As an important part of intelligent manufacturing, robots were elevated to national strategic height during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period. This has also led to the large-scale entry of entrepreneurs and capital, and commercial robots have become the hottest segment of the field. However, due to price and technology constraints, commercial robots seem to have a way to go before they erupt.
The application scenario is simple and controllable, and commercial robots are expected to usher in commercial success first; but still face price and technical bottlenecks
In the recent hit American drama "Western World", the robot receptionist in the high-tech paradise not only has a super high simulation appearance, but also has his own emotions, and even autonomous consciousness and judgment. This eventually triggered a series of stories between humans and robots.
Aside from fictional science fiction, artificial intelligence and robotics have become a torrent in the wave of science and technology, sweeping the globe.
From the perspective of the global market, the robot industry is still in the early stages of industrial development. As global artificial intelligence is entering its third climax, intelligent robots, as a large application area of ??artificial intelligence, have huge imagination in the future.
Looking at the current multiple market segments of robotics, the momentum of commercial service robots far exceeds the seemingly lively family companion robots and industrial robots. Many companies have seized the opportunity and made good achievements. However, along with various opportunities, the commercial robot industry also encountered many problems.
【market】
Commercial robot
Become a market vent
According to the forecast of Analysys Think Tank, in 2015, the domestic service robot market including commercial robots has a scale of about 8.2 billion yuan, will grow to about 14 billion yuan in 2016, and the market size will exceed 20 billion yuan in 2017.
According to Zero2IPO data, from 2014 to the end of October 2016, there were 147 investment and financing events in the domestic robotics field. In addition, well-known domestic companies such as 360 and Sogou have also joined the robot track.
Although more and more startup companies and giants have joined the market competition in the field of intelligent robots, the fields, directions and entry points you choose are not the same.
Li Kaifu, a mentor looking for Chinese makers, said that the robot industry is still basically in the stage of factory use, and many giants of industrial robots have been born. This is the first stage of robot development.
Kaifu Li believes that the next stage of the robot market competition will focus on the field of commercial robots, and the current robotics technology and market environment can already meet commercial needs; the third stage will be popularized in households, because the family ’s The demand is not very strong, there are not many problems to be solved, and it takes time to cultivate.
At present, there is still no uniform standard for the division of the robot field. "If divided according to purpose, they can be divided into four categories. The first category is industrial robots, such as traditional robotic arms; the second category is commercial robots, such as security patrols, shopping malls, bank lobby, and restaurant transfers. They can also be called As a service robot; the third category is professional robots, professional applications in high-tech areas, such as medical robots; the fourth category is home robots. "Song He Capital partner Wang Yang made such a division of the robot field.
The higher thresholds in these four categories are professional robots and industrial robots. At present, consumers are most familiar with home robots, but home service robots are limited by the current interactive experience, price, and other reasons. This market is still tepid.
Wang Yang said, "In contrast, the scenes faced by commercial service robots are relatively simple and controllable. For example, the lobby service of a bank, the pain points that customers need to solve are basically the same. Embedding related problems in the robot can replace some of the lobby. The work of a manager; for example, a restaurant transfers food, a commercial robot can program and complete the route, and it can identify and avoid obstacles. Such a robot, whether it is software technology or hardware equipment, can meet the needs well. "
From October 21st to 25th of this year, the 2016 World Robot Conference held in Beijing Yizhuang Yichuang International Convention and Exhibition Center became a grand event in the robotics industry, attracting nearly 150 new products from Chinese and foreign robot companies.
From the number of exhibitors at this year's World Robot Conference, we can see that more than two-thirds of companies in the consumer service robot exhibition hall are commercial robots targeted at 2B. Security, restaurants, banks, warehouses, etc. have complete products. And solution. Most of these commercial robot companies have launched home robots before, but they are not the company's main business.
An industry insider said that in 2014, companies that entered the field of robotics generally focused on robots of the family concept, but after spending a lot of money, they found that consumers in the home market did not buy at all, which caused them to fail, and custom-developed commercial robots Can realize the realization of the problem, so they have turned their attention to commercial robots.
【application】
What problems can robots solve?
Robots are used in the commercial field to develop functions according to industry needs and to provide system services for merchants such as banks, restaurants, enterprises, large-scale stores, and specialty stores. It is a common understanding of commercial robots. Today, commercial robots have gradually entered the commercial end, replacing part of the labor force, effectively saving costs.
Virtual customer assistant is an important attempt for robots to generate business value, and has achieved rapid landing in many areas.
The small i robot is an example. The company's president and CTO Zhu frequently said that since 2006 he has been involved in the field of intelligent customer service, and has now reached cooperation with banks such as China Merchants Bank, Ping An Bank, Construction Bank, and nearly 1,000 companies such as China Unicom and Mobile. Xiaoi Robot didn't have an entity at first, but the website, APP, including WeChat's online smart customer service response platform, helped users complete services such as query retrieval. When you open the various ports of the bank's online services, you are no longer ordinary staff, but robots.
The reason for the small-scale robots' large-scale application in B-end markets such as banks is to solve the pain points of bank consultation, but the problems are simple and repetitive. Such commercial robots need to have natural language understanding capabilities to assist bank and communications company staff in basic customer service.
At present, in the robot market, Xiao i, a business model that cuts into the B-end market, is the most valuable way for artificial intelligence to land. It doesn't have to be all-inclusive. It only needs to be developed for a certain pain point to help humans work and replace part of the human value. Commercial robots seem to find a business success path easier than other types of robots.
Commercial service robots using the real estate industry as an application scenario are also entering the market. For example, robot security. Teana Robotics' products have human sensing function, automatic obstacle avoidance function, laser scanning base and 360-degree wheel steering design to allow it to walk freely. In ordinary districts, Teana will assume the responsibility of protecting residents, undertake patrol tasks day and night, Teana works 8 hours each time, and can replace two or more people to work at full capacity, greatly saving human resources.
In addition to alternative work, assisting staff to provide more systematic services is also an application direction of commercial robots.
