In-depth Report on Robot Industry (full version)

As China’s demographic dividend disappears, robots are replacing workers not only in manufacturing, but also in military, service, entertainment and other fields. “Iron Man” has not only existed in American science fiction movies, but is coming into our lives.

This report analyzes the robot industry and leading listed companies, compares the technology route, development path and downstream market distribution of the robot industry in Japan, the United States and Germany, predicts the development direction and space of the domestic robot industry, and excavates the Tenbager in The Chinese stock market.

(I) Service robot is a young member of the robot family, whose orientation is service. At present, the marketization degree of service robot in the world is still in the initial stage, but it is driven by the simple labor shortage, aging and other rigid drives and promoted by scientific and technological development. According to the report of MarketSandMarkets, the global market size of service robot in 2012 was 20.73 billion DOLLARS. It is estimated that the compound annual growth rate from 2012 to 2017 will reach 17.4%, reaching 46.18 billion US dollars in 2017. There is huge space for the industry, and China, as a latecomer, will grow faster.

At present, at least 48 countries in the world are developing robots, 25 of which have been involved in the development of service robots. In Japan, North America and Europe, more than 40 service robots of 7 types have entered the experimental and semi-commercial application in the field of service robots. Among the countries in the forefront of development, the United States, Germany and France are represented in western countries, and Japan and South Korea are represented in Asia. In 2012, China formulated the 12th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Service Robot Technology to support industry development.

(3) The emergence of Da Vinci robot indicates the advent of the third generation of surgical era. As the professional service robot with the highest unit value, medical robot is the development hotspot of the current medical industry. Intuitive Surgery, the world’s leading medical robotics company, had revenues of $2.265 billion in 2013 and a total market capitalization of $15.96 billion. Over the next four years, medical machines will grow at an annual rate of 19%, with the global market estimated to grow to $11.9 billion by 2016. Although the penetration rate of medical robots in China is low and the start is late, at present, Harbin Institute of Technology, Boshi Stock and other enterprises have also begun to actively intervene.

(4) The world economic growth engine will enter the RT era from IT, and the home intelligent robot will become the core terminal of the home in the era of intelligent Internet of Things. In 2012, the global consumption of intelligent home robot products has reached 1.6 billion DOLLARS, leading enterprise Irobotachieved revenue of 254 million dollars in the first half of 2014, with a global market share of more than 60% and a market value of about 1 billion dollars. IFR predicts that an estimated 22 million smart home robots will be sold between 2013 and 2016. Although China’s home service robot technology is relatively backward, but at present, the relevant enterprises have achieved the combination of research and production, has initially formed a scale, good performance, huge space.

(5) Military robots are key military security strategies in the 21st century: According to Teal Group, the global r&d investment and procurement demand for UAV will reach 94 billion US dollars in the next 10 years. Military robot powers include Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Japan and South Korea. These countries are not only in the forefront of technology research, but their products have been practically used in the military. There is an obvious technological gap between China and these powerful countries. Supported by policies, the development prospects of military robot related enterprises are obviously good, which may become a strong income guarantee for enterprises in the future.

The robot revolution is proposed in a scientific report titled “Autonomous Systems” released by the Royal Academy of Engineering on August 19, 2009. As artificial intelligence robots and computers will increasingly appear in all aspects of life, 2019 will usher in the robot revolution. In the past two years, with the decline of China’s demographic dividend and the rise of labor price, robots are not only replacing workers in the manufacturing industry, but also surpassing human beings in military, reconnaissance, service, entertainment and other fields. The LS3, a robotic dog designed by google-acquired BostonDynamics, for example, can carry a 181-kilogram payload for 32.2 kilometers in 24 hours without resupply, and can follow soldiers through difficult terrain such as woods, rocky terrain, obstacles and urban areas. In addition, unmanned aircraft and cars for reconnaissance, robots for escort, robots for children’s education and entertainment, robots for cleaning the home. “Iron Man” no longer exists in science fiction movies, robot armies are coming into our lives.

Robotics experts divide robots into two categories, namely industrial robots and service robots, based on the robot application environment. According to different uses, industrial robots can be roughly divided into welding robot, handling robot, paint robot, glue robot, assembly robot, palletizing robot, cutting robot, automatic tractor (AGV) robot, cleaning room robot and so on. Besides industrial robots, service robots are all kinds of advanced robots that are used in non-manufacturing industry and serve human beings, mainly including personal/household service robots and professional service robots. Among them, personal/household robots mainly include: homework robot, entertainment robot, disability assistance robot, residential security and surveillance robot, etc. Professional service robots mainly include: site robots, professional cleaning robots, medical robots, logistics robots, inspection and maintenance robots, construction robots, underwater robots, as well as defense, rescue and security application robots and so on.

In the past two years, China’s robot industry investment is also in full swing, dozens of listed companies announced to enter the robot field, but at the same time, robot key technologies and core components have not yet made breakthroughs, the shortage of research and development personnel, low-end robot capacity repeated construction. Is there excess robot capacity in China? What strategies should Chinese robot enterprises adopt? In what application areas is import substitution expected in China? How much room is there for future industrial robots, service robots, and military robots? This report analyzes the robot industry and global leading listed companies, compared to Japan, the United States, Germany, the robot industry technical route, the path of development, and the downstream market distribution, to forecast the domestic robot industry development direction and space, hope to help in the industrial robot, secondary market investment, mining tenbager in China.

According to the Definition of the International Federation of Robotics, a service robot is a semi-autonomous or fully autonomous robot that can perform services intended for human health, but does not include equipment for production. The positioning of service robot is service. In terms of the functional characteristics of robots, an essential difference between them and industrial robots is that the working environment of industrial robots is known, while most of the working environment of service robots is unknown.

Robots have great development potential in the world, and the development of service robots in developed countries has a broad market. The development of service robots is driven by the following factors:

Simple labor shortage. Due to the rising cost of labor in developed countries and the increasing reluctance of people to do the work they do not like, jobs such as cleaning, nursing and security are becoming less and less available in developed countries. This lack of simple labor makes service robots a huge market.

