Estun was among the many companies showing humanoid robots at CIIF in China. Credit: Georg Stieler

Over the past three years, more than half of the world’s robots were sold in China. While not historically seen as a technological leader in robotics, China is increasingly setting global trends in this industry. Georg Stieler, head of robotics and automation and managing director for Asia at STM Stieler Verwaltungs-GmbH, shared his impressions from this year’s China International Industry Fair, or CIIF, in Shanghai.

CIIF was packed, despite a sales slowdown

Even as China is facing its worst economic sentiment in 20 years, CIIF was vibrant and full of energy. We estimate a 20% drop in industrial robot sales in the first half of the year—mainly due to a cooling investment boom in electric vehicles, batteries, and photovoltaics

However, there are bright spots in the country‘s market: 3C (computers, communication, and consumer electronics) is gaining in importance again. Also, collaborative robots are on a growth path, driven by applications in electric vehicle production and inspection.

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Robot manufacturer exhibits show key themes at CIIF

The leading robotics manufacturers focused on the following key themes at the exhibition:

• FANUC presented applications for battery production, cutting, painting, palletizing, and semiconductor manufacturing, as well as dynamic uses of cobots. However, as the market statistics suggest, the Japanese company is facing challenges because to its high price levels compared with local competitors in the latter segment.
• ESTUN showcased its wide product range and industry-specific solutions, particularly in the battery, solar, and automotive sectors. The Chinese company featured cobots more prominently than in 2023.
• KUKA and ABB demonstrated applications that highlight the technical strengths of their robots and differentiate them from local competitors. ABB introduced the Ultra Accuracy feature for its GoFa cobot for ultra-precise applications in the electronics, automotive, aerospace, and metalworking industries.

In addition, exhibitors highlighted the following topics at the event in China:

Cobots in EV production

Credit: Georg Stieler

Assembly and inspection applications in batteries and electric vehicles have become a major growth driver for cobot sales. Universal Robots, Aubo, JAKA Robotics, and Flexiv prominently presented their respective systems for this field.

Cobots with 30-40 kg payload

Credit: Georg Stieler

Complete palletizing systems, including cameras, grippers, and software, start at €12,000 ($13,157 U.S.) — significantly less than comparable offerings in Europe or the U.S. Pictured above is a FANUC system at the upper end of the price range.

Intelligent welding solutions

Credit: Georg Stieler

3D cameras and automated path planning were featured by all major cobot manufacturers. QJAR, a domestic supplier, presented a large-scale welding system for steel structures and claimed to have sold 2,000 robots in a single batch, doubling its sales.

Heavy load robots take to the floor at CIIF

Credit: Georg Stieler

Accordingly, FANUC, ESTUN, ABB, Yaskawa, and others demonstrated their capabilities in this field. Mech-Mind demonstrated a product to streamline battery pack assembly using 3D cameras and intelligent path planning.

We expect robots with payloads of 300 kg (661.3 lb.) and higher to be used in more palletizing applications within industries such as chemicals, food and beverage, as well as warehousing and logistics.

Computer vision and AI

Credit: Georg Stieler

Mech-Mind show its improvements for handling shiny and reflective surfaces, as well as its own large language model (LLM) interface. HIKVISION highlighted 3D-guided welding and advanced inspection tasks and co-exhibited an integrated inspection solution with ESTUN. Agilebots and Micro-Intelligence, a start-up, presented a model in which robots assembled building blocks autonomously.

Advanced tactile intelligence

Credit: Georg Stieler

Flexiv and JAKA showed advanced wire-harnessing applications, relying on force sensors and dynamic force control.

Inovance displays ambitions at CIIF

Credit: Georg Stieler

Inovance, known as the “little Huawei,” presented its industrial robots in an automotive body-in-white setting (see above). After taking market share from established Japanese players in the SCARA segment, this highlighted the Shenzhen, China-based company‘s ambition in multi-axis robotics.

