Industry chain: strong downstream demand drives rapid development of the industrial chain
Mobile robots (AGVs) are a type of industrial robot. It is controlled by computer and has the functions of mobile, automatic navigation, multi-sensor control, network interaction, etc. The most important use in actual production is to carry. It can be said that as long as there is a place for handling, there is a possibility of application of mobile robot.
The mobile robot (AGV) is a kind of industrial robot and has the same industrial chain structure as industrial robots. The upstream is a robot component manufacturer. This part is the core of the industry chain and accounts for the vast majority of costs in robotics. The middle reaches are robot manufacturing and system integration companies. Downstream includes automotive, 3C electronics, logistics and other application industries.
The current domestic mobile robot market has a high localization rate of over 80%. In the domestic market where foreign products occupy the mainstream in the field of robotics, this localization rate of the mobile robot market is unique. The high localization rate is due to the obvious price performance of domestic manufacturers.
1.1 Upstream: Core components depend on foreign manufacturers, domestic enterprises need further development
The most important cost of industrial robot products is concentrated on core components such as reducers, servo systems and motion controllers. The cost of the reducer, servo system and motion controller is more than 75%. Therefore, from this perspective, the core of the industrial robot industry chain is the upstream robot component manufacturer. At present, most of the core components of robot products in the domestic market come from foreign robot component manufacturers, and the number of enterprises using domestic robot component manufacturers is small. There are two reasons for this: 1 The core parts and components of the reducer are difficult to develop, and the required technical accumulation is relatively deep. Therefore, the domestic qualifications have the ability to design and develop core parts and components. The number of enterprises is small and the technology maturity is low. The robot body manufacturing company is suspicious of the product quality of domestic robot parts suppliers, and adopts foreign robot parts supplier products in order to gain market trust for market share.
In the mobile robot (AGV), a segment with a high localization rate, the robotic ontology manufacturing companies in the middle reaches are still unable to escape such problems. The mobile robot (AGV) is mainly composed of three parts: drive, system and guidance. Among them, the core components of the drive controller, system, and excited navigation sensor are still the world of foreign brands, although foreign companies can not achieve AGV to China. The direct monopoly of the market, but can take advantage of key technologies and core components to form constraints and constraints on Chinese enterprises. Therefore, in the long run, if you want to make a difference in the field of mobile robots, domestic companies need to continue to exert their strength on the upstream robot components.
1.2 Midstream: “Personalized service + high cost performance” promotes rapid development of the industry
The middle of the mobile robot (AGV) mainly includes two parts: robot body manufacturing and system integration. At present, the domestic demand side is highly polarized, including large enterprises such as Huawei, Dongfeng Motor, and Jingdong, as well as small enterprises with annual sales of over 100 million. Among them, a large number of orders originate from the latter, and their demand for mobile robots (AGV) is four or five, as little as one or two, and the application scenarios and specific requirements are different, and their own transformation ability is weak, requiring midstream manufacturers. Provide them with a comprehensive follow-up service. Therefore, the mid-stream domestic robotic ontology manufacturers who can provide personalized services to the demand side are very popular among these demanders. From 2013 to 2018, China's AGV robot sales increased from the initial 2,439 units to 18,000 units (estimated values) in 2018, and the industry is developing at an extremely fast rate.
Domestic robots have a certain price/performance ratio. The price of foreign AGV products is generally between 8 million and 1 million units, while the domestic price of AGV products is generally between 400,000 and 700,000 yuan per unit, which is about 50% lower than that of foreign countries. In 2018, the price war trend of the mobile robot industry did not stop. Some companies even launched the 98,000 forklift AGV, which is still the main strategy of domestic mobile robots.
1.3 Downstream: Declining demographic dividends and developing emerging areas have created high demand for AGV
According to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the birth rate in China has been at a historical low for a long time in the past two decades, and there has been a further downward trend in the past two years. Industries that originally enjoyed the demographic dividend brought about by the high birth rate in China, such as 3C electronics, logistics, and automobile manufacturing, will all face the impact of the decline in the demographic dividend caused by the long-term downturn in the birth rate. Therefore, as a major alternative to human resources, the demand for mobile robots (AGVs) has become increasingly strong. The demand for mobile robots (AGVs) on the market today mainly comes from small and micro enterprises that need to reduce the labor costs of handling.
