Japan, the United States, South Korea and Europe are the traditional leaders in the global industrial robot market. Fanuc, Yaskawa Electric, ABB and KUKA, which are known as the "Big Four" of industrial robots, belong to Japan, Switzerland and Germany respectively. However, in recent years, the global market competition landscape has been constantly changing. The market share of the "Big Four" has dropped from 60% before 2013 to about 50% in 2014. The rising Chinese robot companies have led to a simultaneous decline in both volume and price for the "Big Four". Internet enterprises such as Google and Alibaba have entered the robot market, forming a new competitive landscape in the field of industrial robots.

The continuous emergence of new enterprises has disrupted the existing pattern of the industrial robot market. In terms of market share, the monopolistic position of the "Big Four" is increasingly threatened. The 6-axis serial industrial robot produced by Danmai Universal Robots and the robot produced by Rethink Robotics have features such as lightness and flexibility, and are widely favored by the market. Robot enterprises in various countries are constantly rising, giving rise to highly competitive robot companies such as Estun, Siasun, and Guangzhou CNC. The emerging robot companies have significantly reduced the cost of robot usage, and both the number and price of established robot enterprises have been greatly affected. In 2014, the sales volume of robots in China accounted for approximately one quarter of the global total. Among them, the share of domestic robots in the domestic market has been increasing year by year, approaching 29% in 2014, forming a strong competition with the "Big Four" in terms of both quantity and price. From the perspective of the application market, the competition in the industrial robot market is showing a diversified development trend. Enterprises are no longer merely targeting the traditional 3C (computer, communication, consumer electronics) manufacturing sector, but are actively seizing the technological high ground and market share in emerging fields such as home appliances, wearable devices, electronics, medical care, and logistics.

Internet enterprises have become a new force in the field of industrial robots. Since 2013, Google has acquired nine robot enterprises, covering areas such as industrial robots, related development technologies, and the Android system. It is committed to researching and developing smart products such as driverless cars, smart home appliances, and wearable devices. It also plans to apply the Android system to the mechanical manufacturing field, bringing intelligent manufacturing and intelligent control to a new height. Internet enterprises have strong advantages in cloud computing, big data, cloud storage, online sales, etc. The cross-border integration of the virtual world and the real manufacturing industry, coupled with the research and development and industrialization of new robot technologies, will surely bring about a disruptive change to the future development of robots.

The challenges faced by the development of industrial robots in China under the new pattern

From the perspective of industry development, core components have not yet achieved independent production. Most of the domestic robots in China are applied in fields such as material handling, loading and unloading, and brazing. In high-end fields like welding, automobiles, and electronic manufacturing, foreign-funded enterprises account for a relatively high proportion. This is mainly due to the fact that core components such as servo motors, reducers, and control systems in China rely on imports, and the cost of core components accounts for an excessively high proportion of the overall cost. The cost of reducers alone accounts for 35% of the robot's total cost. It is unable to compete with foreign enterprises in high-end fields. At present, domestic enterprises in Shanghai such as Sinodrive, Inovance Technology and Shuanghuan Transmission are stepping up efforts to develop dedicated servo systems, dedicated controllers and reducer technologies for industrial robots.

From the perspective of regional development, the layout of robot industrial parks lacks differentiation. By the end of 2014, there were over 40 robot industrial parks across China. Some of these parks had taken shape and demonstrated strong comprehensive strength. However, in most robot industrial parks, the number of enterprises is small and their scale is not large. Most of these enterprises are making their first investment. The industrial development is similar and the products are highly homogeneous. They are at a disadvantage in global differentiated competition and are prone to missing development opportunities. Moreover, in terms of regional competition, there is cut-throat competition in the investment promotion policies of various regions. The "machine replacement of human labor" measures introduced by many places mainly target the field of human labor substitution, and are less applied in the field of high-end intelligent robots.

From the perspective of the development environment, the scientific research system, financing environment, talent guarantee and other aspects need to be improved. The growth rate of R&D investment in robots in our country has been increasing year by year. However, it is difficult for valid patents in our country to be converted into invention patents. The number of robot-related papers and the conversion rate of scientific research achievements are inverted, which is closely related to our country's scientific research system. Scientific research achievements, as an important indicator for the evaluation of awards and professional titles for research scholars, do not take industrialization as the main orientation. From the perspective of funding channels, apart from government financial support, many robot enterprises' listing and financing are mainly based on concept speculation, and the raised funds are not used for actual research and development and production. There is a shortage of industrial robot application talents in our country. The training system for relevant technical application talents in enterprises and universities has not been effectively established. The lack of cross-disciplinary compound talents has become a bottleneck restricting the differentiated development of China's robot industry.