Robots currently contribute less than 5% to Inovance’s revenue, but given its strong position in industrial automation, this could change quickly. Inovance’s real-time synchronous industrial wireless module offered a glimpse into its vision for the future.

Humanoid robots ubiquitous at CIIF

ESTUN, JAKA, and many other companies presented humanoid robots. So far, they serve more as proof of Chinese firms’ capabilities to churn out new hardware quickly.

Even the more promising models are still years away from successful commercialization.

The post CIIF 2024 shows major robotics trends in China appeared first on The Robot Report.

Japanese manufacturers are responsible for 40% of robot sales around the world. To understand the global robotics market, a look inside Japan is indispensable. iREX, which claims to be the world’s largest robotics show, is a great way to do just that.

iREX 2023 was packed. There were 654 exhibitors, making it the largest show since its inception. The first three days alone attracted 120,000 visitors to Tokyo—three times more than Automatica in Munich and even four times more than Automate in Detroit.

After an absence of four years, I attended the show last week. Here are my observations.

1. More cobots with value-added applications

Collaborative robots (cobots) took on an even more prominent role this time. Yamaha launched a seven-axis cobot. Universal Robots launched its new UR30 some large-load cobots at the show. FANUC and DENSO placed some products from the same category, which had already been introduced earlier this year, prominently.

FANUC, DENSO, and UR presented some interesting demos of high force torque tightening, precision assembly, polishing, and screw seating inspection – applications that require intelligent use of integrated power sensors. FANUC also highlighted its smooth direct-teaching capabilities for welding, powder coating or with payloads up to 30 kg (66.1 lb.).

The fact that several large manufacturers gave cobots such a prominent presence highlights the strategic importance they’re now giving this product category.

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2. ‘Zero teach’ robotics

Machine vision combined with automated path generation received a boost since my last visit. “Zero teach” is the new buzzword.

Traditional applications are random part picking and easy palletizing. This has been shown by a multitude of robotics manufacturers, as well as machine vision companies that are also offering robotic motion control – such as Mujin from Japan or Mech-Mind from China. The former also presented its TruckBot, an autonomous robot that can unload both truck trailers and shipping containers at a rate of up to 1,000 cases per hour.

FANUC showed auto path generation for arc welding. Both FANUC and Yaskawa showed zero-programming solutions for easy palletizing. Under the name “Motoman Next,” Yaskawa presented some applications for verticals such as dishwashing, food inspection and sorting, and laboratories.

At this point, these are more demonstrations of what can technically be done, as Yaskawa is just starting to offer these solutions to customers.

FANUC showed auto path generation for arc welding at iREX 2023. | Credit: Georg Stieler

NACHI and OMRON showed corresponding applications for the dynamic placement of FPC connectors in electronic products. They claimed that a slightly different version was already used in electronics manufacturing.

DENSO presented some impressive applications of its real-time control software, TwinCAT, realized in collaboration with Beckhoff; a voice-controlled cobot application; and some transparent or glossy workpiece picking in collaboration with Cambrian.

More machine vision in combination with automated and dynamic path planning also means good business prospects for NVIDIA, which was also an exhibitor and entertains partnerships with several of the leading Japanese robot manufacturers.

3. Variable-mix, variable-volume automated lines

The booths of OMRON and Yaskawa featured variable-mix, variable-volume automated lines. These lines showcased mobile cobots and layout-free production, enabling adaptability in the production environment and on-site data management for continuous productivity and quality improvement.

Yaskawa is using its I3-Mechatronics platform for this, a promising approach after Japanese automation suppliers came to embrace the concept of interconnected production processes relatively late. Yaskawa’s new YRM-X controller controls several machines along a whole line.

4. High-payload robots

Like in other countries, Japanese robotics companies have a legacy in the automotive industry. This is still reflected in the introduction of some high-payload robots. FANUC introduced a new serial link robot with a 500 kg (1,102.3 lb.) payload, overflip capability, and integrated 2D and 3D cameras. Target applications is the handling of heavy automotive parts.

