With China now pursuing high-quality development and economic upgrading, its traditional manufacturing sector is trying to embrace the new wave of the information technology revolution and become intelligent. Cutting-edge technologies are increasingly being harnessed to save manual labor and handle hazardous tasks, making modern life increasingly comfortable and convenient.

This has led to the increased use of various types of robots in production and people's life. Their functions range from painting cars, defusing explosives and assisting doctors in medical treatment to helping in the kitchen and taking care of both the elderly and the young.

Since 2013, China has been the largest industrial robot user in the world. The value of the global robot market from January to September of this year topped $19.48 billion, up 13.6 percent year on year. The Chinese market alone was worth $5.42 billion, up 18.2 percent year on year, according to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR).

China, along with Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United States and Germany, comprised the five major markets representing 73 percent of the total sales volume in 2017.

"China has significantly expanded its leading position with the strongest demand and a market share of 36 percent of the total supply in 2017," the IFR said in its World Robotics Report released on October 18. "With sales of about 138,000 industrial robots, a 59-percent increase year on year, China's sales volume was higher than the total of Europe and the Americas combined (112,400 units)."

Today, using robots is an important indicator of intelligent manufacturing. Representing an inexorable future trend, the development, production and application of robots is a significant yardstick of a country's level of technological innovation and advanced manufacturing.

However, it was not until 2007 when Chinese robot manufacturer Siasun Robot and Automation in northeast China's Liaoning Province exported the first batch of moving robots to the United States that China bid farewell to the history of only imports and no exports. Currently, the Shenyang-based company has nudged into the top three companies in the international robot industry in terms of market value.

Catching up fast

There are more than 200 digital workshops and intelligent plants in China, and the domestic intelligent market is expected to hit 220 billion yuan ($32 billion) by 2020, according to a report on intelligent manufacturing development in China released by the China Center for Information Industry Development on October 12.

"China has the largest market in the world and the huge demand has stimulated rapid development of robotic technology and application," Xu Fengxin, Assistant Director of Brand Promotion and Public Relations Department of Siasun, told Beijing Review. "This explains why China, a latecomer in this industry, has been able to catch up with developed countries within a very short period of time."

Last year, the output of China's industrial robots accounted for one third of the global market and China ranked as the largest application market in the world, according to the IFR. A new trend is that international manufacturers are also producing robots locally in China. The IFR report said that foreign companies increased their sales by 72 percent to 103,200 units in 2017, including robots produced locally in China by international suppliers. "This is the first time that foreign robot suppliers have a higher growth rate than the local manufacturers," it said.

Apart from market size, innovation and talent are the other driving forces behind China's burgeoning robot industry.

In Shenyang, the municipal government has taken measures to attract people with talent. It has announced several preferential policies, such as a maximum subsidy of 10 million yuan ($1.44 million) and "zero threshold" settlement for university graduates, which means they can seek jobs in the city directly after graduation, without requiring any work experience.

Once a heavy industry base, Shenyang is trying to reinvent itself as a hub of advanced manufacturing industries. The China-Germany Equipment Manufacturing Industrial Park, Shenyang International Software Park, Jinlian Innovation Park and Siasun Robot Innovation Lab are the four innovative venture bases for overseas professionals.

Siasun currently has over 400 employees, with 75 percent of them engaged in research and development.

"We have to ensure that our company is running ahead of the market," Xu said, emphasizing the importance of research and development. While Siasun is establishing business groups to meet various market demands, it has also set up a research institution to improve technologies for application in the next three to five years.

As more and more new technologies like artificial intelligence and big data are being integrated with robotic development, there is also a drive to add new members to the company's talent pool. "Every year, we hold several innovation contests to find and recruit innovative technologists and generate ideas," Xu said. Siasun also seeks to cultivate young researchers through cooperation with domestic and overseas universities.

From toys to caregivers

China's already huge market for robotic services is also getting a boost from an unexpected source: its aging population. As the elderly and geriatric population rises, the demand for robotic caregivers and medical aides is growing too. Robots are undertaking more and more delicate jobs, and their application scenarios and models are becoming diversified.

"There is huge potential in the service robot market," Xu said. The IFR predicted that the value of the global service robot market will hit $53.3 billion in 2018, with China among the largest markets.

Presently, most robots are still at a very low intelligence level, characterized by sluggish movements and limited functions. People expect more and the current crop fails to fully satisfy people's needs. A major challenge confronting all robot manufacturers is how to make their products more intelligent. Experts say that only when robots really tackle consumers' most urgent needs can they be regarded as more than big toys.

A typical robot should have three core competences—perception, action and cognition, said Chris Jones, Vice President of Technology of U.S. Company iRobot Corp. Before elevating the intelligence level, robots' perception of their surrounding environment must be improved, he added.

Currently, robots are moving from perception to cognition. Their recognition, semantic comprehension, cognitive reasoning, emotion recognition and chat functions have been improved, the IFR said.

In a section of Siasun's plant, robots are being used to manufacture newer robots with artificial intelligence harnessed to enable their dispatch and production activities.

In the future, artificial intelligence will be integrated into the whole control system of robots, fully welding artificial intelligence with intelligent manufacturing, Xu said.

Copyedited by Sudeshna Sarkar

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