At the same time, the rise of emerging industries has further driven the demand for mobile robots. With the development of e-commerce, the work intensity of the logistics industry has been greatly improved, and higher requirements have been placed on the efficiency of handling. Taking the data of 2014 as an example, in the case that mobile robots and other equipment were not popular at the time, after the important sales activities such as the Double Eleven, the daily handling capacity of the courier porters was more than 1 ton, and the daily working hours were more than ten hours; On average, the average wait time is 6-7 days after placing an order online, which is nearly double the waiting time for purchasing goods on an inactive day. In order to better optimize the consumer's consumption experience, major e-commerce companies have introduced various machines and equipment, and strive to promote logistics in the direction of intelligence and automation.
And mobile robots have naturally become the first choice for intelligent automation of logistics. The unique advantages of mobile robot (AGV) in automation, flexibility and security make mobile robot (AGV) the best choice for intelligent and automated logistics.
(1) High degree of automation: The AGV of the automated guided vehicle is extremely automated compared to the manual forklift truck. When a certain part of the workshop requires auxiliary materials, the staff inputs relevant information to the computer terminal, and the computer terminal sends the information to the AGV central control system. The system sends a control command to the AGV, and the AGV accepts and executes the automatic transportation of the auxiliary materials to the corresponding place. The AGV only needs to input relevant instructions to complete the task well. As long as there is no problem with the input instructions, there will be no problems and various errors will be avoided.
(2) Strong flexibility: AGV trolleys can be flexibly combined with various production lines, assembly lines, conveyor lines, platforms, shelves, and operating points. It can minimize the logistics turnover cycle, reduce the turnover of materials, realize the flexible connection between incoming materials and processing, logistics and production, finished products and sales, and maximize the working efficiency of production systems.
(3) Good safety: Mobile robot (AGV) has perfect security protection, intelligent traffic management, safety and collision avoidance, multi-level warning, emergency braking, fault report and so on. Can play a unique role in many situations that are not suitable for human work.
2. Industry space and trend analysis
2.1 Industry space analysis: multi-field application prospects are broad, and the market is over 10 billion
From the application scenario, mobile robots are mainly used to carry scenes, and there is a possibility of mobile robot applications where there is a place to move. From the application field, the automotive industry, 3C electronics, tobacco industry, and logistics industry are the most widely used and most promising mobile robots.
From the perspective of future market size, the mobile robot (AGV) market is expected to reach 14 billion yuan. According to the actual development of China's mobile robot (AGV) market, China Mobile Robots (AGV) sold 29,600 units in 2018, with a market size of 4.25 billion yuan. Due to the demand for forklift replacement at the demand side and the demand for storage robots, it is conservatively estimated that the compound growth rate of mobile robot (AGV) sales in the next five years will be maintained at a high probability of about 25%, and the product brought about by technological advancement will be about 5% per year. The price reduction level, in order to calculate China's mobile robot market will reach 14 billion yuan in five years, the industrial development space is huge.
2.1.1 Automotive industry: The demand for traditional mobile robot (AGV) applications is huge
The application of mobile robots (AGVs) in the automotive industry stems from Swedish automaker Volvo. As early as 1973, Volvo introduced the concept of real-time transportation, which is to transport materials to machinery and assembly workshops as needed. According to this concept, Volvo has adopted AGV for computer controlled assembly work on the kalmar sedan assembly line. In 1984, General Motors completed its first flexible assembly system, and since then the company has become the largest user of AGV at the time. In 1986, GM's mobile robots (AGV) had reached 1,407 units (including traction trolleys, forklifts and single-load loading and unloading trolleys). In 1987, 1,662 new units were added. At present, in the United States, the automotive industry accounts for more than 80% of the total mobile robot (AGV) usage, while in Europe it also exceeds 50%.
Typical applications for mobile robots (AGVs) in the automotive industry are primarily in the engine assembly line, or the docking of the chassis and platform. For example: 1 automatic transportation of raw materials 2 transportation of assembly line 3 transportation of test area 4 automatic transportation between production workshop and finished product
Whether in terms of usage or application maturity, the automotive industry is undoubtedly the most powerful market and the largest support force for AGV. An automobile company often uses hundreds or even thousands of AGVs. For example, Dongfeng Nissan Guangzhou Huadu Factory uses more than 1,000 AGVs. From the current data of domestic automakers, most auto companies have adopted domestic AGV as a distribution hardware for in-plant production logistics, with a high localization rate. At present, most of the mobile robots (AGV) companies that have been established for a long time in China are inseparable from the automotive industry, and have a greater influence in the automotive industry and have a relatively stable cooperative relationship.