Yaskawa presented the Motoman-ME1000, a SCARA robot with a payload of 1,000 kg (2,204.6 lb.) tailored for the handling of electric vehicle batteries.

Japanese robot maker Man-Machine Synergy Effectors showed a master-slave high-place working robot at iREX 2023. | Credit: Georg Stieler

5. Strong presence of Chinese players

Fifty out of the 121 international exhibitors were from China. They were primarily manufacturers of cobots (AUBO Robotics, Elite Robots), mobile robots, machine vision (Mech-Mind Robotics) and core components.

As a large market with close geographic proximity, Japan is an opportunity for Chinese players to mitigate the cut-throat competition at home.

6. Japanese robotics companies collaborate on SME automation

Maybe the most important news for the Japanese robotics industry these days came a day before the start of iREX 2023. The Robot Industrial Basic Technology Collaborative Innovation Partnership (ROBOCIP), a group including major Japanese robotics and automation companies, announced that it is creating a joint database to facilitate the introduction of robots at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

According to a white paper by the Japanese government, SMEs are responsible for 99.7% of Japanese companies, yet the value-added per worker for the country’s SMEs in manufacturing is just over one-third of that for its big businesses. At the same time, SMEs often lack the funds for capital investment.

The new system is supposed to speed up the automation of this sector by sharing some basic information on robot specifications, operations and software. It is set to be available in 2024 and is supposed to reduce integration costs by up to 60%. Access will be free for smaller companies in the beginning.

In addition to robotics manufacturers such as FANUC, DENSO, Panasonic, Yaskawa, NACHI, Kawasaki, Epson, Daihen and Mitsubishi, the initiative is supported by the University of Tokyo, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization. The program is open for further participants to increase the completeness of the database and ultimately the competitiveness of the Japanese manufacturing sector.

In the future, the group is considering combining generative artificial intelligence with its database to further lower the threshold for automation. A similar approach by Google Deepmind and 33 research institutions recently has shown some promising results.

This announcement was in line with the theme of this year’s show — “Sustainable Society Brought by Robotics” — emphasizing solutions to global challenges and the creation of a sustainable society through collaborative efforts between manufacturers, system integrators and users.

Outlook from iREX is positive

Initiatives to boost productivity through more automation are urgently needed in Japan. The country’s economy has been stagnating for three decades, and its post-pandemic recovery remains fragile.

A shrinking population further limits the upsides to its growth. Despite Japan’s distinctive cultural traits, such as its approach to immigration, its advancements can serve as a model for other countries facing aging populations.

I saw a high level of innovation at iREX, with concerted efforts by Japan’s leading robotics and automation manufacturers. They included a joint database to share information as how to operate and adjust robots (potentially enhanced by generative AI). They provide an optimistic outlook for the future.

As companies are re-evaluating their geopolitical risks and are moving some of their supply chains, Japanese factory automation firms stand to benefit.

Corporate culture in Japan seems to be changing, too. Corporate governance reforms are pressuring management teams to enhance corporate value and return on equity. The average age of CEOs at firms in the Nikkei stock index has dropped by 12 years over the past decade.

While Japan’s startup ecosystem is still small relative to its GDP, it is becoming increasingly vibrant. Investments grew tenfold from 2013 to 2022, and the number of VC funds quadrupled.

Notions of these changes are already becoming visible at Japanese robotics and automation enterprises. Foreign companies mentioned that they are becoming more open to collaboration with a new leadership generation. I am already excited for the next iREX in two years.

About the author

Georg Stieler is managing director, Asia, of Stieler Technology & Marketing Consultants. He established the Asia branch of his family’s consulting enterprise in Shanghai in 2011. Together with his team, Stieler offers pivotal analyses and growth strategies for some of the globally leading robotics and automation companies. In addition to his primary role, Georg serves as an advisor for high-potential start-ups.

The post 6 robotics trends from iREX 2023 appeared first on The Robot Report.

