Industrial robots are multi-joint manipulators or multi-degree-of-freedom machine devices widely used in the industrial field. They have certain automation and can realize various industrial processing and manufacturing functions by relying on their own power sources and control capabilities.
Under the background of the new round of industrial revolution, the robot industry is gradually moving towards the AI era, which is expected to become an important variable for the full-scale explosion of artificial intelligence technology.
Divided by function:
Divided by mechanical structure:
Industrial robots are usually composed of six subsystems: control system, drive system, execution system, perception system, decision-making system and software part, and human-robot-environment interaction system.
▍Industrial robot industry chain
The upstream of industrial robots and complete sets of equipment includes the fields of controllers, servo systems, reducers and other components; the midstream is the complete machine manufacturing industry; Welding, machining, assembly, handling, sorting, spraying and other production fields.
Image source: Xingxingcha
From the perspective of the industrial chain, the upstream of industrial robots is the key component manufacturer. The cost of core components accounts for 70% of the total cost of industrial robots. Core component suppliers have the strongest bargaining power in the entire industrial chain.
Image source: Guotai Junan, Xingxingcha
The controller, servo system (including servo drive and servo motor), reducer and other three core components account for about 70% of the total cost of the robot. Among them, the reducer accounts for about 36% of the overall machine cost, the servo accounts for about 24%, and the controller accounts for about 12%, while the body and other parts account for 15% and 13% of the overall machine cost respectively.
reducer
The reducer is the core component with the highest value of industrial robots. It is a transmission component composed of multiple gears. The gear meshing is used to change the motor speed, torque and load capacity, and can also achieve precise control.
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Compared with general-purpose reducers, reducers for robots are required to have the characteristics of short transmission chain, small size, high power, light weight and easy control.
The reducer is mainly divided into harmonic reducer and RV reducer. Harmonic reducer is a kind of gear reducer. The RV reducer is composed of a front stage of a planetary gear reducer and a rear stage of a cycloidal pinwheel reducer.
server system
Servo system refers to a system that uses position, speed, and torque as control quantities, and can dynamically track target changes to achieve automatic control. It consists of three parts: servo drive, servo motor, and feedback device (encoder). It is the main power of industrial robots. source.
The servo drive mainly realizes the control of the position, speed and torque unit in the form of bus communication; the encoder mainly adopts a multi-turn absolute value encoder; the servo motor refers to the engine that controls the operation of mechanical components in the servo system, which can control the speed, The position accuracy is very accurate, and the voltage signal can also be converted into torque and speed to drive the control object.
Image source: MIR, Xingxingcha
controller
The controller mainly controls the movement position, posture and trajectory of the robot in the workspace, the operation sequence and the time of the action, etc. As one of the three major components of industrial robots, it is the brain of industrial robots and plays a decisive role in the performance of robots.
Industrial robot body
The robot body, that is, the base and the actuator, including the arm, wrist, etc., according to the structure, the body can be divided into rectangular coordinates, spherical coordinates, cylindrical coordinates, joint coordinates and other types.
From the perspective of the competition pattern of the industrial robot body market, the "four major families" FANUC (Fanuc), ABB, KUKA (Kuka), and YASKAWA (Yaskawa) have inherited the technical advantages of the original machine tools, servo systems, and welding equipment, and are in the field of robotics. Occupying the top spot, plus Epson, the global market share exceeds 50%, and the domestic market share exceeds 40%.
▍Four families of industrial robots
FANUC
Founded in 1956, FANUC is a Japanese company specializing in the research of CNC systems and the largest professional CNC system manufacturer in the world. In 1974, FANUC's first robot came out; in 2008, the installed capacity of FANUC's robots exceeded 200,000 units, ranking first in the world; in 2011, FANUC's global robots exceeded 250,000 units, ranking first in market share. Today, FANUC has formed a business model for the coordinated development of the three major businesses of industrial automation, machine tools and robots. FANUC's strength lies in light-load, high-precision applications.
ABB
Founded in Switzerland in 1988, ABB entered China in 1994 and established ABB China Co., Ltd. in 1995. Since 2005, the production, research and development, and engineering centers of ABB robots have all begun to be transferred to China, which shows that international robot giants attach great importance to the Chinese market. At present, China has become ABB's largest market in the world.
ABB first started from the frequency converter. The advantage of ABB's products lies in the integration of motion control and automation. ABB's robot algorithm is the best among the four main brands. It not only has comprehensive motion control solutions, but also pays attention to the overall characteristics of robots. Pay attention to the design of the robot, and the technical documentation for product use is also quite professional and specific. It is well known that ABB robots with high standard control systems are expensive.
KUKA
Founded in 1898, KUKA in Germany initially focused on indoor and urban lighting, and soon began to set foot in other fields. In 1996, KUKA Welding Equipment & Robotics GmbH split into two companies operating independently in the market, namely KUKA Robotics GmbH and KUKA Welding Equipment GmbH.
KUKA started from welding equipment, and KUKA's advantage lies in its innovation of body structure and ease of use. System integration business accounts for the highest proportion and is easy to operate. KUKA has done a better job in the field of heavy-duty robots. Among the robots above 120KG, KUKA and ABB have the most market shares, and among the heavy-duty 400KG and 600KG robots, KUKA has the most sales.
YASKAWA Yaskawa
Founded in 1915, Yaskawa Electric is Japan's largest industrial robot company. Yaskawa Electric started with servo motors, and its AC servo and inverter market share ranks first in the world. Industrial control products represented by servo motors are its core strengths. With the continuous expansion of business scope and enterprise scale, the company has opened branches in Guangzhou, Beijing, Chengdu and other places in addition to the Shanghai headquarters, and has set up agencies and distributors in various regions of China.
Yaskawa started with a servo motor, so it can maximize the inertia of the motor, so the biggest feature of Yaskawa's robot is its large load and high stability. It will not alarm when running at full load and full speed, and can even run overloaded. . Therefore, Yaskawa has a relatively large market in heavy-duty robot application fields, such as the automotive industry.
Yaskawa robot has good stability, but its accuracy is not so high; but Yaskawa robot has obvious price advantage, which is the lowest price among the four major brands, and the price is relatively high.
