Industrial robots are key supporting equipment for advanced manufacturing. Vigorously developing the industrial robot industry is of great significance for building new advantages in Chinese manufacturing, promoting industrial transformation and upgrading, and accelerating the construction of a manufacturing powerhouse.

To develop industrial robots, we need to focus on creating six iconic products, five key components, and four basic capabilities. In this issue, FaZhiZao introduces five key components - high-precision reducers, high-performance robot specific servo motors and drivers, high-speed high-performance controllers, sensors, and end effectors.

1、 High precision reducer

Precision reducer, in the field of mechanical transmission, is an intermediate device that connects the power source and the actuator. It usually passes the high-speed power of electric motors, internal combustion engines, etc. through the small gear on the input shaft, meshes with the large gear on the output shaft, thereby reducing the speed and increasing the torque.

Without a reducer, the robot articulated arm cannot operate normally.

Precision reducers can be divided into standard precision and high precision based on their accuracy; It can be divided into military and civilian use according to its purpose; According to the operating environment, it can be divided into standard environment, low-temperature environment, clean room environment, and vacuum environment.

At present, there are few RV reducer manufacturing companies internationally with large-scale production capacity and reliable product performance, and the vast majority of the global market share has been occupied by Japanese companies. Although domestic reducers are cheap and have a short supply period, there is a significant gap in product performance compared to foreign products. Therefore, most domestic reducers can only be used for mid to low end robots and cannot meet the demand of the high-end robot market.

To this end, the "Robot Development Plan" specifies the development of high-strength wear-resistant material technology, processing optimization technology, high-speed lubrication technology, high-precision assembly technology, reliability, exploration of life detection technology and new transmission mechanisms, and the development of a series of high-efficiency, low weight, long-term maintenance free reducers suitable for robot applications.

2、 High performance robot specific servo motors and drivers

Servo motors, as the executing components in control systems, are one of the main factors affecting the performance of robots. The robot servo system consists of three main parts: servo motor, servo driver, and command mechanism. The servo motor is the executing mechanism, which is used to achieve motion. The servo driver is the power supply of the servo motor, and the command mechanism sends pulses or speeds to cooperate with the servo driver for normal operation.

At present, high starting torque, high torque, and low inertia AC and DC servo motors are widely used in industrial robots. Domestic servo motors still need breakthroughs in the following areas:

One reason is that the appearance is generally long and rough, making it difficult to apply to some high-end robots.

The second is that the reliability of signal connectors needs to be improved, and it needs to be optimized towards miniaturization, high density, and integrated design with servo motor bodies for easy installation, debugging, and replacement.

The third is another core technology - high-precision encoders, especially the multi turn absolute value encoders used in robots, which heavily rely on imports and are a major bottleneck restricting the development of high-end robots in China.

The fourth is the lack of fundamental research, including absolute value encoder technology, industrial manufacturing technology for high-end motors, and so on.

The fifth issue is that there is insufficient industrial collaboration among various parts of the servo system, which makes it difficult to fully utilize the overall performance of the servo motor and drive system.

Servo motors not only directly affect the market competitiveness of domestic robot enterprises, but also have strategic significance for the development of the entire Chinese robot industry in the long run. For this reason, the "Robot Development Plan" particularly emphasizes the research on high magnetic material optimization, integrated optimization design, processing and assembly process optimization, and other technologies to improve the efficiency of servo motors, reduce power loss, and achieve high power density. Develop robot specific motors such as high torque direct drive motors and disc hollow motors.

3、 High speed and high-performance controller

Is it humans who command robots to work? No, it's a controller. The industrial robot controller mainly controls the motion position, posture, trajectory, operation sequence, and action time of the robot in the workspace.

The controller is the "decision-making body" that issues commands and is the brain of an automated factory. Mastering the control of the controller is equivalent to controlling the performance of the robot. In China, the controller market of the four major families accounts for 53%, of which Fanuc accounts for 16%, KUKA accounts for 14%, and ABB robots account for 12%. However, the market share of domestic brand controllers is less than 16%, indicating that the degree of domestic production is relatively low in the field of controllers in China.

At present, there are mainly the following problems in the domestic controller market:

1. Domestic controllers can control a complete range of robot types, but there is still a lot of room for improvement in terms of operational accuracy, stability, response speed, and usability.

2. The binding effect between the robot body and its components is strong, and generally mature robot companies can achieve independent research and control of the body and core components. Therefore, domestic companies that only focus on controllers are difficult to break through.

3. Domestic controllers have high cost-effectiveness, which is both an advantage and a disadvantage. The advantage is that they can occupy the mid to low end market and emerging fields that do not require high precision for robots; The main disadvantage is that for the high-end market, the road is long and obstructed.

Therefore, the "Robot Development Plan" emphasizes the development of high-performance joint servo, vibration suppression technology, inertia dynamic compensation technology, multi joint high-precision motion calculation and planning technology to improve the motion accuracy and dynamic performance in high-speed variable load applications. Develop and master open controller software development platform technology to improve the scalability, portability, and reliability of robot controllers.

4、 Sensors

A sensor is a detection device that can sense the information being measured and convert it into electrical signals or other measurable signals according to certain rules to meet the requirements of information transmission, processing, storage, display, recording, control, etc.

The accurate operation of industrial robots depends on a precise understanding of their own state, operating objects, and working environment, which is achieved through sensors.

Due to the late start and intense competition in the industry, the development of sensors in China still faces three major challenges.

Firstly, the key technology has not yet been breakthrough. The design technology of sensors encompasses various disciplines, theories, materials, and process knowledge, making it very difficult to break through. Currently, in the context of talent shortage, high research and development costs, and fierce competition among enterprises, China has not yet broken through some common key technologies of sensors.

Secondly, there is a lack of industrialization capability. Domestic sensor products are not compatible and not in series, with repeated production and frequent vicious competition, resulting in poor product reliability and serious low-end deviation, and can only rely on foreign imports for a long time.

Once again, resources are not centralized. At present, there are more than 1600 sensor enterprises in China, but most of them are small and micro enterprises with weak profitability and a lack of leading technology enterprises. This ultimately leads to a dispersed state of funds, technology, enterprise layout, industrial structure, market and other aspects, and resources cannot be effectively concentrated. The development of the industry has also been slow to mature.

Therefore, the "Robot Development Plan" emphasizes the key development of sensors such as joint position, torque, vision, and touch to meet the application needs of the robot industry.

5、 End effector

End effector refers to any tool that is connected to the edge (joint) of a robot and has a certain function. This may include robot grippers, robot tool quick change devices, robot collision sensors, robot rotary connectors, robot pressure tools, compliance devices, robot spray guns, robot burr cleaning tools, robot arc welding guns, robot welding guns, etc. Robot end effectors are typically considered peripheral devices of robots, accessories of robots, robot tools, and end of arm tools (EOA).

With the rapid development of industrial robots, end effectors have also gained enormous application and development space. For this reason, the "Robot Development Plan" particularly emphasizes the development of end effectors such as multi finger dexterous hands with grasping and operation functions and grippers with quick change functions to meet the application needs of the robot industry.

• 上一篇：Future developm...
• 下一篇：Don't you ...