With an annual growth rate of over 50 per cent, why is collaborative robotics exploding?

 This electronics company, which started to automate its factory assembly lines in 2018, found that it is easy to achieve an "unmanned factory" machines completely replace people. The material transfer between work islands workstations still requires manual labor, so human-machine collaboration has become the norm. To this end, they have purchased 30 robots that can work with people . They are a new category in the current industrial robot field - collaborative robots .

Compared with traditional industrial robots that were born in the 1950s, collaborative robots, which have a history of more than ten years, are still a rising star. Their notable features are higher safety, they do need to be restrained by "iron cages" like traditional industrial robots with heavy loads high speeds. They can work closely with people to complete tasks together, are generally considered to be an important direction for the new generation of industrial automation.

But collaborative robots have always faced a question: overall sales are high. However, a careful analysis of the data shows that in the past five years, the collaborative robot market segment has reached a turning point. In addition to UR, the entire collaborative robot market has also entered a period of rapid growth since 2015.

1. Why collaborative robots?

The machine manufacturers that are currently developing well in the field of collaborative robots have only converged on this niche field in 2019. Previously, they tried to cover the entire product line in the field of industrial robots, including small industrial robots, six-axis  seven-axis lightweight collaborative robots , robot intelligent vision solutions. Before that, when it was established in 2016, it focused on the research development of robot control systems.

The decision to converge is largely based on the opposite of industry reality.

On the one hand, it is a trend judgment - collaborative robots are a new direction for automation. Well-known people believe that industrial robots are the product of industrial economy large-scale production, emphasizing standardization, while collaborative robots can meet the customization flexible manufacturing needs of small medium-sized enterprises, which is in line with the development trend of the future manufacturing industry. On the other hand, convergence is also a choice under the competitive landscape: compared with the traditional industrial robot track that has entered the red ocean, collaborative robots are a direction in which domestic manufacturers can more easily achieve breakthroughs.

The final result is that it is difficult for domestic manufacturers in the industrial robot track to maintain gross profit margins, the gap with the four major families is getting bigger bigger. Compared with industrial robots, which have been developed for 50 60 years, collaborative robots are a relatively new field. There is no absolute monopoly in the industry, there are opportunities for all companies. On the one hand, the global market for collaborative robots has been developed for a long time, the status of the current large manufacturer UR is unattainable. It is precisely because this field is very new that the gap between domestic foreign brands in terms of the grasp of the core supply chain is smaller.

2. How to make collaborative robots

After identifying the right direction, finding the winning side, focusing on collaborative robots, we have indeed achieved good results. Shenzhen Huiwen Intelligent Co., Ltd. was established in 2010 has been committed to the research development, design, production assembly of intelligent robots peripheral intelligent products, as well as the domestic international sales service of core components. It is a comprehensive high-tech enterprise. The company has a professional management engineering technical team, the core members mainly come universities such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing University of Aeronautics Astronautics, Harbin Institute of Technology. With professional technology service capabilities, we provide you with intelligent robot product solution design, OEM, ODM sales services of related components.

We have always attached great importance to the details of the product's functions, stability, after-sales service, etc. The team is growing the technical strength is gradually increasing. Over the years, we have continued to develop produce several representative intelligent robot products such as modular joints, magnetic multi-turn high-resolution encoders , carbon fiber seven-axis collaborative robotic arms , seven-axis force feedback control handles. Mainly suitable for robot scientific research teaching, industrial automation, medical equipment, etc. In the future, we will provide more partners with high-quality stable intelligent robot products, more intelligent products will be put on the market one after another. All colleagues of Huiwen Intelligence sincerely welcome all domestic foreign customers to work together to help China's manufacturing move towards "China Digital Intelligence".

At present, collaborative robots still occupy a very small proportion in the entire industrial robot track - in 2019, global sales of collaborative robots accounted for only about 6.5% of the industrial robot market.

the perspective of customer perception, collaborative robots are still in the market introduction stage. "One reality is that our sales staff agents have to first introduce what collaborative robots are when introducing products to customers." This also indirectly proves that although the concept of collaboration has become well-known in the capital market, it is still in the early stages on the customer side. Customers' understanding of collaborative robots will be a gradual process may usher in a sudden change. the perspective of the development trend of the manufacturing industry, this is also a track with huge room for imagination.