In the welding industry, for example, the number of welders in China is estimated to be about 10 million by 2021, according to conservative estimates. A skilled welder must have five or six years of on-the-spot experience accumulation and growth, in order to reach the ideal state. However, in Chinese enterprises, the proportion of welding technicians is about 20%, and the proportion of advanced technicians is only about 2% ~ 4%. According to the market salary survey, the salary of junior welders is 6000-12000/ month, welding engineers 9000-15000/ month, and senior engineers 15000-25000/ month. However, due to the welding process will produce welding smoke, carbon monoxide, manganese and its compounds, nitrogen oxides, ozone, ultraviolet radiation and other toxic and harmful substances to human body, the bad working environment leads to a high incidence of occupational diseases. So welders are in the top 10 of the 100 jobs that the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security lists on a quarterly basis, despite generally high salaries.

On the other hand, the driving factor is the fierce market competition, and manufacturers must improve flexibility and production efficiency. Because the product cycle is getting shorter and shorter, the cycle is required to be controllable, which forces the manufacturing industry to change the existing production mode, and the iteration speed of its products is getting faster and faster. With the upgrading of the consumption structure, the buyer’s market and consumers’ requirements for personalization, customization, and timeliness have increased, and the demand has begun to change from “single and large quantities” to “diversified and small-scale”.

Therefore, through the above comprehensive analysis of the development trend and application prospects of industrial robots, we believe that the penetration rate of industrial robots will continue to increase in the future.

03, the industrial robot body has entered the mature stage, to further improve the application range and production efficiency of industrial robots must rely on the development of intelligence

After 70 years of development, industrial robot has entered a period of technological maturity, and the technological evolution route has experienced from physical performance → software control → AI-assisted → AI autonomy, and it has now developed to the 5th generation, which can carry out the whole industry and the whole process including fine movements that can only be completed manually in the past, through the perfect integration of AI vision and other sensors. It can fully perceive and recognize the environment, realize AI diagnosis and self-repair solution. At the same time, with the development of machine vision, MEMS sensors and other fields, its performance is stronger, more efficient, and lower cost. Technical evolution analysis table of industrial robot ontology

As shown in the following figure, although China started to develop in related fields after 2000, relatively late, but the development speed is extremely rapid. In the robot ontology and industrial camera markets, local companies have occupied considerable market shares in the mid – and low-end sectors, and high-end technology research and development is also in full swing. In the field of MEMS sensors, due to the late start and obvious advantages of foreign companies in performance and cost, domestic alternative development potential is huge. Industrial robot development history

At present, the problems that can be solved by simple automation have reached the ceiling. To further improve the application range and production efficiency of industrial robots must rely on the development of intelligence. With the technological progress and development in the field of AI artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, the explosion of machine learning has made previously impossible capabilities possible, such as autonomous obstacle avoidance and adaptive learning. Therefore, the application prospect of industrial robots to the era of intelligence is greatly expanding.

According to the number of robots and the average unit price estimate, the current scale of global industrial robots is about $19.8 billion, and the scale of Chinese industrial robots is about $9.2 billion. Assuming a 20% unit price for intelligent upgrading, under the predicted industry growth rate and intelligent penetration rate, the cumulative total demand for intelligent upgrading of domestic industrial robots in the next five years is about $6 billion.

Thus, the intelligent upgrading of industrial robots is expected to open a new incremental market in the future, with broad prospects and huge development potential.

04, industrial robot intelligent market competition pattern: new and old manufacturers complement each other, and constantly improve the level of intelligence

The general direction of the competition pattern of the intelligent industrial robot market is still based on the intelligent and low-resident manpower needs, and the dilemma of “no shortage of industrial robots and no shortage of engineers” is solved in factories.

Industrial robot ontology hardware developers, including the “four big families” and the domestic industrial robots that have risen in recent years, focus on their own core products and have strong research and development capabilities and technology accumulation. However, due to the lack of software advantages, it may not be able to provide a complete solution, so it is actively cooperating with integrators.

Intelligent hardware developers with core hardware research and development capabilities improve the intelligence and autonomy of industrial robots through equipment such as 3D structured light cameras and lidar sensors. For most domestic factories, they are still looking for “turnkey” one-stop solutions, so in addition to directly providing project-style solutions for benchmarking customers, intelligent hardware manufacturers also need to provide standardized hardware products to a broader market through integrators.

Traditional integrators with service capabilities have occupied a certain market share and reputation in the industrial robot market, with rich experience and technology accumulation, and more mature product lines. However, the traditional integrator research and development ability is insufficient and unwilling to invest too much, can only rely on manpower to make up for, is currently trapped in the first mentioned “buy robots, send engineers” situation, low gross profit level, so actively seek cooperation with emerging technology manufacturers.

In recent years, some industrial robot intelligent integrators with strong innovation ability and flexibility have emerged. Emerging integrators have small scale, few channels, and insufficient product intelligence. Generally, they will insist on improving products and improving the level of intelligence on the basis of making up for manpower, thereby reducing manpower demand, and present a complementary state with traditional integrators with rich channel resources.