Continue to promote independent research and development

“Industrial robots can get such development, behind the domestic industrialization level has reached a certain degree of results.” Deng Shihai admitted that in fact, foreign industrial robots have matured very early, and domestic industrial robots can develop to the current scale, indicating that the level of domestic industrialization has been relatively high.

ZMI-4104 However, more than a decade ago, domestic industrial robots were also highly dependent on imports, and many parts could not be produced domestically. In 2012, at the beginning of Deng Shihai’s business, he found that the cost of purchasing parts to assemble industrial robots has been almost the same as the cost of purchasing a complete industrial robot, so he resolutely turned to independent research and development of robot controllers, servo systems, sensors and other core technologies, and later gradually had the ability to self-develop and produce the whole machine.

In 2013, China surpassed Japan for the first time to become the world’s largest industrial robot market, with sales of 36,600 units that year, accounting for 20.52% of the world’s total. So far, this pattern has lasted for 11 years. IFR data show that China’s industrial robot exports hit a new high in 2023, reaching 118,300 units.

According to Song Xiaogang, secretary general of the China Machinery Industry Federation and Executive director and Secretary general of the Robot Branch of the China Machinery Industry Federation, in recent years, the scale of China’s industrial robot market has grown rapidly, and the market share has exceeded half of the world for two consecutive years.

Yang Congjun told reporters that in the past, the gluing equipment and cables used by industrial robots need to be imported, and now they have gradually realized localization, which can greatly reduce the operating costs of enterprises.

Localization brings not only the advantages of scale, but also greatly improve the speed of equipment upgrading of manufacturing enterprises. Deng Shihai pointed to an industrial robot used for grinding in the exhibition hall and told reporters that there is a manufacturer of car wheels that needs to order grinding robots, in the artificial era, it is by people to observe whether it is polished in place. The first generation of industrial robots can only rely on the strength control of the robot arm to adjust the degree of grinding, and it is always difficult to meet the requirements in terms of accuracy.

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After receiving the customer’s feedback, Canop urgently developed an improvement plan, creatively set up a monitoring camera on the top of the machine, through image analysis to judge the degree of grinding, and then adjust the operation of the robot arm at any time, and finally the customer was satisfied. In the past, those large foreign industrial robot enterprises will not do customized programs in such a very segmented aspect, but domestic manufacturers can be more flexible to do customized models, and the later maintenance of equipment should be more convenient.

ZMI-4104 “Manufacturing companies are very concerned about the reliability of their equipment.” Deng Shihai introduced that most companies are more inclined to use foreign equipment that has been cooperating for many years, so it is difficult for domestic equipment to take the first step to win their trust. Once the domestic equipment is on the production line, the flexibility of localization is reflected: “If there is equipment that needs debugging and upgrading, we can quickly give a plan and start to adjust, and the various processes are much more convenient.” However, this also puts forward high requirements for the level of self-research of domestic manufacturers. “The debugging of some equipment requires modification of the underlying code, and only by independent research and development can we achieve full control.” Deng Shihai introduced that nearly half of Canop’s nearly 400 employees are R&D technicians.

Fortunately, there are now more and more such industrial robot companies. Chengdu Longtan Industrial Robot Industrial functional Zone, where Canop is located, focuses on the development of intelligent robots and digital communication as the leading new economy industrial cluster, which has gathered 12 leading enterprises in the robot industry chain and 61 upstream and downstream related enterprises. Liu Jun, deputy director of the management committee of the industrial functional area, said in an interview with reporters that the functional area is still attracting more related enterprises to settle in, and the functional area will achieve the industrial chain effect of “up and down the floor, that is, upstream and downstream”.

Under the rapid development of domestic industrial robots, they also need more scene support. Deng Shihai told reporters that it is hoped that there will be more scenes of the use of industrial robots in the future, such as more manufacturing industries outside of automobiles and photovoltics to introduce industrial robots, in order to improve the scope of use of machines. In his view, this is also the only way to upgrade the industrial field.