The improvement of economic level. As the economic level rises, people’s disposable income increases, making it possible for people to buy service robots to liberate simple repetitive labor and get more leisure time.

The development of technology. After entering the Internet era, human science and technology have developed rapidly. Thanks to the development of computers and microchips, intelligent robots have been updated at an increasingly fast speed, with reduced costs and more and more functions, making them more convenient, safer and more accurate.

Aging problem. The aging of the global population has brought about a large number of problems. The demand for social security, service and nursing is more urgent, and the conflict with the shortage of medical care personnel is intensified. As a good solution, service robots have a huge space for development.

Service robot is a young member of the robot family. It corresponds to industrial robot and has a wide range of application fields. According to the classification of application fields by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), Service robot can be divided into individual/home robots (Personal/DomesticRobots) and professional service robot (ProfessionalServiceRobots) two kinds big. Service robots have a wide range of applications, mainly engaged in maintenance, repair, transportation, cleaning, security, rescue, monitoring and so on. Among them, personal/household robots mainly include: homework robot, entertainment robot, disability assistance robot, residential security and surveillance robot, etc. Professional service robots mainly include Fieldrobotics, professional cleaning robots, medical robots, logistics robots, inspection and maintenance robots, construction robots, underwater robots, as well as defense, rescue and security application robots and so on.

Robot is a combination of new technologies. In order to adapt to functional requirements and maintain its intelligent stability, the key technologies of service robot are as follows:

The main components used in the production of service robot industry are automatic welding machine, electronic devices, microprocessors, servo motors for robots, high-precision reducer, machine parts, pneumatic components, sensors, batteries, single board machines, etc., which belong to standard parts, electronic equipment and electronic components. The downstream of the service robot industry is mainly medical, household, agricultural, military and other industries and fields.

Statistics show that at least 48 countries in the world are currently developing robots, 25 of which have dabbled in the development of service robots. To date, more than 40 service robots of seven types have entered experimental and semi-commercial applications in Japan, North America and Europe. The United States is making efforts to transfer technologies such as robotic prosthetics and small unmanned reconnaissance helicopters developed for military wounded and sick to civilian use. The European Union recently launched the world’s largest civil robot research and development project, with a total investment of 2.8 billion euros by 2020 to develop robots for medical, nursing, household, agriculture and transportation. In the field of service robots, western countries are represented by the United States, Germany and France, while Asian countries are represented by Japan and South Korea.

The United States is the birthplace of robots. The Robot technology in the United States has always been in a leading position in the world, with comprehensive, advanced technology and strong adaptability. It has absolute advantages in the military, medical and home service robot industries, accounting for about 60% of the market share of service robots.

Japan is a big country in the production, development and use of robots. It has always regarded robots as a strategic industry, and has been giving strong support in the development of technology and capital. The report says Japan spent $10 million a year on service robots in the five years from 2006 to 2010 to tackle key service robot technology. In recent years, the huge demand of the elderly care market has prompted companies to develop small home robots. In fiscal year 2013, the Japanese government allocated 2.39 billion yen to help 24 companies develop and promote nursing robots. Japan also plans to double the size of the industrial robot market to 1.2 trillion yen by 2020, with much of the increase focused on service robots. The market size of nursing and medical robots will also reach 1.2 trillion yen, a 20-fold increase.

South Korea has listed service robot technology as one of the top 10 “engine” industries for future national development, and focused on the development of service robot as a new economic growth point of the country, giving key support to robot technology.

Germany has always been known for its rigor and seriousness. Its research and application of service robots is recognized as a leader in the world. Its robot nanny Care-O-BOT3 is equipped with sensors, stereoscopic color cameras, laser scanners and THREE-DIMENSIONAL cameras all over the body, so that it can not only identify daily necessities but also avoid injuring the owner. It also has voice control or gesture control has self-learning ability, but also can understand voice commands and understand gesture commands.

France is not only in the forefront of the world in terms of robot ownership, but also in terms of robot application level and application scope. From the very beginning, the French government attached great importance to robot technology, vigorously supported the service robot research program, and established a complete scientific and technological system, especially focusing on the application of robot research.

(1) Current service robot market sales: fast growth

According to IFR2013 world service robot statistics report, a total of 3.016 million service robots were sold in 2012, with a total sales volume of $4.62 billion. 3 million personal/home service robots were sold, up 20% from the previous month, for a total of $1.2 billion. Total sales of professional service robots totaled 16,067 units in 2012, up 2% month-on-month, with sales of $3.42 billion.

Professional service robots: Since 1998, the cumulative sales volume of professional service robots has exceeded 126,000 units. Total sales of professional service robots were 16,067 units in 2012, up 2 percent from 15,776 units in 2011. Sales of professional service robots were $3.42 billion in 2012, down slightly 1 percent from the previous year. Among them, 6,200 military robots were sold, accounting for about 40% of the total sales. The sales volume of field robots was 5,300 units, accounting for 33% of the sales volume. The sales volume of medical robots was 1,308 units, up 20% from the previous month, accounting for 8% of the total sales volume. Logistics robots 1,376 units, up 11% month-on-month, accounting for 9% of the total professional service robots, sales of $196 million. Among professional service robots, medical and logistics robots have the greatest growth potential.

Personal/home service robots: Approximately 3 million units sold in 2012, up 20% month-on-month, with total sales of $1.2 billion. About 1.96 million home robots were sold, with sales of $697 million, up 53% from the previous month. About 1.1 million entertainment robots were sold, up 29% month-on-month to $5.24 million. Sales of disability assistance robots were 159 units, up 2% from the previous month. Among them, domestic service robots and entertainment robots account for roughly 97% of the market share. The market share of disability assistive robots is very small. Currently, the coverage rate is very low, but the potential is high, because many countries are currently operating such programs and programs to promote the technology and utilization of disability assistive robots. According to the research and analysis of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the three major trends in the development of personal/home service robots are robots that cooperate with people, take mobile phones as the processing core and can be connected to cloud services. Currently, the four major research hotspots are education and entertainment, public safety, information services and smart home.

