It's started: Robot Uprising Begins as China Turns to Machines to Fill in Gaps in the Workforce

[That Guy]

You can imagine how people reacted when British started Industrial Revolution, that time is pretty similar with nowadays in some extent. People worry about machines replace labors. However, human society still evolve into such a high degree. We can't know what will happen after decades, but we have to follow the trend if we want win.

I feel like that's a false equivalence. The Industrial revolution didn't mean that machines were taking over, it meant that industry was rapidly growing.

But maybe you're right, we'll see.

 

[武成王]

I feel like that's a false equivalence. The Industrial revolution didn't mean that machines were taking over, it meant that industry was rapidly growing.

But maybe you're right, we'll see.

very similar indeed. before 1840, Chinese textile industry basically relied on artificial textile machinery (I believe India were also in similar level before British dominated, I remember Gandi had a hobby to make textile by a wooden made machine), after colonial powers opened the door of Qing Dynasty by cannon, the price and quality of local textile and silk product could't compete against those made in western world by new machines, small business rapidly bankrupted. Chinese businessmen eventually started to import western machines to adapt the change.

 

[Nilgiri]

very similar indeed. before 1840, Chinese textile industry basically relied on artificial textile machinery (I believe India were also in similar level before British dominated, I remember Gandi had a hobby to make textile by a wooden made machine), after colonial powers opened the door of Qing Dynasty by cannon, the price and quality of local textile and silk product could't compete against those made in western world by new machines, small business rapidly bankrupted. Chinese businessmen eventually started to import western machines to adapt the change.

Yup this is what is known as being forced captive market. China has recovered faster, India started later (and quite slower overall). But both countries have "long march" to reclaim what they were in the past with respect to rest of the world. There is actually a lot of good cooperation going on between both in say solar power and smartphones...India is shaping up its policy after years of neglect and a credit-GDP ratio some 3 - 4 times lower than China (and about twice as low as when China was in similar growth stage). But lets hope for the best past everyone thinking its zero-sum game only:

 

[TaiShang]

More China-made robot parts is goal
By Ma Si | China Daily | Updated: 2017-05-23

High-tech devices domestically produced would save on costs

China aims to break foreign dominance in the manufacture of core robot components in one to two years as the world's largest industrial robot market makes progress in producing reliable speed reducers, servomotors and control panels, one of the experts involved in drafting the Made in China 2025 strategy said.

The parts are the three basic building blocks of sophisticated automated machines and, if all are imported, they account for about 70 percent of a domestic robot's production cost.

"We aim to increase the market share of homegrown servomotors, speed reducers and control panels in China to over 30 percent by 2018 or 2019," said Qu Xianming, an expert with the National Manufacturing Strategy Advisory Committee, which advises the government on plans to upgrade the manufacturing sector.

By then, these indigenous components could be of high enough quality to be exported to foreign countries, Qu said in an exclusive interview with China Daily. He said once the target is met, it will lay down a strong foundation for Chinese parts makers to expand their presence.

Currently, most of these parts are imported from Japan, Europe and the United States, which has markedly increased domestic robot makers' production costs and weighed down their competition with foreign rivals.

"Domestic players have to spend four times as much as their foreign counterparts to buy speed reducers and twice as much for a servomotor," according to a white paper released in 2016 by China Center for Information Industry Development, a research agency affiliated with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

China overtook Japan as the world's largest market for industrial robots in 2013. Last year, it installed 90,000 new industrial robots. That's one-third of the world total and 30 percent more than the year before, data from the International Federation of Robotics show.

The country plans to boost its annual production capacity of industrial robots to 100,000 in 2020 from 72,400 in 2016, signaling the growing demand for essential components.

"To mass-produce core robot parts is a flagship project of the Made in China 2025 strategy. Domestic players are making leaps forward," Qu said.

