What's happening in robotics? >> PART 1

Trend 1: China's Appetites

China's economy has and continues to transition through all the economic stages of industrialization, urbanization and consumption-driven growth. This movement is both politically stimulated and self-propelling. In the realm of robotics, there are many factors driving growth: a desire to export cars requiring a level of quality that can only be provided by utilizing proven robotic automation methods; multi 5-year governmental incentive plans fostering a home-grown robotics industry; rising wages changing the metrics of human-robot deployment; and general availability of capable factory workers.

Thus China is eating up the market both as a buyer and an emerging seller. However, for Chinese companies to fully capture the robotic market within China they will have to shore up missing components that are hard to make and improve quality and precision overall. Components such as end-of-arm tools, speed reducers and harmonic drives will need to be manufactured locally instead of being imported. Many retired Japanese engineers are “consulting” to help speed up the process. Chinese venture firms are helping by acquiring international companies, investing in Chinese companies that are attempting to perfect these components, and investing in global companies and reorienting them toward sales and manufacturing in China. One good result: as the industry moves in-country, there will be less blatent thievery, copying and reverse engineering as there has been in the past.

China's government has encouraged this in-country market by providing loans and other incentives to companies and to local governments to get them to provide real estate and tax incentives. An industry plan drafted by several ministries, for 2016 to 2020, aims to have 100,000 industrial robots produced annually by domestic companies, with annual sales of 30 billion yuan ($5.4 billion) a year. Meanwhile, more than 40 new robot ­industrial parks have been built or are under construction according to the CRIA, adding that local governments established ~80 policies to support the sector.

There have been many reports about the misuse of those funds and the falsification of progress reports. The most recent is the 2015 statistics from the IFR showing that even though China did well, the rate of growth has diminished and projections have been halved.

Nevertheless, internalization is ongoing and progressively gaining traction. The bid for half the shares of German robot maker Kuka by a Chinese venture firm is an example. Foxconn's deployment of over 45,000 Foxbots (Foxconn's inhouse brand of robots) in addition to robots from other manufacturers is another.