The Segway Navimow will carry out pre-research in 2019 and officially release the product in 2021. The "intelligent lawn mowing robot project" is actually an "intrapreneurship" of the company. Its company executives said that the company will recruit some elite soldiers from the AI and Robot Research Institute, and together with the existing home service robot division, set up a special independent subsidiary to develop this business and create a new growth point for the company.
"We predict that home service robots will become one of the most important economic drivers in the next 10 years. We choose lawn mowers as the main direction to enter the field of home service robots because we see the opportunities in the lawn mower industry. There is an opportunity to become the global champion of the sub-category." The company executive said.
From "people" to "things"
The perception of lawn mowers in Chinese families is not high. As for why "smart lawn mowing robots" are chosen as the direction of force, the company's executives explained: "The company is a company that focuses on smart mobility capabilities, and smart mobility capabilities are divided into Smartly move people and smartly move things. Smartly move people is to help people travel better through innovative ways, which is the business currently done by No. 9 Company; Free from very complicated work, home service robots are one of them. We predict that home service robots will become one of the most important economic drivers in the next 10 years.”
Its executives said: "There are three reasons for choosing a sub-category such as lawn mowing robots: first, this industry category is at the forefront of the outbreak; second, this category has opportunities for subversive innovation; third is the most important. One point, in this field, we have the opportunity to become the first in the world. We believe that in the field of intelligent lawn mowing robots, we can replicate the success in fields such as scooters."
Previously, No. 9 Company has independently developed the service machine product "Loomo" based on the accumulation of intelligent electric balance car technology. In addition, No. 9 Company has also developed intelligent indoor distribution service robots S1, S2 and the RMP series of robot universal mobile chassis. At present, the indoor distribution robot "Cube Sugar" has entered the stage of commercial landing, providing services for catering hotels such as InterContinental Holiday Hotel and Marriott JW Hotel.
An industry insider said: "From my participation in the robot competition to now, people have been asking me what the robot is for, and service robots can actually solve people's problems. This time, the smart lawn mowing robot we released can actually improve housework. Efficiency and lighten the burden of housework.”
According to industry insiders, there are two common pain points for lawnmower robots on the market at present. First, most lawnmower robots adopt random collision methods on the working route. After the lawnmower hits the boundary, it turns at random angles, resulting in repeated coverage and The efficiency is relatively low due to problems such as incomplete coverage. Second, before the lawnmower works for the first time, it needs to contact a special person to come to the door to pre-embed the boundary line, which not only costs 300 to 400 euros, but also delays most of the day and has poor deployment flexibility.
The intelligent lawn mowing robot released by No. 9 Company adopts the original EFLS fusion positioning system technology. By fusing a variety of sensor information, the robot can achieve precise positioning in various lawn environments without manual thread embedding, only through the mobile phone. The APP remote control robot draws a map of the working area in the yard. The map will record the shape of the yard, the location of the boundary, the restricted areas that need to be avoided, etc., and then the robot will plan the optimal mowing path according to this map, so as to achieve no Boundary planning mowing greatly improves work efficiency, saving an average of 1.5 hours to 4 hours compared to traditional mowing robots. On the same grass, the mowing efficiency is increased by 6 times.
Mainly attack overseas market
Chen Zichong, director of the AI and Robot Research Institute of No. 9 Company, told the China Securities Journal that No. 9 Company was indeed the first to discover the "smart lawn mower" market in the domestic robotics circle. "In February 2019, we communicated about this project internally, and started commercial application in the second half of 2019. At that time, there were very few people in China who knew the market demand for lawn mowers. Before, we generally made products based on application requirements. But this time, we used technology to find application scenarios. In the process, we did find that there is a great demand in the market.”
According to industry insiders, the data shows that in 2020, the annual shipments of the global smart lawn mowing robot market have reached nearly 900,000 units, with a market size of nearly US$1 billion. In 2020, the industry compound growth rate will be nearly 20%. "It can be said that after nearly 20 years of development in the entire market, product needs and business models have been verified."
Industry insiders said that at present, the global market size of all types of lawn mowers is about 26 billion US dollars per year, and there is a high ceiling for the 1 billion US dollar smart lawn mowers. Overall, there are currently about 250 million private gardens worldwide. Among them, there are 100 million in the United States, and more than 80 million in Western Europe, Northern Europe, and the United Kingdom. However, the types of lawn mowers used by households in these European and American countries are mainly traditional hand-push and riding traditional lawn mowers, with an annual shipment of 11.5 million units. There is still a lot of room for lawn mowers to penetrate in the future. "From a market perspective, the current lawn mowing robot market has just gone through the initial stage of development and is in the early stage of the mid-term rise."
"In 2020, the global sales of smart lawn mowers will be around 900,000 units. At present, the sales volume of the industry leader is about 350,000-400,000 units, and the sales volume of the second place in the industry is about 200,000-300,000 units. We hope to use three It will be the first in the field of borderless intelligent lawn mowing robots in about 20 years." said an industry insider.
Form a team to operate independently
In order to be the first in the industry in this sub-category, the company executives said that No. 9 Company has made preparations at the levels of organization, channels and supply chain. The company will recruit elite soldiers from the internal AI and robot research institutes, and establish an independent subsidiary to operate the lawn mower business in conjunction with the home service robot department. "This team will be a team with strong R&D capabilities in the global smart lawn mower team, and also a team with more than 100,000 mass production experience. No. 9 Company will also use its brands, channels, supply chain and other resources. Empowering lawn mowers to use.”
Industry insiders said that No. 9 Company has been conducting a global business layout, and has long-term technical accumulation in robotics, and many resources can be transferred to lawn mowers.
The 2021 semi-annual report of No. 9 Company shows that the company is intensively engaged in the field of intelligent short-distance transportation and service robots, relying on its own competitive advantages in intelligent control, industrial design, supply chain management, scale and brand, etc. Smart electric scooter product layout, and gradually extend the business chain to the fields of electric two-wheelers, all-terrain vehicles and intelligent distribution robots. In the first half of 2021, the company sold 208,900 smart electric balance scooters with sales revenue of 411 million yuan; smart electric scooters sold 1.7239 million units with sales revenue of 3.324 billion yuan; smart electric two-wheelers sold 176,100 units with sales revenue 513 million yuan; 6,173 all-terrain vehicles were sold, with sales revenue of 137 million yuan. In addition, the revenue of other products such as children's bicycle products and accessories exceeded 300 million yuan.
"Robots of different products also have many technical commonalities. Drivers, controllers, and sensors are just a combination of different devices. The underlying technology and methodology are the same," said an industry insider.
For example, people in the industry said that the EFLS fusion positioning system technology used by the intelligent lawn mowing robot was also involved in the delivery robot developed by No. 9 Company before, and then adjusted and improved according to the specific operating scene requirements of the lawn mowing robot. "In terms of supply chain, the supply chain of the wheel part of the existing short-distance transportation robot and the supply chain of the battery motor electric control "three electric" part of the company can be provided to the lawn mower robot for use, some new key technologies, For example, satellite positioning differential GPS will involve suppliers that have not been contacted before, and we will focus on developing them."
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