2.1.2 Electronics industry: large volume + recruitment is difficult to create AGV broad prospects
2013 to 2017 is the outbreak of China's 3C electronics manufacturing industry. In just a few years, the output value of 3C manufacturing industry rose from about 1.43 trillion yuan to 24,600 yuan, maintaining a compound annual growth rate of 14.5%. It is estimated that the 3C electronics industry will reach 2.6 trillion yuan in 2018. The huge volume of the 3C industry has provided huge market capacity for mobile robots (AGVs); at the same time, the contradiction between the large number of artificial demands in the 3C industry and the difficulty in recruiting workers due to the decline in the demographic dividend has further led to the application of mobile robots (AGV) to 3C. The broad prospects of the industry. At present, the density of robots in the domestic 3C industry is only 11/10,000 employees, while the density of robots in Japan and South Korea has already exceeded 1,200/10,000 employees. There is a huge gap in the penetration rate of robots, and the application space has great prospects.
At present, the 3C industry has the following three requirements in terms of logistics: 13C electronic products are generally customized for large quantities, and the production cycle is short. For flexible and matrix production, logistics requires rapid response capability. 2 Production line dismantling is more subdivided, and logistics frequency Rising, requiring logistics to be more efficient 3 can be interfaced with the MES system, accurately mapping production information to production operations, and accurately controlling the supply chain and production tempo. For these three requirements of the 3C electronics industry, the flexible mobile robot (AGV) is the best choice. For example, the trackless AGV robot has a handling speed of 3-4 times that of the conventional magnetic strip AGV, which can meet the rising frequency of logistics; the failure of a single AGV and the change of production line will not affect the operation of the AGV system, shorten the downtime and improve the efficiency; Interfacing with the MES system to precisely control material supply and production tempo.
2.1.3 Tobacco industry: Industry-integrated mobile robot (AGV) demand is steadily increasing
The tobacco industry has the characteristics of large material flow, many transportation links, high production process automation, high degree of flexibility, and strict requirements for information control management systems. As the iconic equipment for the modern production process, the mobile robot (AGV) has the conditions to better meet the above characteristics. In addition, the overall benefit of the tobacco industry is good, and the equipment is updated conditionally. Therefore, the mobile robot (AGV) is very good in the tobacco industry. Has been promoted and applied.
According to the "Tender Notice of the 2018 Cigarette Sorting and Loading and Unloading Outsourcing Project of Pu'er City, Yunnan Province Tobacco Company", the cigarette sorting process includes manual boxing, replenishment, packaging, and handling operations, and the loading and unloading of cigarette storage and storage. , handling, stacking, recycling of cartons, pick-up and drop-off, and handling of sporadic items in the daily affairs of logistics branches. According to this process, the relevant personnel required for the logistics of the cigarette factory need at least 40 people: 1 The person in charge of the implementation of the whole project is managed by a special person. 2 The operation of the semi-automatic sorting system for sorting and replenishing and packing operations is fixed. The workers used 20-30 cigarettes and warehousing warehouses, 10 out of the warehousing workers, 4 sorting, and 5 temporary workers. According to the salary of each worker is 3,000 yuan / month, the annual staff salary of 1.44 million yuan, about the purchase cost of 3 domestic mobile robots (AGV). If you choose to replace the labor with a mobile robot (AGV), 6 to 8 mobile robots (AGV) can complete the above cigarette sorting process. In this way, the labor cost of about 2-3 years exceeds the cost of purchasing and maintaining the mobile robot (AGV). Therefore, by using the mobile robot (AGV), the labor intensity, the damage rate of the loading and unloading, and the labor cost are effectively reduced. At present, the intelligence of the tobacco industry is relatively mature. The penetration rate of mobile robots (AGV) in the tobacco industry is relatively high, and the growth rate of production and sales of related products is relatively stable.
2.1.4 Logistics industry: All major e-commerce companies have been deployed, and intelligent logistics calls for AGV
From the perspective of the logistics industry, the largest application area of mobile robots (AGV) may be e-commerce logistics services. The competition between e-commerce is largely a logistics dispute, and merchants with better logistics services will win more customers. Therefore, how to quickly and accurately deliver express delivery, how to solve problems such as bursting, wrong hair, missing hair, violent sorting, and lost shipments, how to create an e-commerce warehouse with high picking efficiency and low error rate has become the present The urgency of the warehousing and logistics industry is a top priority. The Mobile Robot (AGV) solves these problems well, and has the advantage of traditional manual work or forklift work in terms of work efficiency.
