According to a new study by an authoritative organization, the global industrial robot market demand is still growing at an accelerated pace due to labor shortage and demographic dividend loss. In recent years, China has been actively leading the transformation of its economy, and with the loss of the demographic dividend, the labor-intensive low-end manufacturing industry in the country is gradually transforming into a technology-intensive high-end manufacturing industry, so the demand for a high degree of automation is rising, driving the rapid growth of industrial robot sales. The demand for robots in China is expected to reach 95,000 units in 2016.
Global robot market trends in 2016
1. Large countries' policies dominate, prompting industrial and service robot market growth
Industrial countries have proposed robotics industry policies, such as Germany's Industry 4.0, Japan's new robotics strategy, the U.S. Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, China's 13th Five-Year Plan and Made in China 2025, and other national policies, all of which incorporate robotics industry development. This will not only lead to the continuous growth of the industrial robot market, but also to the rapid growth of the professional and personal/home service robot market.
2. The automotive industry is still the main user of industrial robots
At this stage, the automotive industry is still the largest user of industrial robots. In 2014, Japan, Germany, the United States and South Korea all used more than 1,000 industrial robots per 10,000 employees, while 305 robots were used in mainland China. Since Japan, Germany, the United States and South Korea are all large countries in the automotive industry, the main demand for industrial robots in the future still lies in the automotive industry.
3. Dual-arm collaborative robots are the new highlight of the industrial robot market
As the personnel cost continues to increase, including assembly OEMs and SMEs, the burden of personnel cost is relatively heavy, coupled with the shortage of labor in countries with serious aging population, making two-arm collaborative robots as a solution to reduce personnel cost, improve productivity and fill the labor gap, etc. In the 2015 Tokyo International Robot Show, global robotics majors promoted their collaborative robot products. The global robotics majors promoted their collaborative robots at the Tokyo International Robot Show in 2015.
4. Service robot market growth momentum is very promising
At this stage, the overall market is supported by service robots such as floor cleaning robots, entertainment robots, and medical care machines. Artificial intelligence has enabled service robots to communicate and interact with humans, which has led to the emergence of service robots as a new force in the market. In addition, the increasing aging of agriculture in some countries and regions is also driving the demand for agricultural robots.
"Industry 4.0" products are gradually commercialized, and collaborative robots are promising
Information and communication innovation has led to the explosive growth of mobile terminal applications, unveiling the prologue of the Internet of Things era and stimulating the production side to launch a comprehensive industrial upgrading campaign with the concept of "Industry 4.0". As of the end of 2015, most of the "Industry 4.0" solutions or products exhibited by German, Japanese and American manufacturers are still in the showroom or laboratory stage, and have not yet been commercially promoted.
Although no obvious research results have been shown in the near future, manufacturers will formally commercialize products related to intelligent manufacturing, such as collaborative robots and networked tooling machines, in 2016 in order to seize market opportunities. These products are technically mature, but their development still depends on the level of customer awareness and actual demand. In addition, the development of security and standardization of network connection is the most critical issue, so in addition to tool vendors, CiscoSystems and other network companies will play an important role.
Some products will be commercialized first and become indicators of future market acceptance
Most of the "Industry 4.0" technologies being developed by national institutions are not yet mature, and there is still some time before they can be transferred to manufacturers, but robotics and tooling manufacturers are developing faster in collaborative robots and networked tooling machines. After commercialization, substantial market growth will not be realized until after 2016-2017.
The first type of product to be officially commercialized is the "collaborative robot". ABB (Switzerland) launched the two-armed "Yu-Mi" collaborative robot, KUKA (Germany) launched the "LBRiiwa", Fanuc launched the "CR-35iA "The majority of these robots were launched in 2015, including the "MOTOMAN-HC10" by YASKAWA. The price of each product ranges from 16,000 euros to more than 100,000 euros.
The collaborative robots have less sharp corners and will reduce speed or stop before touching people, making them safe; the built-in vision system can directly pull the robot arm to move and teach actions, and the robot will memorize the path and work on its own, with the ability to work together with the operator. Guangming Optoelectronics also launched a small collaborative robot at the Tokyo International Robot Show in December 2015.
The second category of products is networked tooling machines, such as DMGMORISEIKI, MAZAK, OKUMA and others have launched networkable control systems and tooling machine products. The main feature is that the operation of the tool machine can be monitored from a remote location, and the application software provided by third-party companies can also operate freely on it without the limitation of the system, thus the security and standardization of network connection will be the biggest key to development.