(2) Future forecast of service robot market: usd 50 billion

The IFR report expects the global industrial robot market to grow at an average annual rate of 6 percent from 2013 to 2016, with China leading the way with an average annual growth rate of 15 percent. According to the report of MarketSandMarkets, the global service robot market size was 18.39 billion USD in 2011, and grew to 20.73 billion USD in 2012. The compound growth rate of the global service robot market size from 2012 to 2017 will reach 17.4%, and reach 46.18 billion USD in 2017. For professional service machines, IFR predicts that an estimated 94,800 professional service robots will be installed between 2013 and 2016, with sales of $17.1 billion. Among them, about 28,000 military robots were sold. Milking robots in the field are estimated to have sold 24,500 units. They account for 55% of total sales of professional service robots.

For personal/home service robots, IFR predicts an estimated 2.2 million personal/home robots will be sold between 2013 and 2016. Home robots were estimated to have sold 15.5 million units, or $5.6 billion in sales. 3.5 million entertainment robots; 3 million educational robots; The number of disability assist robots is estimated at 6,400. With the breakthrough of mutual learning and knowledge sharing cloud robotics technology, the production cost of small home assisted robots will be significantly reduced, and the emerging market will be at least $41.6 billion by 2020. Disability assistive machines, on the other hand, are expected to grow rapidly over the next 20 years, although their start is still slow.

Intelligent service robot is one of the powerful pillars of the economic development of all countries in the future, the country continues to improve the attention to the robot industry, China’s “Outline of the National Medium and Long Term Scientific and Technological Development Plan (2006-2020)” lists intelligent service robot as the key development of the frontier technology in the next 15 years. In 2012, the 12th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Service Robot Technology was formulated to support the development of the industry.

China’s service robot market began to take shape from around 2005, but China’s research and development in the field of service robots started late compared with Japan, the United States and other countries, and the absolute gap with developed countries is relatively large, but the gap is relatively small in terms of industrial robots. Because services are generally developed in a specific market, local enterprises are more likely to develop in a specific environment and culture to occupy a good market positioning, so as to maintain a certain competitive advantage; On the other hand, foreign service robot companies are also emerging industries, most of which were founded in a relatively short period, so China’s service robot industry is facing relatively large opportunities and development space.

At present, domestic service robots in China mainly include vacuum cleaner robots, education robots, entertainment robots, security robots, intelligent wheelchair robots, intelligent wearable robots and intelligent toy robots. At the same time, there are also a group of enterprises that provide core controllers, sensors and drive functional components for service robots.

The representatives of well-known enterprises in the international service robot industry are listed as follows: American iRobot company, Remotec company, German aerospace center, German robotics business group, German KUKARoboterGmbh, etc. The leading scientific research institutions in China’s service robot industry are listed as follows: Hubei Key Laboratory of Intelligent Robot, Beihang Robotics Institute, Robotics and Automation Institute of Nankai University, Robotics Institute of Shanghai Jiaotong University and Harbin Institute of Technology Robotics Laboratory, etc. The leading enterprises in service robot industry are listed as follows: guangzhou zhongming digital technology Co.,Ltd., shenyang yonex robot Co.,Ltd., Siasun Robot&Automation Co.,Ltd., mengli automation technology (Shanghai) Co.,Ltd., and Shanghai future partner robot Co.,Ltd.

From traditional open surgery to robotic surgery, mankind has gone through nearly three centuries. In the 1780s, Viennese surgeon Billroth performed the first surgical operation by opening a patient’s abdominal cavity. This traditional open surgery is known as the first generation of surgery and is still used today. In the 1980s, minimally invasive surgery marked by laparoscopic cholecystectomy made breakthroughs and replaced traditional open surgery in many areas, known as the second generation of surgery. In the 21st century, surgical robots have been developed and quickly put into clinical application, which is regarded as a revolution in the development history of surgery, and also indicates the advent of the third generation of surgery era.

Medical robot is an intelligent service robot, it can independently work out the operation plan, determine the action program according to the actual situation, and then change the action into the movement of the operation mechanism. As developed countries age, the demand for medical care, nursing care and rehabilitation will increase, and the demand for quality of life will increase, so that medical care will have to meet higher standards in both quality and quantity. On the other hand, the relative shortage of medical manpower, medical robot as a new medical means has great development potential.

(1) Medical robots are widely used and intelligent in medical and health care

Medical robot is a new interdisciplinary research field integrating medicine, biomechanics, mechanics, mechanical mechanics, materials science, computer graphics, computer vision, mathematical analysis, robotics and many other disciplines. It has a wide application prospect in military and civil applications and is a research hotspot in the field of robotics at present. According to the classification of IFR, medical robots belong to professional service robots, which can be divided into four categories: diagnostic robots, surgical auxiliary robots, rehabilitation robots and others. Medical robot is mainly used for the operation, rescue, transport and rehabilitation of patients, which is one of the important development directions of medical and health equipment informatization and intelligence. In particular, surgeons can reduce the surgical wound and quickly return to normal life after surgery through the dexterous manipulation, precise positioning and preoperative planning provided by surgical robots, thus achieving two advantages of precision and minimally invasive surgery.

(2) Medical robot market: professional service robot with the highest unit value

At present, more than 600,000 robotic surgeries have been successfully performed in 33 countries and more than 800 hospitals around the world, covering urology, obstetrics and gynecology, cardiac surgery, thoracic surgery, hepatobiliary surgery, gastrointestinal surgery, otolaryngology and other disciplines.

According to the 2013 Robot Statistics report of the International Federation of Robotics, the global sales volume of medical robots in 2012 was 1,308 units, up 20% year on year, accounting for 8% of the total sales volume of professional service robots, with a market size of about $6 billion. Among them, the sales volume of surgical assistant robots was 1,053 units, up 6% from the previous month, and the total sales volume reached 1.495 billion, accounting for 44% of the sales volume of medical robots. Medical robots are the highest unit value of professional service robots, and can cost up to $1.5 million each, including accessories and parts.