The mobile robot (AGV) can be automatically transported according to the optimal driving route, accurately docked at the desired manual picking station, and the corresponding quantity of goods is sorted out. The matching AGV intelligent management system can complete the supervision of all cargo conditions and operation links, and can check the storage, delivery and transportation of the goods at any time, so that customers can grasp the dynamics of their products in real time. The operation links such as packaging are recorded through the video and stored permanently to ensure the traceability of each link and ensure the safety of the goods.
At present, major e-commerce logistics companies have noticed the unique advantages of mobile robots (AGV) and set up a smart warehouse to suit their development. In 2015, Ali set up a storage robot in the Tianjin warehouse of Tmall Supermarket - Cao Cao. The whole system was independently developed by Ali and costed millions of yuan. After receiving the order, the robot can quickly locate the distribution of goods in the warehouse. The location, and plan the optimal delivery route, after the goods are sorted, the goods will be automatically sent to the packing station, reducing the walking distance of the warehouse personnel, greatly increasing the efficiency of warehouse sorting and packaging; 2016 “Double Eleven” period Ali's rookie network was officially put into use in the “smart warehouse” built in Haining. This is the first intelligent warehouse in China that replaces the manual sorting and packing of machines by machine, including the independent development of the rookie. Intelligent AGV robots; in 2017, more than half of the e-commerce platform began to adopt AGV automatic sorting robots. Shanghai Post EMS took the lead in using AGV during the double eleven period. 350 AGVs can collect up to 18,000 pieces per hour, and the accuracy is accurate. The rate is as high as 99.99%.
2.2 Future mobile robot industry development trend
2.2.1 Product Features Trend: Cost-effective and easy to use
China's domestic industrial robot market is showing a relatively obvious "long tail characteristics", except for the rapid rise of 3C and other markets. The other application markets have small customer scale, poor financial strength, low application level and extremely scattered geographical distribution. The overall number is huge. Such customer characteristics also determine that most of the customers are price-sensitive customers, and their own transformation capabilities are poor, requiring midstream manufacturers to give a slightly adjusted product can be put into use. Therefore, if the midstream manufacturers want to occupy more market share, the products produced must be cost-effective and easy to use.
2.2.2 Product Technology Trends: Outdoor AGV Technology and “Big Data” Technology Mature
At present, the application cases of mobile robots (AGV) are mainly concentrated in indoor environments, such as smart warehouses and factory workshops. But in fact, there are a lot of processes in the handling process that are carried out outdoors, such as the "last mile" of express delivery and port cargo throughput. If the mobile robot (AGV) can be widely used in such pure outdoor or semi-outdoor links, it will bring a new revolution in the logistics industry. The “last mile” of express delivery is currently difficult due to the immature development of navigation system technology, but port cargo throughput is expected to become the most extensive field of outdoor AGV technology application in the future. In 2016, the cargo throughput of China's above-scale ports was 11.83 billion tons. If the huge throughput can be intelligently transported by mobile robots (AGV), the work efficiency will be greatly improved.
In addition to the gradual maturity of outdoor AGV technology, the application of Internet technology to mobile robots (AGV) will further enhance work efficiency. Through the medium of the Internet, the production management system can collect the operational data of the robots for aggregation, thereby obtaining "big data." By analyzing the big data, you can know the robot's utilization rate, production information, fault information, etc., and adjust the production method in real time according to the actual situation, thereby further improving production efficiency.
2.2.3 Trends in navigation methods: visual navigation becomes the mainstream of the future development, and hybrid navigation methods further reduce costs.
Compared with the traditional AGV navigation methods such as magnetic wires, magnetic nails, two-dimensional codes and lasers, the visual navigation method has obvious advantages. Its advantages are mainly reflected in the following three aspects:
(1) Low cost: The low cost of visual navigation is mainly reflected in the low cost of the sensor and the low cost of operation and maintenance. The world-class brand of industrial-grade monocular camera plus lens is only 3,000 yuan, and the average commercial camera is priced at about 100 yuan. Compared with the laser sensor, the cost of the laser sensor is lower. In addition, the visual navigation technology of the robot in the natural environment does not need to use any markers in the environment, which reduces the operation and maintenance cost of the customer's site. Based on the above two points, the return on investment of customers purchasing AGV equipment will be greatly shortened.