Editor’s Note: Georg Stieler will be discussing the state of the Chinese robotics market during RoboBusiness 2023, which takes place Oct. 18-19 in Santa Clara, Calif. His talk, “Robotics in China,” takes place from 2:45-3:30 on Oct. 18 and will provide insights into the latest developments in robotics in China and what can be expected from there in the future. Register for RoboBusiness.

The situation in robotics and automation in China has never been as exciting as today. Last year, over half of all industrial robots worldwide were sold in the country. In the first six months of 2023, the upward trend continued: According to our calculations, the number of industrial robots sold during this period was 144,288 units, an increase of 17.1% compared to the previous year.

The Chinese market is now setting essential trends in industrial automation. What initially emerged in the manufacture of electronic products is continuing in electric cars, batteries, and photovoltaics. Since the country is leading in these areas, local companies benefit from corresponding economies of scale and learning effects.

Primary growth drivers

While the peak in commissioning new production capacities for electric cars has passed, projects in this area are still responsible for most robot sales. The most important sales segment in the years before 2022, the manufacture of electronic products, is suffering from restrained consumer demand domestically and the relocation of large capacities to Southeast Asia. This year’s primary growth drivers are robots in manufacturing solar panels and battery cells – applications that do not exist or only exist to a limited extent in Europe and the U.S. Market observers expect that the production capacity for solar panels will more than double from 380 GW at the beginning of 2022 to 750-800 GW by the end of this year. Storage facilities near wind or solar parks are establishing themselves as an additional sales market for battery cells.

In recent years, domestic manufacturers have increasingly penetrated areas previously reserved for foreign robot manufacturers. For example, last year, the leading domestic manufacturer of multi-axis industrial robots, Estun, sold over 17,000 robots in China, fewer than Fanuc and KUKA, but already more than ABB and Yaskawa. In the SCARA area, Inovance has massively taken market share from Epson and Yamaha. Significant reasons for the success of Chinese newcomers were delivery delays from international market leaders and the ability to quickly adapt to new market trends and develop scalable solutions for growth fields.

The great importance that the Chinese government attaches to broad STEM education is bearing fruit. Compared to Europe, more specialists are available on the developer and system integrator sides. Together with the local supply chain that has emerged in recent years, this enables shorter product cycles and drastically cheaper costs for machine vision, industrial robots, and collaborative robots.

Leading foreign companies are also increasingly relying on the local supply chain. KUKA opened the second expansion stage of the new factory in Shunde at the end of May. The plant is the largest robot manufacturing site in southern China. FANUC completed the expansion stage of its Shanghai plant in July. It is the most prominent site for the company outside of Japan.

Effects of weak Chinese economy

The trend that Chinese manufacturers strive abroad due to the brutal price competition continues. Cobot manufacturers JAKA, Dobot, and Aubo each plan to go public. JAKA wants to raise 750 million RMB in this way. A good part of this will be invested in international expansion. To hedge against increasing geopolitical risks, Chinese component manufacturers are building production sites in Southeast Asia, Europe, and North America. For example, Leaderdrive, one of the leading domestic servo and robot gear manufacturers, invests in capacity in Mexico.

Credit: Stieler Database

However, even robotics cannot escape the current weakness of the Chinese economy. According to our surveys, there were 95 financing transactions in the robotics sector in the first six months of the current year, with a total volume of 8.655 billion RMB. Most of this went into drones, machine vision, and medical robots, followed by investments in key components and multi-axis robots. The total amount is 33% below the same period last year and fits into a generally declining trend in venture capital transactions. Across all industries, these fell by 42% in Asia in the H1 2023. For robotics, China is thus behind the USA (1.48 billion USD) but significantly higher than the value we documented for corresponding financing activities in the EU (650 million USD).

Considering the prospects for robot sales, there are significant challenges ahead: Fanuc reported unprecedented inventory levels in China at the end of July. The company did not communicate detailed figures for the robot division, but the total orders of the group in the country fell by 42% compared to the previous year. According to Kenji Yamaguchi, President and CEO, the company does not expect a normalization of order intakes before 2024, possibly even later. The numbers for other heavyweights in the industry in China went in the same direction: Yaskawa’s orders in China fell group-wide by 27% in the second quarter, and ABB’s in the robot segment by 37%. Leaderdrive’s sales fell by 44% in the first six months of the current year.