Shaanxi Qinchuan Machinery Development Co Ltd, for instance, can produce 10,000 units of cycloidal pinwheel speed reducers a year. Cycloidal speed reducers allow robots to move with greater accuracy. The company is building a factory that will have an annual output capacity of 60,000 units when completed by the end of 2018 at the earliest.

Nantong Zhenkang Machinery Co Ltd, another cycloidal speed reducer maker, is working on production lines that can make 50,000 units a year. "Once the two projects are completed, they can meet 30 to 40 percent of the domestic demand," Qu said.

Some Chinese players, including Siasun Robot and Automation, have independently developed control panels, which demand many tailor-made features, Qu said.

Wang Jiegao, chief engineer of Estun Automation and general manager of subsidiary Estun Robotics Co Ltd, said the company can produce over 100,000 servomotors a year, most of which go to high-end numerical control machines, so the supply to robots is still limited.

"Numerical control machines demand higher accuracy, but robots are more sophisticated," Wang said, adding the company still needs to buy speed reducers from foreign companies.

"It is highly likely for China to meet the 30 percent market share target, which can greatly lower the production costs," he said.

Rodney Brooks, founder and chairman of Rethink Robotics, said in an earlier interview with China Daily that the Chinese robot market is booming. The rising labor cost and shrinking labor pool will further drive the demand for industrial robots in the country.

 

[cirr]

One of China’s biggest online retailers is building a delivery drone that can carry 2,000 pounds of cargo

It will likely be used to bring food from farms and agricultural warehouses to cities.

BY APRIL GLASER@APRILASER MAY 22, 2017, 4:52PM EDT

JD.com

JD.com, one of the largest online retailers in China, announced that it plans to develop a drone capable of carrying one ton of cargo for deliveries to and from remote parts of the country.

The company will test its drone technology in the northwestern Chinese province of Shaanxi, where the online retailer has reached an agreement with the local government to test a low-altitude drone logistics network. Stretching over a 186-mile radius across Shaanxi, the drone logistics network will service hundreds of flight routes and air bases designed to optimize shipping online orders.

A spokesperson from JD told Recode that the company probably won’t have its one-ton capacity drone ready to fly for another two to three years. The early application for that drone will likely be to deliver food from agricultural centers in rural China into cities, rather than for last-mile delivery like the smaller drones already in use.

JD started its drone delivery program last year, sending parcels via unmanned aircraft to four provinces: Jiangsu, rural Beijing, Sichuan and Guangxi. As of January 2017, the online retailer reported having only about 20 fixed routes, but said that it plans to expand to 100 routes by the end of this year.

The Chinese e-commerce giant’s drone delivery scheme is markedly different from Amazon’s plan to use drones.

“We try to deliver with drones from cities to the countryside,” explained JD’s CEO Richard Liu in an interview with Recode late last year. “In every village, we have a delivery man who lives in the village, and he will take the parcels [delivered by drone] to different houses.”

Instead of the drone delivering directly to customers’ doorsteps, a local delivery person retrieves the cargo from the drone, which may carry between eight and 15 packages that were ordered by people in the village. The delivery person then brings the packages to people’s doors.

Amazon, on the other hand, has shown how it plans to use drones to deliver directly to people’s houses, as opposed to grouping local shipments like JD.

The Chinese online retailer says it plans to also open a research and development center with the Xi’an National Civil Aerospace Industrial Base to design and manufacture drones. The research center will include 30 acres of land to test its aircraft. The company has at least five different types of drones it currently flies for deliveries, which are used depending on the size of parcel.

For JD, drones have helped the online retailer expand into rural China without taking on massive delivery costs. Delivering by drone to rural areas can be at least 70 percent cheaper than by truck, according to JD’s CEO Richard Liu, and only takes a fraction of the time, since drones can soar over congested traffic and mountainous regions.

In the U.S., large-scale delivery by drone likely won’t happen until at least 2020, while the Federal Aviation Administration continues to craft rules and figure out a national low-altitude air traffic control system solution.