Although penetration of medical robots is still low, and installations are mostly in developed countries, Morgan’s recent study asked surgeons how often they would use medical robots in their own surgeries in the future, Data show that surgeons in the United States believe that the use of medical robots in surgery will rise to a relatively high level in the next three to five years, accounting for about 50% of the medical robot market potential. IFR predicts that medical devices will grow 19% annually over the next four years, with the global market estimated to grow to $11.9 billion by 2016.

Intuitive Surgery is the world’s leading minimally invasive robot-assisted surgical robot company, with revenue of $2.265 billion in 2013. By the end of the first quarter of 2014, the cumulative sales number of Da Vinci robots was 3,039, and the total market value reached $15.960 billion in August 2014.

A leader in medical robots for abdominal surgery. Intuitive surgical company (Da Vinci) (nasdaq stock code: ISRG), founded in 1995, on November 9, is a leading global company robot assisted minimally invasive surgery robot, auxiliary abdominal surgery is a medical robot leader, mainly be responsible for the design, manufacture and sale of leonardo Da Vinci surgical system and related equipment accessories. Headquartered in California, USA, the company has direct sales structure in the USA, most of Western Europe (Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece), Korea, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and other countries. At the end of 2013, Intuitive Surgical employed 2,792 people, 325 in research and development, 1,018 in manufacturing and service, and 1,449 in marketing, sales, and management activities.

Leonardo Da Vinci robots is currently the world’s most successful surgery robot system, it is the intuitive control movement in surgical operation, careful organization operation and 3 d high resolution designed visual ability, at the same time allow the surgeon to minimally invasive surgery, its structure including a surgeon’s console, a patient side car and high performance vision system. The Da Vinci surgical system mimics the hand movements of a surgeon and is used for instrument control on the console to control tiny instruments inside the patient’s body through tiny incisions. The Da Vinci robotic surgical system has been approved by the FDA for use in adult and pediatric general surgery, thoracic surgery, urology, obstetrics and gynecology, head and neck surgery, and heart surgery.

Main business: Da Vinci robot. Intuitive Surgical designs, manufactures and markets Da Vinci robots and related instrumentation accessories.

Rapid growth, the market gradually internationalization. Intuitive Surgery has grown rapidly over the past 10 years thanks to the continued recognition and growing demand for medical robots in the world market. The use range of Da Vinci robots increased by 16%, the frequency of use reached 523,000 times, and the compound growth rate of revenue reached 132% in 10 years. The revenue at the end of 2013 was $2.265 billion, and the gross margin kept rising at an absolute high level, reaching 70.38% in 2013. Its net profit is growing rapidly, with net profit of $671 million in 2013, a compound growth rate of 140%; The net interest rate rose steadily, reaching 29.62% in 2013. By the first quarter of 2014, 3,039 Da Vinci robots had been installed, including 2,116 in the United States, 488 in Europe and 435 in other regions.

Intuitive surgical company mainly selling its Da Vinci robot system and its accessories, auxiliary provide installation and training services, sales machine itself contributed most of the revenue, but in recent years, sales of accessories and provide services in the proportion of income is more and more big, more than 13 years, tools and accessories income Da Vinci system accounted for 46%.

Intuitive surgery’s market is mainly in the United States, accounting for more than 70 percent of revenue; In 2001, it started to expand the international market. In 2011, the sales agent successfully acquired South Korea and extended its reach to Asia. Currently, most of Western Europe (except Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece), South Korea, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and other countries have direct sales structure, and international revenue accounted for 28% in 2013.

The market potential is huge as demand increases and marketing advances. Intuitive Surgery is the world’s leading minimally invasive robot-assisted surgical robot company. Its sales market has expanded to the full market. By the first quarter of 2014, 3,039 Da Vinci robots have been installed and used, including 2,116 in the United States, 488 in Europe and 435 in other regions.

At present, intuitive surgical company in complex surgery robot application skilled, leonardo Da Vinci robots permeability and usage in the United States significantly higher compared with other regions and countries, as more countries the demand for medical machine and intuitive surgical company in the international market marketing push, leonardo Da Vinci robot market potential is tremendous.

Intuitive Surgery is a leader in minimally invasive robot-assisted surgical robots. Its robotic systems have a hierarchical market share distribution in all types of surgery and are leading in complex surgery. With the continued investment and development of research and technology, Intuitive surgery can be expected to maintain a competitive edge for quite some time to come.

The profit model is sound. Intuitive surgery’s profit model relies on the sale of Da Vinci robots to obtain long-term and stable income from repeated consumption of consumables, accessories, tools and services. Each Da Vinci robot costs about $1 – $2.3 million, while its consumables and accessories cost $700- $3,200 / year, and its services cost $100,000 – $170,000 / year. Since 2009, the revenue of accessories and services has surpassed that of Da Vinci Robots, and this trend will continue in the future.

(1) Overall level: low overall level and low penetration rate

Medical robot in China is still in the overall level of low technology and slow development stage, a huge gap with developed countries, the lack of medical robot research talent and technology. At present, there is no large-scale medical robot products in China. All the medical robots listed on China Robot Network are small robot parts except the portable dental treatment machine produced by Shanghai Jiilai Industrial Co., LTD., which has simple function and low price.

