According to the 2018 World Robot Report recently released by the International Robot Federation (IFR), in 2017, the global sales of industrial robots reached 380,000, an increase of 29% year-on-year. China is the largest buyer, buying 138,000 units in 2017. This figure exceeds one-third of the total global sales in the year, a year-on-year increase of 58%.
South Korea and Japan, which also enthusiastically embraced industrial robots, ranked second and third with 40,000 and 38,000 respectively. In Europe and the United States, the best sales of industrial robots are the United States (33,000) and Germany (22,000). These five countries accounted for 71% of the total sales of industrial robots in 2017.
The report also analyzed the global demand for industrial robots. The data shows that the automotive industry has the greatest demand. In 2017, 125,000 new robots were added. Followed by electrical / electronics, metals, chemicals and food industries, including metal industry growth rate as high as 54%.
"Industrial robots continue to develop at an alarming rate globally," commented Junji Tsuda, president of the International Robot Federation. IFR expects that by 2020, the number of industrial robots worldwide will reach 3 million.
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Norbert Stein, Chairman of the Board of the German Machinery and Equipment Manufacturing Association, believes that this huge demand for industrial robots in China will continue.
He said that the growth of the German robotics industry in 2017 was partly due to some large orders from China. Kuka, a German robot manufacturer, was also acquired by Chinese maker Media in 2016.
Although last year, things like "unmanned economy" was also booming, ambitious China has not yet been able to squeeze into the ranks of countries with the highest level of automation. The report released by IFR in February this year stated that South Korea, Singapore, and Germany are the three most automated countries in the world. They have 631, 488 and 309 robots for every 10,000 employees. This measure is called "robotic density" by the IFR, and it can well reflect the gap in the degree of automation of manufacturing in various countries.
For the time being, China's "robot density" is 68 units per person, ranking 23rd in the world. The goal is to squeeze into the top ten by 2020 and the robot density reaches 150 units per 10,000 people.
The whole world is afraid that robots will end their own jobs. A report from the McKinsey Global Institute says that by 2030, 800 million jobs will vanish under a ringing from robot, scaring people to tremble.
But there is no need to demonize this future trend. Researchers believe that the advances in artificial intelligence and advances in robotics are not simply disruptions. Some current jobs will be redefined and new jobs will be born. Just like the transformation of farming civilization to the industrial revolution, this is a challenge and an opportunity.
In the future, Tsuda believes that industrial robots will evolve toward simplification, intelligence, and human-machine collaboration. It is easier to use and has machine learning capabilities and can even make decisions with big data to help improve productivity. But at the same time it is also asking for humanity, and they need training to better adapt to this new working environment.
The Economist believes that China's attitude of embracing the wave of automation is relatively positive. One of their reasons is that China's education department is conscious of adding programming and artificial intelligence content to middle school and even elementary school textbooks.
Source: iFanr
http://www.ifanr.com/1053548
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