On March 12, 2021, the Blue Book of the robot industry, China Robot Industry Development Report (2020-2021) (hereinafter referred to as "Blue Book") was officially published online. China has surpassed Japan, the United States, South Korea and Germany in the total number of robot-related patents it has accepted, according to the blue paper. The book makes a pioneering analysis of China's robot industry from five dimensions, including region, capital, talent, patent and innovation, studies the path and mechanism of industrial development, and makes an authoritative judgment on the trend and direction of industrial development. At the same time, the book adopts the latest first-hand data analysis, literature, investigation and empirical writing, and strives to be forward-looking and objective, providing the latest first-hand data and dynamic trend reference for the development of the industry. The Blue Book was edited by Harbin Institute of Technology Robotics (Hefei) International Innovation Institute and CIIC Science and Technology Evaluation Research Center, and published by Social Sciences Academic Press.

    By the end of 2019, China had accepted a total of 162,485 robot-related patents, accounting for 44 percent of the total robot-related patent applications that had been published globally, overtaking Japan, the United States, South Korea and Germany to become the world's largest, according to the blue paper. As can be seen from the proportion of patents accepted in each branch of robot technology in China, the number of patent applications for upstream parts is relatively large, reaching 37%. Among them, the patents related to control system and end-effector accounted for a relatively high proportion, while the patent applications related to gear reducer accounted for only 1%. It can be seen that gear reducer technology is still one of the technical bottlenecks restricting the high-quality development of Chinese robot technology.

    In the field of upstream of the core components, due to the sensor and the software system in an increasingly significant role in the process of the intelligent robot, blue book editorial board outside of the traditional robot three core components, sensors and software system also listed as the core parts of robot, this is the blue book is based on the first definition of industry present situation and the future trend is given. Sensors can enable the robot to have more sensing ability to meet the application requirements of more scenes; Robot core software represented by robot operating system is developing rapidly.

    The Blue Book also points out that the localization rate of industrial robots has been greatly improved in some industries, among which the localization rate of food and beverage industry has been significantly improved, while that of 3C industry has been slightly improved. In addition, the industrial robot application industry continues to expand, shoes, clothing, daily chemicals and other emerging industries demand is increasingly emerging.

    In 2019, the decline in investment and financing amount of China's robot industry was much lower than the overall decline of the whole domestic industry, which was 40%, reflecting a certain anti-cyclicality and investors' confidence in the long-term development of the robot industry. By sector, service robot is still the focus of capital, investment and financing events accounted for 55%; In addition to various types of industrial robots, logistics, medical, educational and entertainment, and business service robots are experiencing high investment fever.

    At the same time, the editorial board of the blue book summarized and analyzed some development trends of robot industry innovation, including policy diversification, marketing community, scene vertical, technology platform, market globalization and innovation integration.

    Source: Hitrobotgroup