However, with the support of the state, China’s medical robots have also made some breakthroughs. In November 2013, the “minimally invasive abdominal surgery robot System” developed by the Institute of Robotics of Harbin Institute of Technology passed the acceptance of the national “863” program expert group. The emergence of this surgical robot means that the monopoly of imported Da Vinci surgical robot technology is broken, and China will speed up the development of domestic minimally invasive surgical robot assisted surgical machine. In March 2014, the “S-Miaohand” robot, which was jointly developed by Miaohand Robot Technology Group and Tianjin University, was first used clinically to repair gastric perforation and perform appendectomy for 3 patients. At the same time, many colleges and universities and enterprises are also the medical robot research and development as a key subject project cooperation, among them, the gastroscope auxiliary diagnosis and treatment for the robot system is being developed is the twelfth five-year national science and technology support plan topic, dominated by bo real stake, in order to solve the timely hemostasia difficult problems in the process of gastrointestinal disease treatment, in order to enhance the innovation and industrialization of advanced medical equipment in China.

At present, the penetration rate and utilization rate of medical robots in China are low. As of intuitive Surgery’s statistical report in the first quarter of 2014, only 25 Da Vinci robots have been installed in China, while 20, 44 and 178 Da Vinci robots have been installed in Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. According to the population data released by the World Bank in January 2014, the population of the mainland is 58 times that of Taiwan, 27 times that of South Korea and 10 times that of Japan. Although the utilization rate and penetration rate of medical robots are low in China, it also reflects the huge market potential of medical robots in China. Many enterprises, such as Boshi and Siasong, have added the strategic layout of medical robot development into their product planning, while international enterprises have also expanded their production capacity for the Chinese market. In 2013, for example, Yaskawa expanded its capacity at a new factory in Changzhou, China, and plans to launch a rehabilitation robot targeted at the Chinese market.

(2) Medical robots in China have their rigid driving factors, and the market size can reach 100 million level

Medical robot association is the frontier development direction of medical tools and means in China. The factors driving its development are: the huge high-end technology demand for diagnosis and treatment of various diseases, the social pressure of aging to assist and care for the elderly and disabled, and the contradiction between supply and demand caused by the lack of high-quality medical personnel.

Compared with traditional artificial technology, medical robot has many technical advantages, with the characteristics of refinement, intelligence and minimally invasive, can diagnose symptoms more accurately, scientific analysis of pathology, reduce manual operation errors, and can reduce the pain of patients in the process of surgery, so that patients recover faster. Medical robot is bound to replace part of traditional artificial technology when China’s economy continues to develop at a higher level.

At present, China has become one of the fastest aging countries in the world. Data in 2012 show that in the next five years, the number of people over 60 years old in China will reach 149 million, accounting for 11% of the total population and one fifth of the world’s total aged population. China will have a great demand for elderly care in the foreseeable future. In addition, the total number of disabled people in China is huge, which is equivalent to the total population of Germany in 2013. The total demand for disabled robots and rehabilitation robots is huge.

China is a developing country with a large population, and the number of doctors and nurses is very short relative to the population base. According to the data released by the World Bank in 2014, the number of nurses per 1,000 people in China is only 0.46 of the world’s per capita, 0.4 of Japan and 0.15 of the United States. The number of doctors per 1,000 people in Korea is only 0.79 that of Japan and only half that of Germany. Therefore, the contradiction between supply and demand caused by the shortage of medical staff makes the development of medical robots have more power.

Under the promotion of these driving factors, China’s future medical robot development market is huge. According to IFR prediction, medical robot will grow at an annual rate of 19% in the four years from 2013 to 2016, and the global market size is estimated to grow to 11.9 billion DOLLARS in 2016. China, a fast-growing market for service robots, is estimated to be a $97 million market in 2016, based on its current share of surgical Intuition’s sales.

(3) Domestic key medical robot companies/research institutions: medical technology commercialization needs to be improved

With the constant breakthroughs and development of medical robot technology, since 2005 our country has a batch of key units of the hospital of university’s scientific research and research in medical robot system and obtained some achievements, such as Harbin Institute of Technology of minimally invasive celiac surgery has successfully been experts acceptance of machine, tianjin university robot’s hand in March this year began to clinical use; At the same time, as the possibility of medical robot commercialization becomes more and more clear, some enterprises are producing or planning to enter the medical robot segmentation industry, including boshi Stock and Siasong Robot, leading robotics enterprises.

With the development of intelligent technology, the Internet of Things has begun to become as compelling as the Internet in the first decade of the 21st century. Internet of things the term was first put forward by the United States at the Massachusetts institute of technology in 1999, the client extend and expand through the information sensing equipment to the any items and items, for information exchange and communication, in order to realize intelligent identification, location, tracking and monitoring and management of a network, is called after the computer, the Internet is the third wave of world information industry development. Internet of things technology will cause a great reshuffle of existing industries, and intelligent robot is a promising industry in the new round of development. The future must be the era of robots, and intelligent service robot at home is the core terminal of the family in the era of Internet of Things.

Household intelligent robot refers to the intelligent robot for human services, mainly engaged in domestic service, including maintenance, maintenance, repair, transportation, cleaning, monitoring, etc, family intelligent robot is positioned as the core of the intelligent home Internet of things in the age of the Internet of things the information center, humanized interaction, movement control and componentization growth characteristics. According to the different scope of application and use, home intelligent robot is divided into electrical robot, entertainment robot, cook robot, handling robot, stationary robot, mobile assistant robot and humanoid robot.

Home intelligent robots are considered to be one of the most promising emerging industries in the future. According to ABIResearch, the total amount of home intelligent robot products consumed globally reached 1.6 billion dollars in 2012. IFR predicts that an estimated 22 million smart home robots will be sold between 2013 and 2016. Home robots were estimated to have sold 1.55 million units, or $5.6 billion in sales. 3.5 million entertainment robots; 3 million educational robots. With breakthroughs in the cloud of learning and knowledge sharing, small home assisted robots will significantly reduce production costs and create an emerging market worth at least $41.6 billion by 2020. The global economic growth engine will soon be transformed from IT into the roboticstology era.

Japan is one of the most developed countries in robot development and research in the world. In 2010, the output of household intelligent robots was 40,000 units, accounting for about 50% of the world. Korea is also actively developing domestic robots. The value of personal service robots was 171.7 billion won in 2010, and the government plans to have a robot capable of doing housework in every Korean home by 2020. However, China’s domestic intelligent robot industry has not yet formed a scale, lacks large pillar enterprises, and has not formed an influential brand, accounting for only 4.5% of the global robot market. The current situation is that the motor, driver, reducer and other key components of Chinese household intelligent robots are mainly imported, and the domestic performance is poor.