(2) No need to modify the on-site environment: The core of the future robot is the visual positioning and navigation technology in the natural environment, without any changes to the customer's site, no need for manual marking such as magnetic wires, magnetic nails, laser reflectors, etc., only through visual natural features. Efficient positioning and navigation is achieved. Reduce the difficulty of project implementation and reduce implementation time.
(3) High performance: In principle, visually capture two-dimensional image information, which contains not only contour information but also color information. Among them, the color information is not available through other sensors. The color information is very valuable for the mobile robot to autonomously locate, control, and avoid collisions. Through rich visual information, future robots' AGV products and retrofit solutions can achieve high efficiency (linear speed 2m/s, cornering speed 1.5m/s (without cornering)), high precision (position error <1cm), high stability Autonomous navigation with a sex rate (error rate <0.1%).
Of course, pure visual navigation also has shortcomings, mainly because the pure visual navigation technology is currently mature, and commercial application is more difficult. Therefore, the current better way is to use multiple navigation methods. Based on the use of visual navigation, the mobile robot (AGV) can further add inertial navigation to adapt to various undulations and bumpy paths, ensuring operational accuracy. Compared with traditional mobile robots (AGV) that use laser, inertia, magnetic stripe and other navigation methods, the cost is lower and the precision is higher.
3. Analysis of the competitive landscape
3.1 Analysis of competition pattern of foreign mobile robots: AGV products in different regions have their own characteristics
Compared with the current characteristics of foreign mobile robot (AGV) products, the characteristics of mobile robots (AGV) in different regions are different. Foreign mobile robot (AGV) manufacturers can be divided into two categories: European and American manufacturers and Japanese manufacturers.
(1) European and American manufacturers: Since the industrial model in Europe and the United States is biased towards large-scale heavy industry, the mobile robots (AGVs) produced by European and American manufacturers have a strong load capacity, and the load capacity of the products can reach 60,000 kg (60 tons). Some advanced heavy-duty mobile robots The carrying capacity of the (AGV) has reached 150 tons, and the technology is therefore quite complicated. The high labor costs in Europe and the United States also make European and American manufacturers pursue the automation and intelligence of AGV in production, with perfect product functions and advanced technology. In order to be able to adopt modular design, reduce design cost, and improve the standards of mass production, AGV in Europe and America abandoned the pursuit of appearance modeling and produced in the form of assembly of large parts. In addition, industrial plants in Europe and America are more environmentally friendly, and the application of mobile robots (AGV) is extremely common.
Currently in Europe, the price of a laser-guided fork-type AGV is about 100,000 euros, which is equivalent to one forklift worker's one-year cost (AGV can work 24 hours a day, equivalent to three shifts). In other words, investing in one AGV in Europe can basically recover the investment within one year. The geographical advantage and product adaptability determine that the main customers of European and American manufacturers are European and American companies. The technical level and market recognition of European and American manufacturers are also the highest in the world. The top 16 manufacturers in Europe and the United States occupy the main seats.
(2) Japanese manufacturers: Japan also introduced AGVs in Europe and America in the 1970s. Since Japan is mainly based on high-end light industry, such as electronics and other technology industries, Japanese manufacturers have improved the localization of AGV, which greatly simplifies the technical complexity and complexity of the vehicle body, and the cost is relatively low. The AGV produced by Japanese manufacturers is fully integrated with simple production applications (generally a single path, fixed process), which is only used for handling, does not emphasize the automatic loading and unloading function, and uses the tape guiding method in guiding. The ultimate product produced by Japanese manufacturers is AGC (Automated Guided Cart). The low cost once made AGC popular in the East Asian market. At present, many companies in China are imitating the characteristics of Japanese manufacturers to reduce the cost of AGV products and increase their penetration rate.
3.2 Domestic upstream competition pattern: the localization process continues to advance, and the low-end market is expected to break through.
3.2.1 Precision reducer: localization gradually started
Mobile robots (AGVs) generally use RV reducers, which have large transmission ratio, high transmission efficiency, high motion accuracy, low backlash, low vibration, high rigidity and high reliability. They can be applied to high torque. Under heavy load conditions (20kg or more).
At present, the domestic RV reducer market is monopolized by Nabtesco, Japan, and the localization rate is less than 5%. Nabtesco is composed of two Japanese multinational companies, Teijin Machinery Co., Ltd. and Nabok Co., Ltd., and is currently the world's largest manufacturer of precision reducers. The global market share is 60%, and most of the world's robot manufacturers include The “Four Big Family” purchased RV reducers from Nabo, and its RV reducer market share reached 90%.