The slow U.S. regulatory timeline pushed Amazon to open its drone-testing facilities in the U.K., though that country also lacks national rules that would permit wide-scale drone delivery across the country. Amazon has so far received permission to fly in certain rural and suburban areas in the U.K.

Alibaba is the biggest e-commerce company in China, but JD is its fiercest rival, holding about 20 percent of online retail market share in China, while Alibaba claims about 44 percent, according to data collected by Bloomberg.

Here’s a video you can watch of JD’s drone delivery from last November:

https://www.recode.net/2017/5/22/15666446/jd-china-drone-delivery-two-thousand-2000-pounds

 

[ChineseToTheBone]

Rodney Brooks, founder and chairman of Rethink Robotics, said in an earlier interview with China Daily that the Chinese robot market is booming. The rising labor cost and shrinking labor pool will further drive the demand for industrial robots in the country.

It does worry me a bit, since I believe that China has already reached peak labour supply. Hopefully even with machines replacing the declining workforce, people in manufacturing will be able to earn decent wages.

 

[Shotgunner51]

Could you tell me as part of total capital goods spending in China, how much is currently as a % on robotic systems?...and if that figure is available for other countries for comparison?

I can't find robotics as % of total CAPEX yet. Another way is to see which industries are heavy robotics user, and then see which nations have these industries.

Largest robotics user is automotive-car-truck industry, then electrical-electronics, metal, chemicals-rubber-plastics. Since these are China's pillar industries (labour-intensive has dropped to only 16% of total exports last year), robotics is expected to be very heavy in CAPEX now and coming years, when density is still low compared to competitor nations.

 

[onebyone]

 

[JSCh]

Robots producing robots! Speak peek of China's first robot assembly line that makes robots
New China TV
Published on Jun 10, 2017

Simply enter a command, and the rest is left to robots. An assembly line in northeast China's Shenyang with robots as workers are churning out over 5,000 robots each year. It's the first such assembly line in the country.

 

[Han Patriot]

Robots producing robots! Speak peek of China's first robot assembly line that makes robots
New China TV
Published on Jun 10, 2017

Simply enter a command, and the rest is left to robots. An assembly line in northeast China's Shenyang with robots as workers are churning out over 5,000 robots each year. It's the first such assembly line in the country.

Chinese technology progress is scary.

 

[Shotgunner51]

How Robots Are Helping Chinese Students Solve Real-World Problems
Jun 7, 2017 @ 11:25 PM

Tweet This

• At a time when Chinese companies are seeking to push the boundaries and innovate, STEM education is creating a buzz in the world’s most populous nation.
• Today, RoboTerra is the preferred partner of more than 1,000 Chinese schools offering STEM classes, providing both the technology and guidance to teachers.

Students build robots from the RoboTerra toolkit.

What key skills do students need to learn to find a good job? In China, the answer increasingly points to STEM – a school curriculum focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The concept, created in the U.S. and supported by prominent figures such as Apple’s Tim Cook and former U.S. President Barack Obama, is a problem-based approach to studying those core subjects. The difference between this and a conventional education system is the emphasis on the application of this scientific or technological knowledge to real-life situations. Students are essentially given practical problems to solve that they may face in reality.

At a time when Chinese companies are seeking to push the boundaries and innovate, STEM education is creating a buzz in the world’s most populous nation. Some schools want to change an education system focused on grilling examinations to one that is about problem solving and project based.

For 28-year-old Sui Shaolong, this presents a huge business opportunity.

Since 2015, Sui’s Beijing-based startup RoboTerra has been developing robot products and courses to teach students about computer coding and robotics. At $429, the RoboTerra toolkit comes with spare parts that can be built into dozens of different robots, along with access to a cloud-based platform where users can find courses designed for different age groups.

Today, RoboTerra is the preferred partner of more than 1,000 Chinese schools offering STEM classes, providing both the technology and guidance to teachers. The company’s success has earned Sui a place on FORBES Asia’s 2017 30 Under 30 list.