Household cleaning robot refers to a robot that can carry out automatic and intelligent cleaning of household chores. It is a robot integrating mechanics, electronic technology, sensor technology, computer technology, control technology, robotics, artificial intelligence and many other disciplines. Vacuuming robot is pioneer in the development of practical application of intelligent mobile robot, its research began in the 1980 s, while Germany karcher GMBH Rc3000 production in 2006 is the first in the world to itself all family ground cleaning cleaning robot, its built-in photoelectric sensor and chip control, contains four kinds of cleaning procedures, when faced with obstacles, It will randomly change an Angle and continue to go straight until it encounters new obstacles. It will automatically return to the charging station to complete charging and garbage disposal tasks. Meanwhile, it can control the robot to complete corresponding operations according to the information set by users. At present, household cleaning robots are mainly divided into two categories, one is sweeping robot, the other is mopping robot (including dry cleaning and wet washing). Intelligent sweeper is a vacuum cleaner equipped with a microcomputer system, is by suction cleaning, according to people’s Settings automatically intelligent to clean a particular part or all of the room and complete automatic charging, suitable for almost all the ground, including the floor, floor tile, carpet and part of the carpet; Mop robot will use water in the use, generally by spraying water and then water to clean the household cleaning robot market development: short history, rapid development. Household cleaning robot is a new product in the 21st century, but it has a rapid development in its short history of more than ten years. Many countries have set foot in and developed household cleaning robots, among which the leading countries are the United States, Germany, Japan, Sweden and South Korea.

Intelligent vacuuming robot is a huge market, with the improvement of economic level and technology, sweeping robot will replace more traditional sweeping equipment, 2013 data statistics, in the home sweeping market, the North American market for 2.2 billion DOLLARS, robots accounted for 18%; Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) is a $2.5 billion market, with robots accounting for 20%; The Pacific Rim and Japan (APAC) market is $2.2 billion, of which robots account for 16%.

The market for sweeping machines has huge potential and strong growth momentum. In 2013, the market size of home sweeping robot was more than $1.2 billion, with a compound growth rate of 21.8% in the past three years. The replacement rate of sweeping robots for traditional sweeping equipment is increasing, accounting for 18.1% of the sweeping equipment market in 13 years.

IRobot is a leading enterprise in household cleaning robots, and its product strategy is mainly based on household cleaning robots. In the first half of 2014, the company’s revenue reached 254 million USD, and in 2013, its revenue reached 487 million USD, accounting for more than 60% of the global market share. In August 2014, its total market value was 10.1 billion USD.

Company profile: Develop the first real household service robot. IRobot was founded in 1990 by MIT roboticist Anglo, Regner and Brooks. In 2002, iRobot successfully developed the vacuuming robot Roomba and launched the household service robot product. In 2005, iRobot was listed on NASDAQ (trading code IRBT). Headquartered in Bedford, Massachusetts, the company has offices in California, the United Kingdom, China and Hong Kong, China, with a total of 528 employees (end of 2013). IRobot makes cleaning robots (currently primarily sweeping and mopping machines) and military robots (battlefield reconnaissance and bomb disposal), sells products to consumers around the world through retailers, and to the U.S. military and other government agencies.

IRobot mainly produces robots, divided into two series, household cleaning robots and military and industrial robots. At present, household cleaning robots are mainly sweeping and mopping machines, while military and industrial robots mainly perform battlefield reconnaissance and bomb disposal tasks. At present, the remote video robot was newly developed in 2014. In the next few years, it will focus on developing remote video screen and home maintenance series.

IRobot’s product strategy is based on household cleaning robots. Household cleaning robots, which require lower investment costs than other products, initially became cash cows to provide financial support for new and more advanced products. At present, the successful development of remote video robot has begun to enter the marketing stage.

IRobot has had positive revenues since 2003 and has seen rapid revenue growth over the past decade. Revenue for the first half of 2014 was $254 million, up 7.35% year on year. Revenue reached $487 million in 2013, up 11.73% year on year. The gross profit margin has always been maintained at a relatively high level, steadily rising since 2009 and reaching 47.37% in 2013. In 2008 and 2009, the profit was less than 3.5 million US dollars, but in 2010 and 2012, the profit rose to 25.51 million US dollars and 40.19 million US dollars, and in 2013, the profit reached 27.64 million US dollars, with a sequential growth of 59.8%. The net profit margin was 5.67% in 2013.

The main business is the sales of household robots and military robots. After 2011, household robots became the main revenue source, accounting for about 88% in 2013. In the first half of 2014, driven by the strong Chinese market, the sales volume increased by 15% to 130 million DOLLARS. Military equipment accounted for only about 12 percent of sales in 2013, hurt by budget cuts in the United States and declining military demand in places like Israel. The proportion of international sales increased year by year. In 2012, foreign revenue exceeded domestic revenue, and in 2013, foreign revenue accounted for 59%.

IRobot has a leading position in the home cleaning robot market. From 2011 to 2013, the total consumption of cleaning machines and equipment grew rapidly, exceeding $1.2 billion in 2013, while iRobot’s interest rate in the market also rose year by year, reaching 18.1% in 2013. IRobot is a leading enterprise in the household robot industry and has opened a global sales network. IRobot is far ahead of other enterprises in each major market. In 2013, iRobot accounted for 83% of the North American market, 62% of the EMEA market and 67% of the Pacific Rim and Japan market. In its 2014 half-year report just released, iRobot projected full-year home robot sales growth of 18% to 20% year over year.