In recent years, domestic manufacturers have gradually achieved technological breakthroughs, and the performance gap between domestic RV reducers and foreign products has been shrinking. The key technical indicators of precision reducer mainly include torsional stiffness, transmission accuracy and transmission efficiency. Compared with the key technical indicators of precision reducers at home and abroad, it is found that domestic brands are close to Japanese brands in some indicators. The RV reducer gradually began to make domestic substitutions. Domestic manufacturers such as Shanghai Electromechanical, Zhongduide, Nantong Zhenkang and Shuanghuan Transmission have achieved mass production, but the localization rate is still less than 5%.
3.2.2 Sensors: Manufacturers are small in size and lack critical technologies, making it difficult to break through
The sensors used by mobile robots (AGVs) mainly include laser sensors, vision sensors, infrared sensors, and ultrasonic sensors. Each of these four types of sensors has advantages and disadvantages, and the combined use effect is good.
China's sensor manufacturers are mainly concentrated in the Yangtze River Delta region, and gradually form a regional spatial layout dominated by central cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Shenzhen, Shenyang and Xi'an. The Yangtze River Delta region: With Shanghai, Wuxi, and Nanjing as the center, it has gradually formed a relatively complete sensor production system and industrial support including heat sensitivity, magnetic sensitivity, image, weighing, photoelectric, temperature, and gas sensitivity. At present, the size of sensor manufacturers in China is generally small, and it is difficult to break through the monopoly of foreign brands due to the following three aspects:
(1) Lack of core technologies and basic capabilities, and weak innovation capabilities. Sensors are very different in high-end, high-sensitivity analysis, component analysis and high-end applications. Nearly 100% of medium and high-end sensor products are imported from abroad, 90% of chips rely on foreign countries, and there are no new sensors, new devices and new materials in China. R&D and industrialization capabilities.
(2) The key technologies of commonality have not really broken through. There are big gaps in design technology, packaging technology, and equipment technology. The reliability of domestic sensors is 1-2 orders of magnitude lower than that of similar foreign products. The sensor package has not yet formed a series, standard and unified interface. The development and production of sensor technology equipment is monopolized by foreign countries.
(3) The industrial structure is unreasonable, the varieties, specifications and series are incomplete, and the technical indicators are not high. Domestic sensor products often do not form a series, and the products have a certain gap between the measurement accuracy, temperature characteristics, response time, stability, reliability and other indicators.
3.2.3 Control system: cost-effective to help domestic brands to force the low-end market
In China's industrial robot controller market, the market share of the four major families is basically the same as its share in the ontology market, accounting for 52% of the total. The market share of the domestic independent brand ontology market is 32.8%, while in the controller market, it only accounts for less than 16%. Domestic enterprise controllers have not yet formed market competitiveness, and some of the main body manufacturers' controllers need to be outsourced. However, a number of representative enterprises have emerged in the development process, such as Huichuan Technology, Eston, Xinshida, Gugao, Xinsong, Huazhong CNC and other enterprises have advantages.
The gap between domestic robot controllers and foreign products is mainly in the software part, that is, the control algorithm and the ease of use of the secondary development platform. The development of control systems involves more core technologies, including hardware design, underlying software technology, and upper-level functional application software. With the accumulation of technology and application experience, the hardware platform used by domestic robot controllers has little difference with foreign countries. However, due to the lack of platform foundation, the controllers manufactured by domestic manufacturers are mostly closed structures, which have shortcomings such as poor openness, poor software independence, poor fault tolerance, poor scalability, and lack of network functions. It is difficult to adapt to the requirements of intelligence and flexibility.
The controllers of domestic industrial robot manufacturers mainly have price advantages. With the rapid development of microelectronics technology, the performance of processors is getting higher and higher, the cost is lower and lower, and the cost-effective microprocessor makes it possible to develop low-cost, high-performance industrial robot controllers. The price of KUKA and ABB controllers is 5.8 and 68,000 yuan respectively, while the solid high is only 6,000 yuan. Domestic controllers are cost-effective and can capture the market demand for general-purpose robots that do not require high precision. For mobile robots (AGVs), it is a good choice to reduce costs by purchasing domestic controllers where production flexibility is relatively low.