Based on the economic data from August, this may not yet represent the lowest point. The adjustment process is likely to be difficult and could present existential challenges for many less efficient companies.

Since we began our operations in China, we have observed similar developments in other industries. For example, a consolidation process began in the construction machinery industry after the boom from 2007-2012. Leading Chinese companies like SANY have emerged stronger from this and now have their costs and processes under control. They can handle demand fluctuations well and have also developed into serious competitors for established European and American companies on the global market.

Robots in the production of solar cells and modules at Jinko Solar. 

A bright future remains

In robotics, we expect a similar development. China will remain the largest market for robotics and automation products for the foreseeable future. We have already mentioned the strengths in major sales markets such as electric cars, batteries, and photovoltaics. The country now has a powerful supply chain for most key robotics components. The demographic challenges require the use of more robots.

A strong robot industry is an integral part of the modernization efforts of the Chinese government, and leading companies will continue to enjoy corresponding support. In August, the Beijing city government set up a related fund to be equipped with 10 billion RMB. In the medium term, more efficient AI will significantly expand the range of applications. Huawei founded a robotics subsidiary in June for this purpose, outfitted with 870 million RMB in registered capital.

Despite geopolitical tensions, we are receiving inquiries from European companies in the robotics sector on how to use the Chinese supply chain for themselves – for the local market and other regions. Depending on the product, the local ecosystem’s cost advantages, flexibility, and speed are too attractive.

About the Author

Georg Stieler founded the Shanghai branch of Stieler Technology & Marketing Consulting in 2011. He has since implemented over 40 market entry and expansion projects in China with his local team, primarily for foreign companies in robotics, sensors, control technology, and software. This has given him extensive expertise in the Chinese automation industry, and he is now considered one of the leading experts in this field. He is also involved with young technology companies and helps them gain a foothold in the Asian and European markets.

The post What’s new in China’s robotics market? appeared first on The Robot Report.

Whereas the Chinese government seems skeptical about much of the consumer internet, it wants to make China an industrial powerhouse, and robots are a part of this. This trend is also reflected by the fact that Chinese venture capital (VC) investments in robotics almost doubled in 2021 compared to 2020. VC funds in general raised 65% less capital during this period.

Regarding the goals and the question of how realistic they are, I expect a mixed outcome. We should not forget that this is not the first plan of this kind. The first five-year plan for the robotics industry was released in April 2016, about one year after the Made in China 2025 strategy.

Together with plenty of initiatives on provincial and city levels, the subsidies in the wake of Made in China 2025 turned out to be more of a curse than a blessing for the domestic robotics industry, however. Political connections often mattered more than technical capabilities for the distribution of subsidies. Huge overcapacities for the assembly of robot arms were built up, while the development of key components such as reducers, servos and controllers was neglected. Domestic robot companies were trapped in a vicious cycle of low technical capabilities and no margins at the low end of the value chain, leaving no space for investments in R&D.

Correspondingly, we didn’t see the market share of domestic robot makers grow for a long time, it has been around 30-35% over the last few years. The change was only in 2021, when we saw that local companies such as EFORT or ESTUN started winning tender offers against globally leading robot suppliers at renowned clients such as BYD or Foxconn. With extremely low prices, domestic makers of collaborative robots such as JAKA or Elite are also becoming more visible in low- and mid-end applications. The field of Kiva-like AGVs is dominated by local firms.

Speaking about core components, gains of local suppliers were also incremental until recently. Over the last year, we saw that firms such as Inovance (motion control) and Leaderdrive (harmonic gears) were growing stronger than the general market.

Have these recent successes been achieved due to the successful implementation of government planning? Some observers say they came despite the government policies. Domestic companies can only go into price wars when they have corresponding funding. As we have seen in China’s machine tool industry before, huge credit lines can lead to a lack of financial discipline, and prevent companies from becoming competitive in the long run.

