Behind the Robot Financing Fever: Warehousing Robots, Medical Robots, Electric Lawnmower Robots and other sub-tracks to expand emerging application markets

"Robot fever" is not only reflected in the surge in production and increased financing, but also in the expansion of robots in various industries. In the whole year of 2021, the output of industrial robots in my country was 366,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 44.9%; the output of service robots in my country was 9.2144 million units, a year-on-year increase of 48.9%.

Southern Finance All-media reporters combed the robot industry financing events in 2021 and found that the overall funds are more inclined to the field of service robots. Among the 207 financing events, warehousing logistics and medical robot financing events each accounted for 13%. These two fields are also developing momentum in 2021. Rapid robots subdivide the track.

In the opinion of the interviewed experts, the application of industrial robots in 3C electronics, automobile manufacturing and other fields has become relatively common, and the competition of applications in unknown fields will become a new growth point for robots. In recent years, the robot industry has continued to expand the breadth and depth of applications, deeply ploughing industry applications, expanding emerging applications, and improving the development of the robot industry through technological innovation, basic guarantees, and extensive applications.

2021 is a bright year for the robotics industry. In terms of output, my country's industrial robot output will reach 366,000 units in 2021, a record high, and my country's service robot output will be 9,214,400 units, with a market size approaching 40 billion yuan.

From the perspective of financing events, in 2021, the domestic industrial robot industry has more than 90 financings, with a financing amount exceeding 20 billion yuan; the service robot industry has more than 80 financings, and 26 in the warehousing and logistics and medical industries respectively.

The field of warehousing and logistics is an important subdivision of the robot financing track in 2021. The flow of capital to the robot subdivision track focuses on the market prospects of the industry. Under the epidemic, warehousing and logistics companies have begun the process of "machine substitution" in order to continuously improve their market competitiveness. Intelligent warehousing has become the key to the promotion of robots in all walks of life.

Liu Jia, deputy general manager of Guangzhou Intelligent Equipment Research Institute Co., Ltd., told reporters from Southern Finance and Economics that capital will choose a track with better growth, such as warehousing logistics, service robots, etc. Under the guidance of national policies, the robot industry is conducting large-scale promotion and application for all walks of life to increase the application volume of robots as a whole.

Taking warehousing and logistics robots as an example, the deployment of robots in various industries will cut into specific application scenarios and production links. For example, logistics robots will be embedded in the return sorting scene of logistics warehouses, and will continue to provide convenient solutions for smart warehousing.

Capital focuses on robot companies in specific industry segments. For example, in March 2021, the logistics robot manufacturer Carpenter Robot announced the completion of nearly 100 million yuan in financing, and the funds were mainly used to build unmanned handling robots in the large-scale warehousing and logistics industry.

In June 2021, Jiazhi Technology, a manufacturer of intelligent logistics robots, announced that it has completed a B+ round of financing of 100 million yuan, and will continue to promote robot applications in industries such as pan-semiconductor and electronic information manufacturing, 5G communication equipment manufacturing, and panel manufacturing.

In addition to industrial warehousing and logistics applications, the warehousing and logistics robot track in the service industry is also favored by capital. In 2021, Jiangge Robot will complete two consecutive rounds of financing within 6 months, mainly providing warehousing and logistics AMR robot solutions for markets such as beauty, shoes and clothing, and medicine.

In 2021, another sub-segment track where robot financing is hot is the medical field. Intelligent rehabilitation and surgical robot companies continue to accelerate the scale of financing and develop robot products for medical application scenarios.

According to the analysis of industry insiders, taking surgical robots as an example, although domestic research on surgical robots has started late, the market scale is insufficient, and many products are still in the stage of research and development and clinical trials, the capital market still pays great attention to the medical and health industry, which is also reflected in Funding events in 2021.

 Anko, Director of the International Trade Department of Manly Battery Co., Ltd, said: In the future, the explosion of the robot market will also increase the investment of upstream battery manufacturers and keep up with the dividends of the robot market. The future is also spring for upstream battery manufacturers. Manly Battery Co., Ltd will invest 50 million US dollars to expand production in the future.