3.3 The competition pattern of the middle reaches: the competition
China's mobile robot (AGV) has a high localization rate, but the market concentration is relatively scattered, which can be said to enter the era of competition. Every mobile robot (AGV) manufacturer has its own unique advantages. Since 2015, the mobile robot (AGV) industry has entered a period of rapid development, and there are large variables in the industry. Relatively speaking, enterprises with deeper technical accumulation and more unique functional development may benefit more from the industry changes.
4. Investment strategy: optimistic about enterprises that deeply cultivate core technologies
In summary, in the field of mobile robots (AGV), we are optimistic about companies that are deeply rooted in core technologies. The foreign brand products in the upstream industry chain are expensive, and the price advantage of domestic core components is obvious. If the domestic core components can gradually catch up with foreign products in terms of performance, then under the premise of huge price advantage, domestic core component manufacturers will benefit greatly. If the robotic body manufacturer in the middle reaches can make breakthroughs in software services, it will continue to benefit.
4.1 Controller field
1) Solid technology: controller leader, one of the earliest companies in China to research robot controllers, to achieve mass production
Solid High Tech (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd. (Gui Tech) was established in 1999 and is headquartered at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. As a leading domestic supplier of automatic control products, Gutech has brought together a group of outstanding technology elites in the field of motion control and mechatronics, dedicated to motion control, image and visual sensing, mechanical optimization design, servo drive. The development and application of industrial automation technology, self-developed PC-based open motion controller, embedded motion controller, network motion controller, computer programmable automation controller products and systems, the comprehensive performance has reached the international first-class The level has filled a number of gaps in the same industry in China. Solid high-tech products are widely used in industrial control fields such as CNC machine tools, robots, electronic processing and testing equipment, laser processing equipment, printing machinery, packaging machinery, garment processing machinery, and production automation.
In 2001, the company began research and development of four-axis robot controllers. In 2006, it was involved in six-axis robot controllers. It is one of the earliest companies in China to research robot controllers. Up to now, the high-tech control system covers all types of robots from three-axis to eight-axis. Among them, the eight-axis robot control system with the most technical difficulty has been mass-produced.
2) Eston (002747.SZ): CNC system + robot, full industrial chain layout, large-scale production
Established in 1993, it has entered the metal forming machine numerical control system, electro-hydraulic servo system, AC servo system, and laid out intelligent industrial robots in 2012. At present, in addition to having a large market share in the CNC metal forming machine tool industry and all the industrial robots, it is also widely used in various intelligent special equipment manufacturing industries, such as textile machinery, packaging machinery, printing machinery and electronic machinery. The proportion of revenues is about 10% higher, and it is a technology leader in the industry. In 2018, the first smart factory in China to produce robots with autonomous robots was established, and production scale will be realized.
In 2017, Eston acquired TRIO and ROBOX of Italy. TRIO is one of the world's leading companies in the motion control industry. It mainly produces multi-axis general-purpose motion controllers, motion control cards, robot controllers, etc. Its product applications cover packaging, 3C. , printing, industrial robots, food production lines, etc. ROBOX is a company that designs and manufactures electronic controllers for robotics and motion control systems, ranging from simple one or two control axes to the most complex dozens of control axes. Through the acquisition of TRIO and ROBOX, combined with the company's existing AC servo products, the company will have more comprehensive motion control solution capabilities, and the controller production level will be further enhanced. At the same time Eston acquired the Euclid layout machine vision field.
3) Huichuan Technology (300124.SZ): Robot control system is expected to exert force under the trend of localization
Shenzhen Huichuan Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as Huichuan Technology) was established in 2003. Since its establishment, Huichuan Technology has always focused on core technologies such as motor drive and control, power electronics, industrial network communication, adhere to technical marketing and industry marketing, and insist on providing customized solutions and import substitution for industrial control + process for sub-sectors. The business strategy to achieve corporate value and customer value grow together. After 15 years of development, the company has evolved from a single inverter supplier to an electromechanical integrated product and solution provider. At present, the company's main products include: 1 industrial automation products serving the field of intelligent equipment, including various inverters, servo systems, control systems, industrial vision systems, sensors, high-performance motors, high-precision lead screws and other core components and electro-hydraulic and liquid integration 2 solutions for the core components, complete machines and solutions in the field of industrial robots, including robot-specific control systems, servo systems, vision systems, high-precision lead screws, SCARA robots, six-joint robots, etc.; 3 serving new energy Powertrain products for the automotive sector, including various motor controllers, auxiliary power systems, high-performance motors, DC/DC power supplies and powertrain systems; 4 traction and control systems for rail traffic, including traction and converter , auxiliary converters, high voltage boxes, traction motors and TCMS; 5 industrial Internet solutions for the after-equipment service market, including industrial clouds, application development platforms, intelligent hardware, information management platforms. The company's products are widely used in new energy vehicles, elevators, air compressors, industrial robots / robots, 3C manufacturing, lithium batteries, lifting, machine tools, metal products, wire and cable, plastics, printing and packaging, textile and chemical fiber, building materials, metallurgy, coal mines , municipal, rail transit and other industries.