Can China pick the right winners?

One of the goals of the new plan is to consolidate the industry and create larger entities. However, it is not entirely clear if the government is good at picking winners.

An example of success is HIKROBOT, the logistics robot branch of HIKVISION, China‘s leading state-owned supplier of video surveillance equipment. Together with Huawei, the companies are working on innovative autonomous navigation solutions, which can work without expensive LiDARs.

Cheaper mobile robots might be a game changer, indeed. The Achilles heel of both these companies is their proximity to the Chinese state and that they are on US entity lists. New technologies such as autonomous navigation require substantial computing power, and no mainland Chinese company is close to being able to produce processors powerful enough to complete these tasks.

An example where close government ties do not necessarily translate into success in the marketplace is Siasun, one of China‘s oldest and largest state-owned robot manufacturers. The company had the lowest sales growth among the top 20 robot vendors in China during the last two years.

Takeaways

To conclude, even if many of the goals in this plan are not entirely new and might not be reached in time, both robotics companies and policy makers outside of China need to take the challenge from China’s robotics industry seriously.

Recent developments make me more optimistic about the capabilities of local companies than five years ago. China has increased its number of robotics scientists, many of them educated abroad. The country‘s large industrial base provides plenty of sales potential. In fields such as battery making or photovoltaics, China is so advanced that production knowhow from there is now transferred to other countries. Subsidies and fierce competition in China are bringing down prices, which will pave the way for new robotics applications. Even we expect the economy to cool down further in 2022, but promising robotics companies will continue to receive support.

On the other hand, state-funded Chinese robotics companies are eyeing the US and the EU, hoping to charge higher prices there than in their hyper-competitive home market. Western robotics companies need to be prepared for that. Policy makers must find ways to sustain a healthy development of future industries against competitors, which are enjoying unfair state aid.

Last, but not least: policy makers in the West need to ask themselves what they can do to create a better environment for technology companies on their side. Speaking as a German citizen, our government should be reminded that the fight against climate change is important, but that there are also other pressing issues. Too many resources are being spent for unproductive activities, these days. When were the last attempts to unleash more creative, entrepreneurial power and encourage risk takers in the EU?

About the author

Georg Stieler is managing director for Asia at international consulting firm STM Stieler.

The post How realistic is China’s five-year plan for robotics? appeared first on The Robot Report.

An ABB robot simulating an application in a wafer factory at China’s CIIF. Source: STM Stieler

The China International Industry Fair, or CIIF, China’s largest robotics and automation show, was this past week in Shanghai. The macroeconomic situation is mixed. The COVID-19 crisis hit all economies worldwide. China, which had the first major outbreak and went through a full lockdown in February and early March, appears to have found its way back to normal, at least at home.

This does not mean that everything was fine, however. Foreign suppliers of production technology that established a presence in the country in recent years were already confronted with a challenging environment in 2019.

On the demand side, the trade conflict with the U.S., as well as factors such as the continuing rise in debt and stagnating productivity, had a negative impact on consumer sentiment and companies’ willingness to invest. Even before COVID-19, car sales in the world’s largest market had declined for the first time since 1990 for two consecutive years.

Industrial robot sales also fell slightly for the first time in 2019, after their number had grown sevenfold since 2010. The list of goods and sectors could be continued. For many foreign companies that came to China with global key customers from the automotive sector and that only knew growth in this market, this was an unfamiliar experience.

In September 2020, the Chinese economy seems to be doing relatively well — not only compared with most other regions of the world, but some sectors have also performed better than during the same period in the previous year since April. Largely, this development is driven by a push for infrastructure upgrading, doubling down on existing policy goals. While it remains to be seen how sustainable this will be, it offers short- and mid-term opportunities for foreign suppliers of production technology. We will publish a study that explicitly deals with chances in industries, which we are seeing on an upward trend, later this fall.