In 2021, Jingfeng Medical announced the completion of nearly 600 million yuan in Series B financing. It is the only company in China and the second company in the world that has mastered both single-hole surgical robot and multi-hole surgical robot technology. The financing will be used for the intelligent surgical robot platform. development and popularization. In September 2021, Gaorong Technology, a robot company for minimally invasive tumor interventional surgery, announced the completion of a Pre-A round of financing of tens of millions of yuan, dedicated to accelerating the research of robots involved in minimally invasive tumor interventional surgery.

In addition, in the financing event in 2021, capital also poured into many robot sub-tracks such as life science intelligent automation, rehabilitation and elderly care, intelligent swimming pool cleaning, precision manufacturing and energy industries, and continued to expand new application scenarios of robots, forming a “blooming everywhere”. situation.

Emerging application market becomes a new growth point

Ren Yutong, executive chairman of the Guangdong Robot Association, told Southern Finance and Economics reporters, "The application market of robots is very important, and the number of robot companies in my country is very large. With the support and guidance of policies, the robot industry is facing a big market opportunity. Every robot integration Enterprises should do a good job in subdivided application industries and identify market positioning."

Fang Tao, Marketing Director of Scitech, believes that in the future, with the disappearance of my country's demographic dividend and the acceleration of industrial upgrading, commercial service robots will rapidly penetrate into all aspects of production and life.

At present, Scitech's robots have nearly 300 large-scale application cases in the country, and they are deployed in hospitals, international health stations, international hotels, laboratories, airports, stadiums, schools, scenic spots, parks and other scenarios, and they are the perfect place for urban life. Various aspects.

In fact, emerging applications of robotics also extend to more specialized scenarios, such as large-scale events and stadiums. "We have realized the comprehensive killing work of the 45,000 square meters area of the Capital Gymnasium through robots, and three comprehensive killings before the game and after the game, which motivates us to continuously improve the functions of the robot and deeply understand the use of this scene. demand, to achieve better operating results." Fang Tao said.

Robots used in professional venues require continuous optimization of software and hardware. Zhang Wenyi, the head of the Candela Robot brand, told Southern Finance and Economics reporters that when Candela Robot operates in the National Stadium, it needs to identify open environments, long straight corridors, etc., and perform real-time positioning.

"When the venues hold major events and activities, there are many people and intensive equipment exchanges. Robots need to accurately identify and avoid obstacles in real time, which is more difficult than other scenarios. All these require the R&D and product teams to deeply study and understand the scenarios. It is a major difficulty to make corresponding software and hardware upgrade solutions, etc., and it is necessary to continuously debug equipment and sensors, upgrade and optimize navigation algorithms, scheduling, etc. to adapt to environmental needs.” Zhang Wenyi explained.

What is the development prospect of China's intelligent robots in terms of technology and application?

Sun Zhiqiang, chairman and president of Guangzhou Risong Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. believes that the development of China's robot industry is shifting from the formation period to the development period, and is entering the golden period of industrial structure optimization. Innovative technology to meet the needs of continuous transformation, upgrading and continuous segmentation and development of the application industry.

"In order to realize the overtaking of the robot industry, the first is to expand the market in different application scenarios; the second is to improve the comprehensive capabilities of robots and intelligent manufacturing system solution providers; the third is to realize robots and information technology, communication technology, artificial intelligence It can be said that the competition in the robot industry is shifting from the competition of applications in known fields to the competition of applications in unknown fields.” Sun Zhiqiang said.

Fang Tao believes that the challenge now is the process of pulling the "future" in people's perception to the "present". "In the future, we will continue to deepen research and development in core areas, improve the ease of use of technology, and reduce the production cost of robots through large-scale production, so that robots can be used in more scenarios; we will also continue to promote technology in this field. At the same time, it will strengthen market education, so that more and more people will realize the application value of intelligent robots in various life scenarios, and stimulate market demand.”

Shenzhen Manly Battery Co.,Ltd specializes in the production of energy storage batteries, electric vehicle batteries, artificial intelligence batteries, AI robot batteries, 5G base station batteries, etc. Contact: sales@manlybatteries.com