High brand loyalty, enter the washing machine and other household intelligent robots. In the industry, iRobot’s product robot functions and performance are more stable and excellent, and after years of performance, iRobot has gained very high brand recognition. Home cleaning and maintenance equipment is a huge market, with an annual market potential of 1.4 billion DOLLARS, and iRobot has clearly proposed in its 2013 annual report that its future products will be developed towards equipment robots that achieve more home functions.

(1) Overall level: low permeability and small production scale

Since iRobot of the United States successfully developed the vacuuming robot Roomba in 2002 to open the era of household service robots, with the improvement of domestic living standards, sweeping robots have gradually entered China. However, the penetration rate of sweeping robots is low in China. Some enterprises have been involved in the r&d, design and sales of sweeping robots, but the production scale is small, and the market potential has not been developed.

Due to the urbanization level is not high enough, the domestic income gap is huge and the influence of traditional culture, most of the household cleaning in China still adopts traditional ordinary vacuum cleaner equipment or manual cleaning method, and the penetration rate of sweeping robot is very low. At present, the annual sales of home service robots have reached nearly 1 billion, but the penetration rate of products in coastal cities is only 5%, the penetration rate in inland cities is 0.4%, and the penetration rate in American households has reached 16%. Compared with other household appliances, the penetration rate of washing machines has almost reached 100%. Another reason for the low penetration rate of sweeping robots is that the price of sweeping robots is relatively expensive, rural families and many urban families can not afford to consume, but it can be estimated that with the continued improvement of living standards, the penetration rate of sweeping robots will slowly increase.

(2) Driving factors of domestic robots in China: rising labor cost and income

The main driving factors for the development of domestic robots in China are the increase of labor price and the increase of per capita disposable income of urban residents. The rise of labor price makes the equipment replacement rate of simple labor increase obviously. On the one hand, people want to be released from simple housework while on the other hand, the price of domestic service labor is getting higher and higher, so the demand for household machinery has its rigid drive. At the same time, with the rapid development of China’s economy, in the past 10 years, the disposable income of urban residents roughly tripled, people’s living standard and consumption level is constantly improving, more and more families have the ability to buy household robots. In addition, nowadays, information and technology spread rapidly, and the cost of all kinds of technological products fell rapidly in the competition. IRobot’s home cleaning robot sales in China increased by more than three times in 2013. The just released annual report for the first half of 2014 shows that the strong demand in China drove iRobot’s cleaning robot sales in the Asia-pacific region up to 18%. In China, a rapidly developing country with a large population, it can be predicted that the market size of domestic intelligent robots will be huge in the future.

(3) China’s cleaning robot company: research and production, good performance, huge space

According to China brand network statistics released in 2013 top ten sweeping robot brand list, China’s domestic sweeping robot has 6 listed. So far, China has a part of excellent performance of enterprises involved in the development and production of household cleaning robots, and domestic university research and development institutions have cooperation, so as to combine research and production. At present, the development of robot industry has a good macro prospect and huge market potential. At present, China will have a number of potential enterprises with good performance and leading technology in the segmented industries in the future.

An autonomous robot developed for military purposes. A militaryrobot is an autonomous, semi-master, or manually controlled mechanical and electronic device used to perform military tasks previously undertaken by personnel. It is to complete the scheduled tactical or strategic tasks as the goal, to intelligent information processing technology and communication technology as the core of intelligent weapons and equipment, developed for military purposes and automatic robot.

Compared with traditional soldiers, military robots have the following advantages:

All-directional and all-weather combat capability. Military robots can continue to work in extremely harsh environments such as gas, shock waves, thermal radiation and other attacks, while humans have a clear upper limit.

Strong battlefield survivability. Military robots do not feel pain and have strong battlefield survivability.

Follow orders follow directions. Military robots do not have the fear and other psychological characteristics of human beings, and can strictly obey orders and obey commands, which is conducive to the war branch and the control of force.

Military robots are classified as ground military robots, aerial robots, underwater robots and space robots according to their use environment and military applications.

Development history: Evolution of three generations. Military robots have evolved over three generations since the 1960s. The first generation of robots is the “remote control”, the second generation of robot is a good programming beforehand, automatic repeat to complete an operation, the third generation of the robot is intelligent robot, it can use a variety of sensors for environmental information, and then using smart technology for identification, understanding and reasoning and finally to make planning decisions, is a kind of can through independent action to achieve the intended target of advanced machine People. At present, there are hundreds of military robots in the world, which are mainly used in various fields such as reconnaissance, mine clearance, chemical defense, attack, defense and support. Unmanned and robot weapons are the technological crystallization of multi-disciplines in the high-tech field, including microelectronics, optoelectronics, nano, micro-electro-mechanical, computer, new materials, new power and aerospace, etc., which have concentrated many cutting-edge achievements of today’s science and technology. In future wars, autonomous robot soldiers may become the absolute mainstay of military operations against the enemy.

The development of military robot relates to the national military security and belongs to the high-end product of military equipment. Military robot powers include Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Japan and South Korea. These countries are not only in the forefront of technology research, but their products have practical application in the military.

At present, the United States is in an absolute leading position in military robot technology, not only in basic technology, system development, production support, but also in technology transformation and practical application experience. The United States military robot development and application covers the land, sea, air, space and other armed forces, is the world’s only country with comprehensive development, test and practical application capabilities. The U.S. military already has more than 7,500 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and 15,000 ground robots, and Congress approved a plan in 2015 to have one-third of its combat platforms unmanned. On December 18, 2007, the United States released the “Unmanned Systems Road Map” (Unmanned Systems Road Map), including Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system, Unmanned ground system and Unmanned underwater system. The roadmap provides a comprehensive defense vision for unmanned systems and related technologies. The U.S. Department of Defense is developing an integrated Combat System (FCS) program of intelligent robots to enhance military systems on land, sea and air. It includes four categories of robots: unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for surveillance and reconnaissance of missiles; Small unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) designed to penetrate dangerous areas inaccessible to soldiers to obtain information; A multi-purpose logistics MULE that replenishes supplies in battle; There are also armed robot vehicles (ARVs) that transport powerful armed platforms and complex reconnaissance equipment.

