Standing at a new historical height and proceeding from the overall strategic situation, "Made in China 2025" clearly puts forward the action plan for the first ten years of my country's implementation of the manufacturing power strategy, and takes "high-end CNC machine tools and robots" as one of the key areas to be vigorously promoted, it is proposed that the development of the robot industry should "focus on the needs of industrial robot applications such as automobiles, machinery, electronics, dangerous goods manufacturing, national defense and military industry, chemical industry, light industry, and service robot applications such as medical and health, family services, education and entertainment, and actively develop new products. Promote the standardization and modular development of robots, and expand market applications. Break through the technical bottlenecks of key components such as robot body, reducer, servo motor, controller, sensor and driver, and system integration design and manufacturing technology." In the roadmap of technological innovation in key areas, it is clear that the development focus of China's robot industry in the next decade is mainly in two directions: one is to develop a series of products of industrial robot body and key parts, promote the industrialization and application of industrial robots, and meet the urgent needs of the transformation and upgrading of China's manufacturing industry; the second is to break through the key technologies of intelligent robots and develop a number of intelligent robots. Actively respond to the challenges of the new round of scientific and industrial transformation.

1. demand-oriented, enhance innovation capabilities, expand 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 robot is the general term of robots used in industrial production, and it is an important factory automation equipment in modern manufacturing industry. Service robot is a non-productive robot serving human beings. Service robot technology is mainly used in unstructured environment with complex structure. It can obtain information of external environment according to its own sensors and communication, so as to make decisions and complete corresponding tasks.

1, China has become the world's largest industrial robot market, the potential is still to be tapped

Industrial robots mainly refer to multi-joint manipulators or multi-degree-of-freedom robots facing the industrial field, which are used for handling, welding, assembly, processing, painting, and clean production in the industrial production process. In 2014, global industrial robot sales reached a record high, reaching 225000 units, an increase of 27% year-on-year. The driving force for market growth is mainly from the Asian region, especially China and South Korea.

In recent years, the demand for robots in China has grown rapidly and has become an important market for robots in the world. In 2014, China's industrial robot sales reached 56000 units, an increase of 52%, once again becoming the world's largest industrial robot market. Users have developed from wholly foreign-owned enterprises and Sino-foreign joint ventures to domestic enterprises and even small and medium-sized enterprises. Many enterprises in the developed coastal industrial areas in China are used for export, which requires high product quality. More and more enterprises use robots instead of industrial workers. In the Pearl River Delta region, the average annual growth rate of the use of industrial robots has reached 30%, especially in the fields of assembly, dispensing, handling, welding, etc., which has set off a boom in the use of robots.

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, the density of industrial robots in China was only 30 units/10,000 industrial workers, less than half of the global average. Compared with South Korea (437 units/10,000 industrial workers), Japan (323 units/10,000 industrial workers) and Germany (282 units/10,000 industrial workers) with high degree of industrial automation, the gap is even greater. The domestic industrial robot market still has great potential.

As a big manufacturing country, China has been in a backward position in the application of industrial robots. In addition to the automotive industry, the application of robots in the general manufacturing industry is basically in a spontaneous, decentralized or fragmented state. With the development of factory automation in China, industrial robots will also be rapidly promoted in other industrial industries, such as electronics, metal products, rubber and plastics, food, building materials, civil explosions, aviation, medical equipment and other industries.

The degree of application of industrial robots is an important indicator of the level of industrial automation in a country. The development of industrial robots in my country should focus on accelerating the development needs of my country's intelligent manufacturing, and cooperate with both the supply and demand of robots. On the one hand, improve the innovation capabilities of my country's robot manufacturing enterprises, promote the standardized, modular, and systematic development of robots, reduce use costs, and improve integrated applications. Level, so as to expand the scope of market application; on the other hand, actively carry out pilot applications of independent brand robots, and grasp a number of typical application demonstration projects with outstanding effect, to promote the use of industrial robots to transform and upgrade traditional manufacturing.

