When a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation is reconstructing the global innovation map and economic structure, the research, development, and application of robots in the global scope are also developing rapidly and penetrating into various fields of production and life. Robots are rapidly extending from traditional applications such as handling and assembly to more intelligent and refined advanced manufacturing, medical and health care, and life services. So what is the driving force of robot development? What are the future development opportunities? What direction are the investment institutions are optimistic about?

Internal and external driving forces of development
Gao Qian, CEO of Novus commercial robotics, believes that the rapid development of robots is driven by both internal and external forces. She shared this view at the greater bay area international innovation summit 2019 (Bati), hosted by eoi and EqualOcean.

From the perspective of external driving force, in 2015, the proportion of people over 60 years old in China's total population reached 16.15%, and it is expected that the proportion will reach 17.17% in 2020. In 2018, China's per capita GDP was close to us $10,000, ranking among "moderately developed countries". It can be seen that the turning point of labor force from surplus to shortage has come.At the same time, the country has also issued a series of strong strategic policies to support the development of the robot industry, including the guidance on promoting the development of the industrial robot industry, the robot industry development plan (2016-2020), and the made in China 2025.

From the perspective of internal driving force, with the improvement of technical level, the precision and speed of robot operation have been gradually improved, together with the end-to-end one-stop solution, the complete set of products and services also provide great convenience for the client. In addition, as the number of robot companies and products increases, the price of robots will fall, and the payback period for clients will shorten. Then, a product that is reliable enough and cheap enough will drive the popularity of robots.

The industry is not mature yet
Liu Hong, a professor at Peking University and vice president of the Chinese society of artificial intelligence, believes that the development of robots in the past 60 years is generally stable, pervasive and diverse.
Service robots, for example, can be divided into three categories in terms of development history.The first kind of cartoon robot is mainly based on voice dialogue, such as xiaodu robot, xiaowu robot, pinecone robot, can realize voice query, entertainment services and so on.The second kind is humanoid robot, not only can voice interaction, but also can complete some work and services, really into the daily life of human beings, such as shenzhen youbi alpha robot, sogou wangzai robot, Beijing kangli youlan company youyou robot and so on.The third type is "beauty" robot, whose image is more popular and easy to be accepted by people. For example, "ke jia", a beauty robot developed by the scientific research team of university of science and technology of China, has taken an important step towards "anthropomorphic" robot.

In general, robots are being developed in research institutes and enterprises, and the functions of robots are gradually enriched and the forms are also changing. From the perspective of the deep logic of the development of scientific and technological products, the development of artificial intelligence still needs to be promoted and the development of robot products is not yet mature.

Five future development opportunities

Liu hong believes that in the future, with the application of new technologies and new application scenarios, intelligent robots will usher in five development opportunities:

First, robot + intelligent human-computer interaction.The first generation of human-computer interaction was perforated paper tape;The second generation of human-computer interaction is the display, keyboard, mouse;The third generation of human-computer interaction is multimedia, touch screen;The fourth generation of human-computer interaction will be the natural interaction and intelligent agent accompanying the robot application.

Second, robot + big data cloud computing.The price is the most important factor for robots to reach millions of households.In the future, with the support of cloud computing and big data technology, the robot will process and store data in the cloud.

Third, robot + intelligent monitoring.The traditional video monitoring system has fixed detection equipment and a large number of detection devices. It lacks automatic event detection and analysis, active on-site intervention and post-verification.The intelligent video monitoring system can improve the space coverage through mobile monitoring platform and implement online early warning, prevention and fight against crimes. The key of the intelligent video monitoring system is the new intelligent robot monitoring technology in the network environment.

Forth, Artificial intelligence + service robot.At present, the intelligence level of robots is still low, which is the biggest obstacle to the popularization of robots.In the future, robots will step out of laboratories and factories and step into human daily life.In the "human-machine co-existence" society, intelligent human-machine interaction is the key to realize the safety, autonomy and friendliness of robots, which urgently requires the deep integration and cross innovation of artificial intelligence technology and robot technology.

Fifth, Artificial intelligence + industrial robots.Liu hong thinks, machine changes a person, imperative!The first generation of industrial robots are mainly engaged in fixed operations with high accuracy, strength and repeatability in a structured environment.The second generation is simply sensing industrial robots;The third generation is an industrial robot combined with artificial intelligence that can accomplish complex tasks and human-machine cooperation in an unstructured environment.Liu hong believes that the third generation of intelligent industrial robots will be the future key development area.

The "art" and "way" of intelligent robot investment
In recent years, the rapid development of intelligent robots cannot be separated from the support of capital power. All investment institutions are optimistic about the application scenarios of robots and invest in robot-related enterprises one after another.

Yu lifeng, partner of yuanxing capital management, believes that the investment of robots should be oriented to the landing of scenes, master the core technology to stimulate new markets, 2B first.Machine agent is the key link and symbol of intelligent manufacturing. The demand scenario of this level is clear and the technology maturity is relatively high. The application of intelligent robot helps to improve efficiency, change cost structure, upgrade and transform traditional industries, so as to realize automation, informatization and eliminate backward production capacity.

At present, the development of intelligent robots is still in the initial stage of the industry, and the applications of robots in different industries are not balanced, with a low overall penetration rate.Driven by big data, the original market needs smarter and cheaper products, and the potential new market still needs to be stimulated. With the matching of technology and application, the industrial chain will be gradually improved.