At present, China has become the global robot consumer market. More and more enterprises apply robots to all aspects of product production, and the wave of "machine replacement" is rising. Behind this wave, it should also be noted that China's industrial robot industry is still in the growth stage, and there is still a certain gap between the technical level and that of foreign countries. Middle and high-end robots mainly rely on imports in servo motors, controllers, reducers and other core components. In order to seize this market opportunity, domestic enterprises need to strengthen the technology research and development of key parts, pay attention to the deep integration with information technology and artificial intelligence, develop towards the middle and upper reaches of the industry, and seize the opportunity period of the global robot industry.

In recent years, the industrial robot industry has developed rapidly. A group of American information technology enterprises represented by Google, Intel, Microsoft, etc. have quietly laid out the robot field and will lead a new round of reform in this industry. With the advent of the intelligent manufacturing era, the robot industry will integrate with many advanced technologies such as big data, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and become a part of several intelligent service platforms. Luo Jun, CEO of the International Robot and Intelligent Equipment Industry Alliance, calls it the robot industry 2.0 era.

The deep integration of China's robot industry with information technology and artificial intelligence technology is about to begin. At present, China has basically mastered the technologies of industrial robot body design and manufacturing, software and hardware design, kinematics and trajectory planning. Today, China has become the application market of the global robot industry.

Although the robot market in China is very good, the products produced by more than 500 robot enterprises, large and small, have only 20% market share in the domestic market. The upstream of the robot industry is the core component, which is equivalent to the "brain" of the robot. In this field, high-precision servo motors, high-performance controllers, precision reducers and other core technologies are basically dependent on imports. The middle stream of the industry is the robot body, which is also the "body" of the robot. The downstream of the industry is the system integrator. At present, 95% of domestic enterprises are concentrated in this link.

In the above three core technology fields, the number of patent applications submitted by domestic and foreign applicants is the same, but in terms of technology development level, there is a significant gap between domestic and foreign enterprises.

"At present, the United States is active in robot technology innovation. Europe and Japan are the main suppliers of industrial robots, and have achieved full autonomy of core components such as sensors, controllers, and precision reducers." In terms of harmonic reducer, there are alternative products in China, but the input torque, torsional height, transmission accuracy and efficiency of the products are far behind those of Japanese companies, and the application in industrial robots has just started. In the field of servo motor, relevant enterprises in China have also carried out research and development of high-power AC permanent magnet synchronous motor in recent years, but the dynamic performance, openness and reliability need to be further verified. In terms of robot controller, foreign enterprises mainly carry out independent research and development on the basis of general multi axis motion control platform, while domestic enterprises have also developed relatively mature products in terms of controller motion control card, but they have few applications.

Chinese enterprises have produced some key components of robots and developed industrial robots such as arc welding, palletizing, assembly, stamping and painting. Key technologies such as controllers and servo motors developed independently in China have basically met the needs of middle and low-end industries. However, for technology fields with high precision requirements such as chip processing, the technical gap between domestic enterprises is obvious, and the high-end equipment market is mostly occupied by foreign mainstream robot enterprises.

Behind the rapid development of the industry is the sharp increase in market demand. At present, it is common for manufacturing industries in some coastal areas of China to improve product production efficiency by implementing the "machine replacement" plan.

While promoting demonstration applications, relevant departments should also combine the 'machine replacement' plan with the cultivation of local robot industry, combine the robot industry with 'Internet+' and intelligent manufacturing, and layout the robot industry 2.0 era as soon as possible. Today, it is not important where a product is manufactured. Our relevant enterprises should try to enter the middle and upper reaches of the robot industry, and use the Internet thinking to open up the middle and high-end market, rather than just stay in the production and processing link. As there is a certain gap between China and foreign countries in terms of high-level R&D talents and R&D strength, the independent innovation of China's robot industry needs to maintain cooperation with global top-level design institutions and keep pace with international technological development.

In terms of independent research and development of domestic robot technology, China also needs to increase investment in and research and development of key technologies, improve the self-sufficiency rate of parts, integrate existing research and development resources, form a batch of technology research and development laboratories, engineering centers, enterprise technology centers, complete machine and key parts testing centers, etc. as soon as possible, and cultivate independent intellectual property brands to make the domestic industrial robot industry bigger and stronger.

In the fierce market competition, patents are the umbrella of enterprise technological innovation. Domestic robot enterprises need to make full use of patent information, clarify their research and development ideas and directions, and formulate patent strategies suitable for their research and development capabilities and operating conditions. While strengthening R&D, domestic enterprises should also pay attention to the patent analysis of competitors, especially foreign powerful enterprises, to reduce the risk of patent infringement.