Germany’s intelligent ground unmanned combat platform research and application in the world in a recognized leading position. Thousands of remote-controlled unmanned self-explosive tanks developed by Germany in World War II are the earliest prototype of unmanned vehicles. They focus on the autonomous system and image analysis system of equipment. In the mid-1980s, they put forward the goal of transferring to advanced and intelligent robots with perception. Germany’s Intelligent Mobile Unmanned System (PRIMUS) is an important unmanned ground vehicle project in Germany. It takes the digital weasel II armored vehicle as the test platform and aims to develop common function modules, so as to select corresponding basic function modules to form various optimization systems according to different tasks. Secondly, Germany is in a leading position in the anti-mine warfare of European countries. The TCM/TAU2000 torpedo countermeasure system developed by STN, HDW and other German companies for anti-submarine warfare is for the service of the Navy, protecting the maritime communication line and port unblocking in harsh shallow water environment. In deep coastal waters, Protect carrier battle groups and other high value forces and prepare for amphibious attacks up to the surf zone. The German Navy also has a $250 million project, MJ334, to transform minesweepers into mine-hunters to minimize and eliminate the threat of mines to personnel and equipment.

The UK has a long history of developing unmanned ground combat platforms. Hall Automation developed its RAMP robot in the late 1960s. The research guideline of British ground military robots is to move from remote-controlled robots to autonomous robots, including MINDER (Mine Detection, Identification and Disposal Program), Beagle Combat engineering Tractor (CET) and Future Engineering Tank (FET), which can penetrate various obstacles such as ditches and minefields. Britain’s crawler and super-trolley bomb disposal robots are now deployed by the armed forces in more than 50 countries.

France is one of the major countries in Developing ground robots in Europe. It not only ranks in the forefront of the world in terms of the number of unmanned ground combat platforms, but also ranks in the world’s advanced level in terms of the application level and scope of unmanned ground combat platforms. It plans to develop a large number of guard robots and low-altitude defense robots for air bases in a few years. Military robots are represented by the Autonomous Fast Motion Reconnaissance Demonstration Vehicle (DARDS) and the Target Suppression Unmanned Target Acquisition System (SYRANO).

Italy is joining the military robot effort later, with France and Spain, to develop a mobile robot called AMR, which includes a fast field patrol robot, a robot that carries other machinery and monitors, and a robot that can crawl through complex mounds, remotely or autonomously.

Israel has also been an early adopter of unmanned military robots of its own, including autonomous guided robotic vehicles for security missions and hand-held robots to support infantry in urban warfare. Israel’s Guardium, a fully automated dual-use security system, continuously patrols airports, ports, military bases, critical pipelines and other facilities requiring round-the-clock security surveillance.

Japan is a high-precision technology power, and the Japanese government has given financial support to the self-defense Force’s robot field application feasibility study, the development of mine detection and clearance robots. Japan’s UUV technology is used for earthquake prediction, Marine development such as underwater mining, and subsea oil and gas development. Japan is the world leader in ROV technology. The $60 million KaikoROV is capable of diving to the world’s deepest depths.

South Korea is a robotics powerhouse in Asia, and the SGR-1 Sentry robot, developed by Samsung Group, has been deployed by the South Korean government near the 38th Parallel. SGR head – 1 and 3 years old children quite, 17 kilograms, equipped with a variety of detection equipment, the clock on guard, can find a couple of kilometers on the hidden threats, when detect intruder alert, the rear of the robot administrators will questioned the intruder by robot, and decide whether to use the robot’s 5.5 mm machine gun to shoot it. Colonel Choi Geun-hyo of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has said robots could make the South Korean military two to four times more effective.

The development of military robots requires a lot of money. In the United States, for example, the research budget for the FUTURE Combat System is estimated to be $25 billion, with a total cost of $6 billion to $8 billion per brigade, totaling about $145 billion, which is even more than the original estimate of $92 billion. If the Army were fully equipped with FCS, it would cost $1.3 trillion. While robots are expensive to build, they can avoid panic and stress caused by loss of life. Some military robots are already carrying out reconnaissance and surveillance missions, replacing soldiers on sentry duty, clearing mines and explosives, and reducing casualties by 60 to 80 percent. Robot soldiers are also more affordable than contract soldiers when their salaries, training costs, pensions, benefits and casualty benefits are taken into account. From the point of view of the U.S. Department of Defense, it is a choice to implement future wars with low cost, low risk and high efficiency by replacing soldiers with armed robots to serve and fight and realizing the robotization of the army. And military preparedness belongs to a country’s security, matter, although the current intelligent robot in military applications of moral issues and security risks exist, large-scale military machine to replace traditional human soldiers also need a period of time, but obvious, military robots in the future the development of the investment and development space is enormous.

In 2004 the U.S. military had just 163 ground robots. In 2007, the number rose to 5,000, with at least 10 smart war robots in service in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, some countries are building robot armies. Some army robots have begun to carry out reconnaissance and surveillance missions, replacing soldiers on sentry duty and clearing mines and explosives. The Teal Group, an authority on military aircraft market forecasting, says the global demand for uav development and procurement will reach $94 billion over the next 10 years, making it a huge market.

There is a big gap between China and developed countries in the original research of robot core and key technologies and the mass production and application of basic functional components with high reliability. However, the government has always attached great importance to the research and development of military robot technology, which has been emphasized in the Outline of The National Medium and Long Term Scientific and Technological Development Program (2006-2020), the Outline of the National High Technology Research Program (863) and the National Plan for the Development of the 11th Five-year Plan, and several Opinions of The State Council on Accelerating the Revitalization of equipment Manufacturing Industry. It is supported by the national 863 Program, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the pre-research projects of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.

At present, there is almost no fully autonomous manufacturer of military robots in China. Siasun Robot Automation Co., LTD is the leading company in military robot technology. At present, Siasun Robot has finalized eight military robot products, and two military robot products have been arranged. The future orders will increase steadily.