2. China's service robot industry should be demand-oriented and focus on development.

Service robots include special service robots and household service robots. Service robots have a wide range of applications, mainly engaged in maintenance, repair, transportation, cleaning, security, rescue, monitoring, medical care, elderly care, rehabilitation, and disability assistance. Service robot is a new type of intelligent equipment and a strategic high-tech product, which has a larger market space than industrial robots in the future.

Global service robots have shown rapid growth in the past five years. According to the statistics of the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), in 2013, the global sales of professional service robots and personal/home service robots reached 21000 and 4 million respectively, with market values of US $3.57 billion and US $1.7 billion respectively, up 4% and 28% respectively. The global market for service robots will continue to grow rapidly in the coming years. With the major breakthrough of mutual learning and knowledge sharing cloud robot technology, small family auxiliary robots have greatly reduced the production cost and will form an emerging market with a cumulative total of at least US $41.6 billion by 2020. On the other hand, although the disabled auxiliary machines start slowly, it can be predicted that there will be rapid growth in the next 20 years.

At present, the technical research and development of service robots in the world is mainly led by the United States, Japan, China, Germany and South Korea. The development of service robots in my country lags behind industrial robots. Compared with Japan, the United States and other countries, my country's research and development in the field of service robots started late, and the absolute gap with developed countries is still relatively large. However, compared with industrial robots, the gap between domestic and foreign is small. Service robots are generally developed in combination with specific demand markets, and local enterprises are easier to develop in combination with specific environment and culture to occupy a good market positioning, so as to maintain a certain competitive advantage; on the other hand, foreign service robots are also emerging industries, and most service robot companies have been established for a relatively short time, Therefore, China's service robot industry is facing greater opportunities and development space.

From the perspective of development trends, my country's professional service robots are expected to be industrialized before personal/household robots, especially medical robots, dangerous and special environment inspection robots, etc. As China enters an aging society, the demand for medical treatment, nursing and rehabilitation is increasing. At the same time, due to the improvement of people's pursuit of quality of life, personal/household robots will have a broader market space in the future.

2. Break through the Technical Bottleneck and Improve the Ability of Industrialization

Robot integrates modern manufacturing technology, new material technology and information control technology, and is a representative product of intelligent manufacturing. Its R & D, manufacturing and application have become an important symbol to measure a country's scientific and technological innovation and manufacturing level. it has attracted the great attention of the world's manufacturing powers.

The development of my country's robot industry can be traced back to the 1980 s. At that time, the Ministry of Science and Technology included industrial robots in the scientific and technological research plan. The former Ministry of Machinery Industry took the lead in organizing spot welding, arc welding, painting, handling and other types of industrial robots. Other ministries and commissions also actively initiated projects to support them, forming the first climax of China's industrial robots. Since then, mainly due to market demand, the independent research and development and industrialization of robots have experienced a long period of stagnation. After 2010, the installed capacity of robots in China has increased year by year, and it has begun to develop the whole industry chain of robots.

The development of the robot industry includes R & D and testing, the industrialization of robot bodies and parts, system integration technology, services, etc., and every link is very important. The development of China's robot industry chain is a long way to go. On the whole, most of China's robot enterprises are concentrated in the field of integration, with processing and assembly enterprises accounting for the majority. There is still a considerable gap from developed countries in terms of original research on core and key technologies, high-reliability basic functional components, system process application solutions, and host mass production. In terms of key components, key components such as precision reducers, servo motors and drives rely heavily on imports. Although the state has also made large investment support in this area for many years, due to the low market size and industrialization level, it is not enough to drive the development of core components, resulting in unsatisfactory results.

It can be seen that the lack of robot technology in China restricts the scale of industrialization, and the small scale also restricts the development of technology, which affects the process of robot industrialization. If we want to improve the market competitiveness of domestic robots, on the one hand, we should expand the output of domestic robots and increase the production capacity of domestic robot enterprises; on the other hand, we should promote the localization of key parts of domestic robots, improve the production capacity of key parts, and meet the needs of domestic robot capacity expansion.