China’s sales a bright spot for the global robotics industry

Industrial robots were among China’s industries that performed better in the second quarter than in the same period of the previous year. Based on the evaluation of the sales figures of the 20 leading domestic and foreign manufacturers of industrial robots in China, the market grew by 3.8% from the beginning of April to the end of June.

In a year-on-year comparison for the entire first six months, sales were 5.4% below those of the previous year (in terms of units).

The growing robot sales in the second quarter of 2020 were mainly caused by catch-up effects and robust demand from the electronics sector, especially for SCARA robots (+40%). Delta robot sales also rebounded, up 22% thanks to increasing demand from the food and beverage, healthcare, and electronics sectors.

Other segments with robust growth were automated guided vehicles (AGVs, +17%) and collaborative robots (+9%). They particularly benefited from resuming projects that had been halted during the outbreak. Sales of traditional multi-axis robots (-10%) and handling technology (-6%) continued to decline in the second quarter, mainly due to the persistently weak demand from the automotive sector.

Catering to China’s 3C industry, KUKA’s new KR SCARA robot. Source: STM Stieler

At the present time, China can be seen as a bright spot in the global robotics market. However, one should highlight the enormous price pressure, which has even turned worse in the current situation. For example, Honyen, the fastest-growing domestic robot manufacturer last year, is currently going through bankruptcy proceedings after there had been rumors about outstanding payments to suppliers and employees already last year.

Also, DJI, the global leader in consumer threats, was forced to deny reports of layoffs in mid-August. Increasing security concerns in overseas markets will not make doing international business any easier for the company.

The trend that domestic industrial robot makers were able to increase their market share has not continued. This was ensured in particular by the strong sales performance of Epson, Yamaha, and FANUC in the field of of SCARA robots.

China stays strong in investments

Using data from The Robot Report and our database of transactions in China, our team analyzed 392 transactions that occurred in the global robotics industry in the first seven months of 2019 and 2020.

Global robotics investments fell by over 60% from January to July 2020 compared with the same period last year. The U.S. remained the destination with the most investments, with more than 53.8%.

China’s robot users gained relative importance in 2020. In the first seven months, 30.8% of the investments were made here. The main drivers were the initial public offerings of several manufacturers of industrial robots and a large integrator of logistics systems, as well as investments in mobile robotics, robotics-related AI chips, and 3D sensors (lidar).

Mechmind, one of China’s domestic pick-and-place startups. Source: STM Stieler

Despite the impressive sums of capital, young Chinese robotics companies find themselves in a difficult environment. In addition to the price-sensitive domestic market with still comparatively low wage costs, access to foreign technology is becoming more difficult for them.

In AGVs, for example, the chips for control come from the U.S., and navigation sensors come from Europe or Japan. Two companies in this area, Megvii and Hikvision, have already become subject to American sanctions due to their business activities in the area of mass surveillance.

The start-up Cloudminds, which raised over $300 million (U.S.) and wanted to develop cloud-based humanoid robots in Silicon Valley and China, closed its branch in Santa Clara, Calif., this spring because of tightened export regulations for critical military-grade technologies.

The traditional strengths of Europe and Japan in industrial robots and automation are not reflected in investments in new fields of robotics. This should be of concern for both businesspeople as well as policymakers.

About the author

Georg Stieler is managing director for Asia at international consulting firm STM Stieler. The company’s Trend Report “Robotics in China” is a comprehensive update of its report from 2018 and will be available later this month. This article is reprinted with permission.

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The mood was excellent among attendees and exhibitors. According to the Japan Robotics Association (JARA), orders in 2017 were 20% higher than last year. Sales numbers have increased for 17 straight quarters and are at the highest quarterly numbers ever.

Robots headed for China hold 46% of the total value. With that favorable base, JARA said it expects yearly production will exceed the previous record of JPY 800 billion ($7.04 billion U.S.).

Whether it’s because Japanese firms like to play more with technology or because they have more relatively small-scale robot applications ready to show — I have never seen so many application cases on site. Exhibitors at Automatica in Munich, Automate in Chicago, and the Chinese fairs could learn a thing or two from here.

