Has the air outlet for service robots arrived? What excellent companies have emerged in the market? How many hurdles must Chinese service robot companies have to overcome if they want to go to the center of the world stage?

The market size will exceed 75 billion yuan in 2023

   According to different application fields, the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) divides robots into two categories: industrial robots and service robots. Service robots refer to autonomous or semi-autonomous robots that are used in non-manufacturing industries and centered on service. They can be used for cleaning, escort, navigation, transportation, sales, security and other tasks, including personal, household service robots and professional service robots. Two categories.

   It is the value of service robots to facilitate people, liberate people, and at the same time improve efficiency and boost the industry.

This value has a more pressing background in China

   Some time ago, the results of the seventh census were announced. It is an indisputable fact that the birth rate is low, the population growth is slowing, and the aging society is accelerating. It is foreseeable that the aging of the population will reduce the number of labor supply, increase the burden of family pension and the pressure on the supply of basic public services. And "automation to reduce labor, automated replacement" has become an important way to alleviate the shortage of labor, and the consumer demand for products and services for the elderly will be further driven. More and more service robots are being used in exhibitions, government affairs, epidemic prevention, inspections, logistics, elderly care and other fields, and the market space for service robots will be further expanded.

At the "Insights · 2021 Emerging Industry Investment Opportunities" research results release conference hosted by CCID Consulting a few days ago, Yao Yinguo, an analyst at the Intelligent Equipment Industry Research Center of CCID Consulting, revealed that in 2020, due to the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the market demand for service robots Ushered in explosive growth, the market size reached 28.38 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 37.4%. With the continuous impact of the global new crown pneumonia epidemic and the intensification of domestic aging problems, the market demand for server robots will continue to increase, and the market size is expected to reach 75.18 billion yuan by 2023.
Many people in the industry believe that in recent years, my country's service robot-related technology and market scale have continued to develop, and there is a strong tendency to "curve overtaking" in global competition. Fu Sheng, Chairman and CEO of Cheetah Mobile and Chairman of Orion Star, pointed out at the Innovation Conference 2021 held this year: “In the future service robot industry, China has the ability to lead the world.” And Zhou, the founder, chairman and CEO of Youbican Technology Jian Ze believes: "The past ten years have been the reserve period for service robots, and the next ten years will be the golden development period. More and more service robot solutions will be applied in vertical fields."

A large wave of AI Robot leading companies is popular with capital

   In a hotel in Nankai District, Tianjin, after checking in, the customer can be led by a robot to take the elevator to the room. During the stay, the customer ordered takeaway and required items are accurately delivered to the door of the room by the robot. According to the relevant person in charge of the hotel, during the "May Day" holiday this year, the delivery robots of its hotels have completed a total of 303,200 tasks, and the highest number of tasks per store is 248.
In addition to hotels and restaurants, some large shopping malls are also equipped with robots. For example, the Orion Star Robot of Cheetah Mobile appears in Beijing Haidian Xinzhongguan, Chaoyang Joy City and other shopping malls. The robot's main functions are welcoming guests and consulting.

According to the statistics of the intelligent industry innovation service platform "Smart Things", in the first 4 months of this year, domestic robot companies have publicly disclosed 67 investment and financing events, with a cumulative amount of more than 10 billion yuan, and a single financing of more than 100 million yuan. Accounted for nearly half. Among them, the financing events of service robot segmentation track accounted for 20%, and the commercialization prospect was favored by institutional capital and Internet giants. According to data released by CCID Consulting on May 27, the scale of investment and financing in the service robot market has increased significantly from 5.42 billion yuan in 2019 to 18.62 billion yuan, a surge of 344%. It is worth noting that, in addition to institutional capital, Internet companies such as Tencent, ByteDance, Meituan, and Ele.me, as well as strategic investors such as mobile phone manufacturer OPPO, are the sources of capital in the Robotics Track.

Cuts into the big market from a small scene

   Focus on Nanjing on the banks of the Yangtze River, where the service robot industry is thriving. Many companies focus their efforts on segmented application scenarios and occupy the market with specialized products.

   "I am a smart service robot, and my father is Jiangsu Nanda Electronics. I work as a lobby manager at many ICBC branches! Many people who do business and buy money will ask me for help..."

This little helper serving in ICBC’s new generation smart bank flagship store is a robot named "Xiaorong", which was innovated (hereinafter referred to as "Nanda Electronics") and Nanda Electronic Smart Service Robot The Research Institute (hereinafter referred to as the "Research Institute") develops and produces, with cute appearance, cleverness and dexterity, and has an advanced intelligent cloud service platform system, which can answer all kinds of customer questions. In addition to intelligent services such as welcome reception, business consultation, and entertainment interaction, it also has core functions such as intelligent guidance and distribution, intelligent precision marketing, light business processing, and robot team group-machine collaboration, which can realize "outlet lobbies, physical robots and intelligent teller machines" A full-smart service ecosystem is formed between them to jointly provide a butler-style and immersive brand-new service.

Nanda Electronics' service robots not only cover the banking scene, but also play a huge role in the prevention and control of the epidemic.

