Midea R & D experts, technology stars and industry well-known experts gathered in Foshan Midea Global Innovation Center to discuss the technological breakthroughs and development trends of the two emerging industries of energy storage and robotics. Midea Group CTO Wei Chang, Central Research Institute Technical director Jin Chengzhen, Industrial technology Research Institute President Xu Chengmao and other R & D system executives attended the event.

Today, the dual-carbon strategy has a profound impact on the development of all walks of life. As a firm practitioner of green and low-carbon, in 2021, Midea released the “green strategy” to create a green industrial chain of the whole process, vigorously develop the circular economy, strengthen green supply support, and promote its own acceleration to achieve carbon peak and carbon neutrality.

For a long time, Midea has focused on green development and forward-looking exploration, integrating green concepts into all aspects of products and manufacturing, continuing to provide the society with leading green products, leading the ecological development of the industry to green.

Li Jinbo, director of the Innovation Research Institute of the home air conditioning Division of the United States, said that under the great changes not seen in a century, carbon neutrality has become the world’s largest “common divisor”, and carbon neutrality has risen from a global consensus to a global action. For air conditioning, on the path of future sustainable development, technological development must solve the problem of energy consumption, but also to solve the problem of environmentally friendly refrigerants. Among them, R290 is one of the important technical routes for the future development of refrigerant, after 14 years of research and development, the United States has overcome a series of technical problems, has achieved a breakthrough in industrialization. “In the context of sustainable development, we should be more open, cooperate, communicate and trust, jointly deal with climate challenges, build a harmonious coexistence of man and nature, and build a better future,” he said.

“Achieving ultra-low or even zero emissions in the construction sector is an important starting point for achieving carbon neutrality, which leads to a very cutting-edge concept called zero-carbon buildings.” Hu Jian, director of the Electrical Technology Institute of the Central Research Institute of the United States, said that zero-carbon buildings do not mean that the building itself does not have carbon emissions, but by making full use of the energy-saving measures and renewable energy of the building itself, so that the building is transformed from the traditional energy consumption side to the energy supply side. In addition, it also needs the coordinated development of energy supply side, consumption side and energy storage. Among them, the supply side and consumption side of energy can rely on the supply and consumption of renewable energy, improve efficiency and reduce energy consumption. However, because renewable energy is volatile, it is necessary to configure energy storage to smooth out this supply and demand volatility.

Hu Jian believes that with the deepening of the low-carbon transformation of energy, new energy based on photovoltaic and wind power, the requirements for energy storage are also getting higher and higher, more and more flexible, and new energy storage has been greatly developed. At the same time, new energy storage still faces common challenges of safety and economy. Now the development of energy storage technology is a state of contention, among which, Midea Group around zero-carbon buildings, combined with their own industrial advantages in the field of energy for a full range of layout, including industrial and commercial energy storage field, currently in the household and industrial and commercial fields respectively launched a number of products and services.

Professor Zhang Zhengguo, a well-known energy storage expert in China and Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of South China University of Technology, delivered a keynote speech on the Research and Application of Heat storage Technology. He said that heat storage technology is a heat energy storage technology, the core of which is the material to achieve heat energy storage measures. “Phase change heat storage technology is one of the important technologies for carbon peak and carbon neutrality, among which the development of high-performance phase change materials and efficient heat storage is the core of the application of phase change heat storage technology.” “In the future, we will continue to promote the application of heat storage technology in solar heat utilization, heat pump air-conditioning systems, building energy conservation and other fields,” he said.

Robots are known as “the crown jewel of manufacturing”. With the rapid development of new generation information technologies such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and big data, the robot industry will also usher in a new wave of integrated innovation and development.

Chen Wenjie, deputy director of the United States Blue Orange Laboratory and director of the Central Academy of Mechatronics Research Institute, said that the United States has made a very grand layout in the robot industry, in addition to the well-known international first-class Kuka robot, the United States in the robot industry chain, from the core components and application level has also done a lot of layout, forming the vertical integration of the entire industry chain.

Chen Wenjie compared the development trend of robots with the concept of Chinese martial arts, one is the “unity of form and meaning”, that is, the shape and performance of the robot should be integrated, the second is “lifting the weight as light”, to achieve heavy work with light force, “this is the development trend of robots we see, and our goal.” He believes that in the long run, with the continuous evolution of robot heavy loading and refinement, it is bound to let robots from industry to commerce, and finally to all aspects of human daily life, to realize the robotization of machine homes and home appliances, and greatly improve the intelligent attributes and service capabilities of home appliances, so as to replace human daily labor and make it possible for humans to completely get rid of the labor burden.

In the first quarter of this year, China’s first comprehensive home service robot was officially listed and delivered to users. The robot has four functions: AI butler, home assistant, security guard, and technology playmate.

What kind of chemistry does a home brain have when combined with a robot? Tang Jian, chief AI officer and general manager of the AI Innovation Center of Midea Group, introduced that the first is the comprehensive upgrade of interaction, and the large model can improve the interaction ability of the small robot and make it more intelligent; Then is the active service, the small but robot is a particularly good entry level equipment in the family, can find the target user in the whole house, take the initiative to provide him with services. “Imagine a future where the home service robot has a robotic arm, and the furniture brain can automatically disassemble the user’s complex voice commands to complete various tasks in the home environment.” ‘he said.