Multi-billion investment

And Sui’s future prospects look equally encouraging.

By 2020, Chinese schools will spend more than 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) on STEM-related courses, according to consultancy JMDedu. And this is being driven by eager parents like 31-year-old Elise Guo, who thinks that learning about drones and robots is a more practical step towards getting a decent job in China’s ultra-competitive job market, where a record 7.95 million college graduates will compete for work opportunities this year alone, according to a survey from Chinese job site Zhaopin.com.

“STEM allows children to get better at critical thinking and other practical abilities,” says Guo, who has a one-year-old son. “It would be just great if I could get him interested as a child, so he can get good jobs in the future.”​

The trend is also being encouraged by the Chinese government. Seeking to nurture more talent in fields such as technology, Beijing instructed schools nationwide to “actively explore” STEM in its latest policy blueprint, the 13th five-year plan published in 2015. And earlier this year, the country’s Ministry of Education made it mandatory for all elementary students to study STEM, according to its website.

“I couldn’t start my business at a better time,” says Sui. “After policy support, the market here will grow even quicker than in the U.S.”​

Sui’s startup dates back to his time working in Silicon Valley. The Stanford graduate worked as an automation engineer at both Apple and Tesla, and still remembers the shortage of technology talent even those tech stalwarts grappled with. Apple, for example, used to rely on humans to install cameras onto the iPhone 6 smartphones because machines couldn’t fit the small parts as well, he says. At that time, Sui’s job was building a system that could install the cameras automatically.

“There is a huge gap between what students learn at school and what companies really need,” he adds. “Combining technology with education is something with great prospects.”​

Sui left Apple in 2015 to start RoboTerra with partner Zhang Yao, whom he met in the U.S. They’ve received close to $4 million in initial funding from investors including Zhiping Capital. Within two months of starting the company, he moved it to China where he believed there to be a bigger demand for “robot lessons.”

Competition

But it’s not all plain sailing, with competition ratcheting up. Hundreds of startups, such as the Shenzhen-based Makeblock, are also eying this lucrative business, while global players including Sony and Lego are building partnerships with Chinese schools as well, offering toolkits together with tutorials to teachers.

Yet RoboTerra’s biggest advantages are more localized courses and easier-to-use toolkits, Sui says. Compared with the global companies, it understands Chinese students better, he adds. And its products, which can be visualized in 3D mode through the company’s software, allow students to build them quicker, even without coaching from teachers, according to Sui.

“Chinese schools are just beginning to familiarize themselves with STEM,” he said. “There will be huge demand in second- and third-tier cities.”​

Read the full article at https://www.forbes.com/sites/ywang/...dents-solve-real-world-problems/#7ffa201310a2

 

[cirr]

Chaoyue's cozy dates with Trump and Ma

2017-06-13 10:21

China Daily Editor: Wang Fan

The Robot Chaoyue at the 2017 Beijing International Robot Exhibition, June 10, 2017. (Photo provided to China Daily)

Silcone sculptures and robots mingle at the 2017 Beijing International expo

When it comes to robots, Chaoyue is attractive. So attractive, in fact, she invited Donald Trump and Jack Ma to join her.

Not the real versions, of course, but silicone sculptures, of the United States president and the founder and chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

The three of them did not fluff their lines, they just stood in a line at the 2017 Beijing International Robot Exhibition last week.

Looking eerily real, Trump and Ma became the stars of the show along with Chaoyue, who cost up to 300,000 yuan ($44,131) to develop by Xi'an Superman Group Corp, a privately owned company based in Xi'an, Shaanxi province.

"Oh my God, their skin is so real that I can see the pores and the blood vessels," said a visitor on Saturday at the exhibition.

It should be, as the sculptures of Trump and Ma cost 80,000 yuan each.