"Hello! Do you have fever? What is the self-tested temperature? The relevant department of our Gulou Hospital is on the second floor of the outpatient clinic. You can see it after I go upstairs and turn right on the right hand side behind me..." In Nanjing Gulou In the outpatient hall of the hospital, Nanda Electronics' service robot "Xiao Ai" is busy working.

The staff of NTU Electronics stated that the emergence of "Xiao Ai" has relieved the pressure on the management of human resources in the hospital to a certain extent. The robot provides non-contact services at the medical guidance desk while replacing the workload of the original medical guidance staff. It improves the efficiency of medical guidance and patient experience, effectively avoids the possibility of cross-infection caused by direct contact between original medical staff and patients, and reduces the risk of virus transmission.

   Another company made service robots "urban beauticians". "Trina Solar's Tiance intelligent sanitation robot has functions such as autonomous wake-up, ultrasonic obstacle avoidance detection, autonomous charging, and real-time monitoring. It can be widely used in squares, parks, parks, sidewalks, scenic spots and other scenarios. It has efficient and autonomous cleaning, Multiple safety guarantees, super positioning and mapping, convenient background management and other advantages."said that this sanitation robot can also be combined with photovoltaic systems to build a supporting photovoltaic charging shed, thus forming Independent closed-loop system for distribution, storage and use.
Compared with the traditional sanitation system that takes human-machine combined operation as the core, human-oriented and equipment-assisted, sanitation robots have core features such as "efficient, green, smart, and intelligent". "This product realizes the ability of unmanned driving. It can automatically sense the surrounding pedestrians, vehicles, animals and other objects, and adjust the operating speed, sweeping speed, fan power and other operating parameters according to the type and load of garbage on the ground to achieve energy-saving cleaning and greatly improve the intelligent level of the environmental sanitation industry And work efficiency.” Liu Yuming revealed that an intelligent sanitation robot can complete the workload of about 6 traditional sanitation workers a day.

   In many small application scenarios, Nanjing's robot companies have also found opportunities to cut in. At last year's Nanjing Intelligent Manufacturing Equipment Industry Chain Enterprise Service Exchange Conference (Robot Session), the "Ping Pong Ping Pong Training" robot brought by Nanjing Xinsong Intelligent Equipment attracted the attention of the audience. According to Yang Baoshan, the company's sales director, although this robot can only serve balls, these balls can be accurate to the ball's speed, drop point and bounce height. Regardless of the angle of the ball, as long as the data is set, the robot can hit it. The "Smart Library" series of robots developed by Nanjing Jingyao Intelligent Technology are also very characteristic. From the retrieval of the whole library to the high-shelf collection of books, to sorting and sorting and one-click return, it can be completed by only one robot, saving a lot of manpower costs.

The development of domestic service robots still needs to overcome these shortcomings

   At present, my country's service robots continue to innovate and make breakthroughs in the application fields of housekeeping, logistics, new retail, public services, and medical care. The application of housework robots is relatively mature. Commercial service robots have been widely used in retail, catering, government affairs, finance, hospitals and other scenarios, but they have not yet formed a large scale, and there is ample room for expansion. Medical rehabilitation robots have high technical barriers. With the aging of the population, the medical robot industry with rehabilitation and auxiliary functions is expected to be further developed.

   However, there are opinions in the industry that while the sudden epidemic has increased the demand for service robots, it has also exposed its technical shortcomings and attracted people's attention, which is expected to catalyze the development of the industry.

  The product is not good enough to use is the biggest obstacle restricting the development of the industry. The demand for "machines for humans" always exists, and the market space is huge. The fundamental contradiction of the industry lies on the supply side. The insufficient use of existing service robot products is the biggest obstacle to the development of the industry. In the new crown pneumonia epidemic last year, service robots were used in more complex scenarios, and higher requirements were placed on service robots while exposing the industry’s technical shortcomings.
The performance of sensors and computing chips is insufficient. Sensors are a way for service robots to obtain information from the outside world. The performance and stability of sensors are critical to service robots. At present, Lidar is mainly used, which is expensive and difficult to meet the needs of complex scenarios in terms of stability. In addition, service robots need to process complex environmental information, and there is a large demand for low-power, high-performance computing chips. The insufficient performance of existing computing chips is also a shortcoming that restricts the development of the industry.

   The navigation technology is not accurate enough. At present, the construction of maps is not accurate enough, and it is difficult to plan the most effective path in path planning and obstacle avoidance. For example, it is difficult for disinfection robots to fully cover all hospital scenes, and corridors and other places are the dead ends of robots. For medical material transportation robots in hospitals, there is also the problem of insufficient positioning accuracy.

   Insufficient intelligence and ability to cope with complex scenarios. Existing service robot products are limited to a single scene and single task, and cannot meet the needs of users' intelligence. There is still a big gap between the service robots that people expect to be able to perform general and complex tasks. Human-computer interaction, functional bionics, intelligent perception, etc. Technology still restricts the development of the industry.

   At present, the global service robot industry is ushering in a golden age of rapid development. Chinese companies that continue to innovate will surely exert greater energy in the process of the rise of China's power. It is believed that Chinese enterprises can turn challenges into driving forces, surpass the "technical barriers" in development, and become shining new stars in the global service robot market with more practical and user-oriented solutions.