Industrial robots get faster, smarter, and easier to set up

As one could expect, Japanese manufacturers FANUC, Yaskawa, Kawasaki, and Denso dominated the exhibition. But ABB and KUKA also had a strong presence.

Here are some major trends I observed at iRex 2017:

Easy setup. All the major players showed off easy ways to teach robots how to move without programming skills. The simplest and most popular version is “lead-through programming” — showing a movement by hand, and the robot will remember it.

Even though this concept has been around for over 30 years, it is becoming popular now because customers are looking for robot applications in production processes with smaller volumes, which require more flexibility.

Most use cases for this feature can be found in collaborative robots. For instance, ABB introduced a single arm version of its YuMi at iRex. We also saw it in larger robots applications.

There are still mixed opinions on how popular these solutions will really become in the long run. A big disadvantage of cobots in particular is the limited speed at which they operate.

Faster robot models presented by Kawasaki and Denso address this problem. The majority of use cases were in manufacturing, as well as with larger robots for palletizing.

Machine vision with deep learning. Image recognition has made huge improvements in the past three years. Almost every vendor showed robot applications combining machine vision with deep learning for picking tasks or surface inspection.

Teleops. Kawasaki and Denso’s exhibits were examples of robots operated in real time by humans, some combined with augmented reality (AR). The opportunities for attendees to try them out drew a lot of attention.

Smart transports rather than simple AGVs. Denso, Omron, and Yaskawa showed smart transport robots to supply assembly stations. Different than traditional automated guided vehicles (AGVs), these robots are able to find their way again if they meet an obstacle such as a worker walking around in the factory.

Interconnectivity. Forward-thinking robot manufacturers consider data and the ability to generate value for their customers as major future assets. This is the context in which one has to consider ABB and Kawasaki’s major announcement of their cooperation.

Japanese companies have been relatively late to embrace concepts of intelligent, interconnected production processes. For the past two years, however, the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry has actively encouraged domestic companies to develop concepts comparable to what is called Industry 4.0 in Germany. (The Japanese equivalent has the official name “Society 5.0.”)

All of the major Japanese automation suppliers introduced platforms for data collection and analysis this year. Robot applications include predictive maintenance and analytics. The latter enables users to gain an even deeper understanding of their production processes for incremental improvement. This is an area where Japanese companies have been traditionally strong.

Service robots: Humanoid ambitions, student initiatives

Japan is the leading country for service robots. Its people are used to a high degree of automation in their everyday lives. For example, Japan has 4.9 million drink vending machines — this corresponds to 1 for every 26 people.

Both leading enterprises and research institutions are working hard to meet the challenges of an aging society with robot applications. I saw some interesting developments in this field at iRex.

The newly unveiled Toyota-Humanoid Robot 3 (T-HR3) was one of the most popular exhibits. It uses tele-operations/remote control, for now. Particularly impressive is its Torque Servo Technology, which allows for flexible control.

The service robot can react properly to any object it comes in touch with. Unlike other concepts I saw, it also has legs and an impressive sense for balance and gravity (at least on stage).

Kawada Robotics had Nextage, a robot whose upper body looked similar but was more autonomous.

The company demonstrated probably the most ambitious use cases among the growing number of suppliers of robots with two arms.

A heartwarming robot application was when students from Kyushu Institute for Technology presented a Baxter robot to help elderly people getting dressed.

Japan’s robot applications rise to meet the future

In Japan, more than 2,000 people retiring from the workforce every single day. The country has no other choice than to exploit the opportunities of robotics and the Internet of Things.

In addition, the country has strong base of industrial automation, robotics and product design, and the resolve to leverage these strengths.

As a German investor currently residing in China, this show provided some valuable insights. Japan can serve as an inspiration, not only for countries with aging populations, but also for the next industrial and service revolutions. I will certainly pay closer attention to Japanese robotics developments in the future!

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