In the past two years, the state 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 all pushing forward the development of the robot industry, promoting the development of the robot industry of independent brands from the top-level design, finance, taxation and finance, demonstration applications, personnel training and other aspects, and supporting policies are becoming more and more comprehensive and detailed. China's robot industry roadmap and the robot industry "13th Five-Year Plan" related work is also steadily advancing. This will play a great role in promoting China's robot enterprises to break through the technical bottleneck and improve the industrialization ability.

At present, for China's robot industry, it is no longer a matter of attaching importance to or not, but what kind of vision to look at the industry and what kind of thinking to cultivate and develop the industry in an orderly manner. Regarding the market demand, technological innovation model, financial support methods and other issues of the robot industry, the support policies of local governments for the industry are expected to be refined.

3. speed up the development and production of the next generation of robots and seize the next commanding heights of robot technology and industrial 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 that only have general programming capabilities and operating functions. At present, most of the robots produced in my country belong to this category; there is no unified definition of intelligent robots, and most experts believe that intelligent robots must have at least the following functions Features: First, it has the ability to adapt to uncertain operating conditions; second, it has the ability to flexibly operate complex objects; the third is to have the ability to coordinate and cooperate closely with people; the fourth is to have the ability to interact with people naturally; the fifth is to have the security characteristics of human-computer cooperation. Whether it is a modern industrial robot or a service robot, it will eventually develop into an intelligent robot with learning ability. We generally refer to intelligent robots as the next generation of robots. With the continuous progress of 3D visual perception/cognition, force sensor and other technologies and the deep integration with the new generation of information technology such as industrial Internet, cloud computing and big data, the intelligence of the next generation of robots will be further improved, and the perception ability of the outside world will be further enhanced. It can complete dynamic and complex operation missions, realize multi machine cooperation and work together with human beings.

In order to further seize the international market and enhance the competitive position of the manufacturing industry in the world, various economic powers are eager to try and formulate development plans one after another in order to seize the development opportunity of advanced robot technology. At present, the German government implements the "industrial 4.0" strategy, builds "smart factories" and creates "smart production". One of its key topics is the interaction and cooperation between people and machines, and between machines and machines. The United States put forward the "American Robot Development Roadmap" in 2013, which will focus on the manufacturing industry to overcome the key technologies such as the strong adaptability and reconfigurable assembly of robots, humanoid dexterous operation, model-based integration and supply chain design, autonomous navigation, perception of unstructured environment, education and training, and the essential safety of robots working with people. At the beginning of 2015, the Japanese government announced the "New Strategy for Japanese Robotics", and in its five-year action plan, it clearly stated that it is necessary to "research and develop data terminal, networking, cloud computing and other technologies to be realized in the next generation of robots". In recent years, the South Korea government has successively issued a number of policies aimed at supporting the research and development and application of the third generation of intelligent robots. In 2012, the South Korea announced the "Robot Future Strategic Battle Network 2022". Its policy focus is to support South Korea enterprises to enter the international market and seize the opportunity of intelligent robot industrialization. With the vigorous promotion of technological powers such as the United States, Japan, and Europe, next-generation robot prototypes, demonstration applications, and even practical systems have continued to emerge in the past five years.

From the current point of view of our country, the demand market for the next generation of industrial robots is not yet fully mature, but the research and development and reserve of common technologies with strategic significance are particularly urgent. At present, to develop the next generation of robot industry in China, we should first focus on consolidating the technical foundation of robot industry, focus on promoting the industrialization process of existing robots, and accelerate the promotion and application of independent brand robots in the domestic market. Explore new technology research and development models, encourage scientific research institutes and enterprises to give full play to their respective advantages, establish a national platform for the next generation of industrial robots, research and development and reserve of cutting-edge and common technologies, starting from China's national conditions and needs, break through the core technology of the next generation of robots, develop the next generation of robot prototype systems and products, and promote the industrialization process, seize the international commanding heights of the next generation of robots. For robot products used in different fields, different development strategies are implemented: on the one hand, with enterprises as the core and common technology platforms as the support, priority is given to the development of the next generation of industrial robots, the docking of production and demand is promoted, and the commanding heights of development are seized; on the other hand, market-oriented, grasp the characteristics of domestic demand, develop service robots such as medical care, old-age assistance and special robots operating in special service environments.