Models of U.S. President Donald Trump and Founder and Chairman of Alibaba Group Jack Ma at the 2017 Beijing International Robot Exhibition, June 10, 2017. (Photo provided to China Daily)

Launched in 1997, Xi'an Superman Group is the largest simulation silicone sculpture company in China.

More than 4,000 models have rolled off their assembly line with most on show at around 400 museums and memorial halls in China and overseas.

"About one-third of the models of Chinese historical and cultural figures at the National Museum were produced by our company," said Zou Renti, founder of the group.

With 80 makeup artists, craftsmen and software engineers, Xi'an Superman's revenue is between 20 million and 30 million yuan annually.

Detailed financial figures have yet to be released, but the silicone figures of Trump and Ma will be upgraded into robotic form in the near future.

"Our company is the first in China to combine silicone sculpture art with modern technology to develop human replica robots," said Zou.

By 2006, t1he group's simulated robot "Zou Renti", was selected as one of the "inventions of the year" by Time, the prestigious U.S. weekly magazine, while on show at the Chicago International Automobile and Robots Exhibition.

So far, it has made more than 40 robots for museums.

"They can make realistic facial expressions," said Zou. "But our robots are not as good in motion smoothness as Japanese models."

The computer control programs, or electrical brains, inside them allow them to perform simply tasks, recognize speech patterns and talk to people, according to Xi'an Superman.

"With their skin made of silica gel, our robots look like real people," said Zou. "Human hair is used, or inserted, for eyebrows and eyelashes."

After being in business for two decades, the group now owns dozens of patented technologies in the field of simulated robots.

In the next 10 to 20 years, Xi'an Superman plans to manufacture domestic service robots, which ordinary consumers will be able to buy with individual design features.

"We can make robots that look like children or grandchildren of the people buying them," said Zou. "They will never leave and act as a constant reminder. But first we have to look at ways to reduce the costs.

"It takes us three to five months to make a human replica robot, which costs between 200,000 yuan to 300,000 yuan," Zou added.

According to statistics, there are more than 50 countries developing service robots.

In Japan and the United States, many basic units are already in service. The Japanese government has made robotics one of its key industries for economic growth.

In June 2015, the country launched a robot, which was called Pepper and cost only just 10,000 yuan.

It could recognize facial expressions, talk with humans and act as an alarm call for elderly people, who live alone.

http://www.ecns.cn/business/2017/06-13/261262.shtml

 

[TaiShang]

An intelligent military robot dog is on display at the 20th China Beijing International High-tech Expo in Beijing on June 10, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

An intelligent robot that can interact with children and help them develop good habits is on display at the Silk Road Expo in Xi'an, Northwest China’s Shaanxi province, on June 3, 2017. [Photo by Yang Yang / chinadaily.com.cn]

Children are curious about a smart robot display at the 20th China Beijing International High-tech Expo in Beijing on June 10, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

A boy interacts with a robot at the 20th China Beijing International High-tech Expo in Beijing on June 10, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

A boy watches a smart robot perform at the 20th China Beijing International High-tech Expo in Beijing on June 10, 2017. [Photo/VCG]


http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2017-06/13/content_29723972_9.htm

 

[AndrewJin]

An intelligent military robot dog is on display at the 20th China Beijing International High-tech Expo in Beijing on June 10, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

An intelligent robot that can interact with children and help them develop good habits is on display at the Silk Road Expo in Xi'an, Northwest China’s Shaanxi province, on June 3, 2017. [Photo by Yang Yang / chinadaily.com.cn]

Children are curious about a smart robot display at the 20th China Beijing International High-tech Expo in Beijing on June 10, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

A boy interacts with a robot at the 20th China Beijing International High-tech Expo in Beijing on June 10, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

A boy watches a smart robot perform at the 20th China Beijing International High-tech Expo in Beijing on June 10, 2017. [Photo/VCG]


http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2017-06/13/content_29723972_9.htm

Is that a real dog or a robot?

 

[TaiShang]

Is that a real dog or a robot?

I think a real dog. Its equipment is special, however.