Space engineers eye industrial robot space

A boy interacts with a robot, developed by Beijing-based Aerospace Science and Industry Intelligent Robot Co Ltd, at an industrial fair in Beijing. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Chinese space engineers are taking advantage of their expertise to develop a large family of industrial robots in the hope of grabbing a share of the huge Chinese market.

Wang Xiaolin, chief designer at Beijing-based Aerospace Science and Industry Intelligent Robot Co Ltd, said researchers at the company are specialists in servomotor, navigational devices and sensors, all of which are key parts in a robot.

The researchers had helped develop China's carrier rockets and missiles as Wang's company is part of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, one of the nation's largest space and defense contractors.

"We have used our expertise gained in the development of space equipment to make a series of industrial robots. We also design small and mid-sized portable robots that can handle counter-terrorism tasks, reconnaissance, explosive defusing, nuclear plant patrol as well as mineshaft inspection," Wang told China Daily.

The company has been commissioned by a Taiwan-based electronics manufacturing giant, whose name Wang would not disclose, to develop a robotic transport system for its industrial parks on the Chinese mainland.

"We expect each of the client's industrial parks will use tens of such robots," Wang said, without elaborating on the contract's value.

His firm is also designing inspection robots for the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development to check urban underground pipelines. The engineer said introducing this will create a big opportunity to the company because a metropolis like Beijing will need hundreds of such machines.

In 2015, Aerospace Science and Industry Intelligent Robot earned 50 million yuan ($7.7 million) in sales revenue from its robots and robotic components, according to Wang. He added the goal for this year is set at around 200 million yuan.

Wang Xiaolin, chief designer at Aerospace Science and Industry Intelligent Robot Co Ltd. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Despite its rapid growth, the company is facing fierce competition as many private enterprises have considerable share of the market already and are better placed to make products quickly to meet clients' specific requirements, according to Wang.

"They can deliver products to buyers in only three to four months while their robots have a very attractive price," he said. "For our part, we will continue to promote our robotic components such as motors, control units and decelerators to enable domestic users to replace foreign products with ours."

Once the users familiarize themselves with the company's products, there will be a higher chance for it to sell its robots to them, Wang said.

According to statistics from the International Federation of Robotics, China has been the biggest user of industrial robots in the world since 2013 when it surpassed Japan in terms of the number of robots sold that year.

In 2014, about 57,000 industrial robots were sold in China, accounting for nearly 25 percent of the world's total sales of robots that year, it said.