A Robot from RMB 56,000 to RMB 560: The Robotics Industry Chain Matures

Bend your knees, swing your arms, jump, and land – this is a common action in a robot competition, not an ordinary one. Recently, the World Robot Conference took place, with hundreds of robots participating in 26 competitions.

Along with the growing excitement came the maturation of the robotics industry chain.

"This year's order volume is roughly eight times higher than last year," said Nie Xianglu, co-founder of Pasini Sensory Technology, in an interview with a journalist from Daily Economic News. The company mainly provides multi-dimensional robot tactile sensors, "without touch, robots cannot perform various fine operations."

According to the latest data, China's robotics industry has achieved a core component domestication rate of over 70%, with an expected market scale exceeding RMB 379 billion. Zhang Qing, director of the Innovation Service Center of the Chinese Association for Science and Technology, pointed out that realizing self-control and performance breakthroughs is crucial for the development of humanoid robots.

Cost reduction and high demand have another side – manufacturers' and application companies' "unfulfillment" about product stability and application landing speed, which gradually occupies a more significant proportion in their hearts.

From RMB 56,000 to RMB 560, the industry chain matures

The excitement about robots first departed from the maturation of the robotics industry chain.

Nie Xianglu revealed that as a practitioner, he is pleased to see that each manufacturer has made significant progress compared to half a year ago, one year ago, or two years ago. We have seen technological advancements due to supply chain iteration, cost reduction, and quality control."

Jiang Lei, chief scientist of the Robotics Innovation Center, gave an example, stating that in 2018, it was impossible to find a 120 N·m/kg joint motor on the market. All manufacturers said that 10 N·m/kg was already at the ceiling, but this year, for robot companies, this index may exceed 200 N·m/kg.

Cost reduction also has an iterative process. "In 2018, such a joint might have cost RMB 56,000, now it's just RMB 560."

The maturation of the robotics industry chain is largely due to the maturity of the automotive manufacturing industry. "Cars can also be considered as a type of robot, with components such as batteries, control systems, vision, algorithms, models, and motors, including some peripheral components – these are essential elements for the development of humanoid robots."

Tesla, Xiaopeng Motors, Li Auto, Guangqi Nio, and others, besides internet companies, have also entered the robotics industry. This is to a certain extent also reflected in the convergence between robot technology and new energy car technology.

However, the automotive industry chain cannot solve all the needs of humanoid robots.

Recently, Chen Junyi, founder and CEO of Star Dynamics, interviewed with Daily Economic News, stating that many core components used in humanoid robots are still reused from previous industries, whether it's the automotive industry or traditional robotics. However, these components were not designed for humanoid robots, such as dexterous hands, which are difficult to find in previous industries.

Chen Junyi believes that the development of humanoid robot core components still requires a process. "Because the scale of robotics is not yet large enough, existing component companies have not made significant investments in this area. It's a new technology and needs time to continuously iterate."

Chen Junyi advocates for the concept: "Software drives hardware, scenario drives software," first breaking down the closed loop, defining technologies and products, then cooperating with peripheral component suppliers to refine new-type, specialized components for humanoid robots.

“Low-cost is not achieved through scaling”

Although supply chain costs have significantly decreased compared to previous years, from the perspective of manufacturers and application companies, high product prices still pose a significant obstacle to the widespread adoption of humanoid robots.

Multiple technologies (603528.SH, stock price RMB 9.79 per share, market value RMB 691.1 billion) mainly engage in China's intelligent driver training and urban construction technology innovation and industrialization applications. Recently, Multiple Technologies (603528.SH) partnered with Xinwei Capital to establish a robotics collaborative innovation research center, focusing on developing humanoid robots for traffic scenarios.

Currently, it is possible to develop and apply humanoid robots in traffic scenarios, but the cost for application companies remains relatively high.

How can we achieve lower costs? Jiang Lei believes that low-cost is not achieved through scaling. "If scaling could solve the problem of low-cost robotics, then there would be no stories about the future. We should treat low-cost as a scientific issue and not an engineering issue."

Jiang Lei listed a formula: Low-cost intelligent hardware = embodied intelligence + core components. "We want to achieve through new manufacturing, new sensing, and new materials, making the core components of humanoid robots 'embodied intelligence+'."

excluding cost, product stability and consistency are also concerns for application companies.

Multiple Technologies plans to achieve the landing of humanoid robots in intelligent traffic services and vehicle inspection scenarios. Zhang Tiejun, director of Multiple Technologies' driving safety technology research institute, pointed out that currently, the stability and safety of humanoid robots are still far from real-world applications.

"The collapse of physical stability causes irreparable consequences."