, domestic collaborative robot manufacturers that have achieved high autonomy in core components include aobo robot, jieka robot, han's robot, etc.

according to the "white paper", china's collaborative robot market will be dominated by chinese manufacturers in 2023. top5 (jieka, aobo, elite, han's, ur) companies account for more than 60% of the market share, and the main application fields are concentrated in automotive parts. , automotive electronics, metal products, electronics, food and beverages, semiconductors, lithium batteries and other industries.

it is worth noting that with the increasingly obvious trend of new energy vehicles replacing traditional fuel vehicles, collaborative robots have been widely used in the inspection of car lights, electronic control boxes, central control screens, automotive pcbs and other components. for example, in the lithium battery industry, large-load collaborative robots play an important role in the transformation of power battery production lines, such as in battery cell handling, pack screw tightening, gluing, code scanning and appearance inspection.

there are hundreds of companies around the world making humanoid robots

large models and humanoid robots have been the two hottest concepts in the technology field for more than a year. in the field of large models, six domestic unicorns have emerged. in contrast, the humanoid robot industry seems to be still in its early stages, and unicorns with heads do not appear to be on the horizon.

fourier chairman and ceo gu jie previously said that the current humanoid robot industry is completely different from the situation five years ago. five years ago, everyone thought humanoid robots were still very far away. “but today there are hundreds of companies around the world that want to when we make humanoid robots, a hundred flowers will bloom.”

a research report from avic securities pointed out that humanoid robots are high-quality carriers for ai technology to be implemented in the physical world. the development of general large models in the past two years has given humanoid robots strong generalization capabilities, and the industry has entered the initial stage of commercialization.

according to reports, the jaka k-1 robot adopts an anthropomorphic structure and integrates components such as the brain, cerebellum, arms, feet, force sensors, and vision systems.

"the jaka k-1 humanoid robot launched this time can lift 3 kilograms to 5 kilograms of weight with a single arm. the double support structure connects the thighs, calves and feet to make the robot stand upright and stable. the key cerebellum some parts can already receive instructions to control the movement of the whole body, and the absolute movement accuracy can reach ±0.1 mm. "li shunchong, r&d director of jieka robot, said that the next step will be to optimize the gait algorithm and allow the (robot) to move its feet.

xu xiong, cto of jaka robot, revealed that jaka k-1’s humanoid double-arm system has now reached mass production scale. the key applications of jaka k-1 are mainly to provide double-arm solutions, software and hardware support for humanoid robot companies, or simple industrial scenarios such as transportation and sorting.

the "white paper" points out that collaborative robots and humanoid robots both emphasize human-machine collaboration and have common technical foundations. whether it is the precise coordination of collaborative robots in industrial production or the flexible movements of humanoid robots in complex environments, they all rely on the development of core technologies such as motion control, integrated joint arms, and sensors. among them, the arm joint is an important execution unit for humanoid robots to achieve scene-based landing.

"collaborative robots are the basis of humanoid robot arms. the popularity of the concept of humanoid robots will be conducive to the upgrading and iteration of collaborative robot ontology technology, accelerate technological progress in the industry, and thus promote the rapid development of the industry. although there is some overlap in the application fields of the two, humanoid robots and collaborative robots in most markets, there is no direct substitute relationship, but they are mainly complementary, and they are more focused on leveraging their advantages in their respective areas of expertise.” the “white paper” points out that collaborative robots have obvious advantages in precise and stable industrial tasks. , while humanoid robots are better at dealing with complex interaction needs.

(editor: wu qing review: li zhenghao proofreader: zhai jun)