In 2017, the company achieved sales revenue of 4.777 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 30.53%. The net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 1.06 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.76%. Huichuan Technology was selected as the key special support for the first batch of national key R&D programs “smart robots”. Huichuan Technology owns more than 10 molecular companies including Suzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Shanghai, Ningbo, Changchun and Hong Kong. As of December 31, 2017, the company has 6,619 employees, including 1,697 people specializing in research and development. The total number of employees is 25.74%
4.2 Robot body manufacturing field
1) Jiateng Robot: Providing intelligent total solution, the performance continues to grow rapidly
Founded in 2002, Guangdong Jiateng Robot Automation Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Jia Teng”) is one of the top ten brands of industrial robots in China. It is a high-tech enterprise in Guangdong Province, a backbone enterprise in Guangdong Province, and a strategic emerging enterprise. Since its establishment, Jiateng has been committed to R&D, production and sales in the field of unmanned vans (AGV), and has launched 6 generations of AGVs. Its products have passed ISO9001 certification and won many domestic and international awards. At present, Jiateng's AGV products cover laser navigation, inertial navigation, magnetic guidance, natural navigation and other navigation methods. The maximum load is 40T, which can provide indoor and outdoor products and services for factories, warehouses and terminals. Jiateng has a modern production base of more than 50,000 square meters in Foshan, Guangdong. It has a Chongqing base and 20 offices throughout the country. It has partners in North America, South America, Europe and Southeast Asia. The company has more than 150 patents and software copyrights, and is the leading AGV and intelligent material distribution solution provider in China.
The core technology of Jiateng is to use the main control hardware system of ARM embedded computer and powerful logistics software system. The software system includes the AGV Central Dispatch System, JT Brain JT Brain, Intelligent Manufacturing IMS Software System, WMS Warehouse Management System and WCS Warehouse Execution System. Jiateng AGV can be seamlessly connected with ERP, MES, WMS, IMS and other systems. At present, Jiateng has 450 employees, including more than 150 R&D personnel. The annual sales growth rate is over 40%, and it is continuing to grow rapidly.
2) Jingyuan Electromechanical: Focus on intelligent manufacturing, perfect product system
Founded in 2004, Guangzhou Jingyuan Electromechanical Equipment Co., Ltd. is a national high-tech enterprise specializing in mobile robots, automated logistics systems and intelligent equipment systems. It is the first tape navigation robot enterprise with independent intellectual property rights in China. It has two mobile robot brands: “JYME” and “MAX AGV”. It has formed four series including laser navigation, electromagnetic navigation, visual navigation and tape navigation. 300KG-50T A variety of specifications, forklift models, assembly, load-bearing, traction and other types of product systems. The company has set up branches in many cities in China. At present, it has nearly 200 employees, 60% of which are undergraduate and master's degree engineers and technicians. In AGV intelligent logistics system, engine assembly line and press-fit, inspection, gluing, tightening The gluing technology has always been at the forefront of the industry. The fully automatic 3-slot lock block press machine independently developed and designed has a high pass rate and is at the top level in the industry.
Jingyuan Electromechanical has obtained nearly 100 national invention patents, utility model patents and software copyrights. It has been rated as Guangdong Province Honesty Demonstration Enterprise, Science and Technology Little Giant Enterprise, China Logistics Robot Famous Brand, Guangdong Province Unmanned Auto Vehicle Engineering Technology R&D Center, and Guangdong Robotic Backbone Enterprise. Jingyuan Electromechanical Co., Ltd. adheres to the quality policy of pursuing excellence and excellence, and is committed to providing the most professional intelligent system solutions for the automotive, home appliance, tire, warehousing, paper printing, food and beverage, pharmaceutical and other industries.
5. Risk warning
Operating risks caused by increased market competition; the decline in downstream demand leads to a risk of falling revenue.
