Robots give firms a helping hand

Companies embracing the new technology to improve production efficiency and profits

In a humming factory in southern China, a machine is busy tailoring fabric to custom designs. In 18 seconds, it has made a pair of jeans, outperforming any human, who'd take 30 minutes to an hour to do the same job.

This smart tailor, as the machine is known, is part of Foshan Shunde Everstar Clothing Co's efforts to leverage cutting-edge technologies and revolutionize its assembly lines.

A robot that can write with its hands is displayed at the Summer Davos Forum in Tianjin on June 26. Zhu Xingxin / China Daily

Five years ago, when many clothing factories in Guangdong province saw falling overseas orders and rising labor costs, Fan Youbin, president of Everstar, decided to upgrade the company using the internet and automation.

After pouring about $6 million into inventing the smart tailor, the company launched an online platform where consumers can design clothes and try them on in a virtual fitting room.

"Within three days of placing an order, our customers can receive their clothes," Fan says, adding that the shift to smart manufacturing makes it possible to produce a profit from small orders.

Everstar's story of increasing automation is playing out across China in thousands of factories, which are purchasing one-fourth of the industrial robots sold globally.

The trend was discussed in detail at the Summer Davos Forum in Tianjin (June 26 to 28), as Chinese companies scramble to embrace robotics and big data technology to boost efficiency and cut assembly line costs.

Data from the International Federation of Robotics show the supply of industrial robots in China increased 40 percent a year on average between 2010 and 2014.

"This rapid development is unique in the history of robotics," the federation says in a recent report. "There has never been such a dynamic rise in such a short period of time in any other market."

Still, for every 10,000 employees, there are only 36 robots in China, compared with 478 in South Korea, 292 in Germany and 164 in the United States in 2014.

"The number will rise sharply over the next five years, partly stimulated by strong policy support," predicts Hao Yucheng, deputy director of the China Robot Industry Alliance.

The Chinese government has highlighted the industry in its 13th Five-Year Plan, which will steer China's economic and social development between 2016 and 2020.

The country also plans to triple its annual production of industrial robots to 100,000 within five years to promote high-end manufacturing.

Midea Group, a leading maker of home appliances, is relying on robotic workers to churn out high-quality air-conditioners. In one of its factories in Guangzhou, robots perform labor-intensive tasks, including packaging, as well as more delicate work like applying bar codes.

By the end of last year, Midea had more than 560 robots in its air-conditioner plants, up from 50 in 2011. Over the same period, the workforce has been trimmed by more than 22,000.

"We plan to spend 4 billion yuan ($604 million; 543 million euros) on cranking up automation in the next five years," says Wu Wenxin, the company's vice-president. He adds that, by 2018, the number of robots will rise to 1,500, while half of Midea's manufacturing will be automated.

This month, the company said it was bidding for more than a 30 percent share of German industrial robot giant Kuka AG, highlighting the desire among Chinese enterprises to embrace new technology.

Local governments are also acting swiftly. The northeastern city of Shenyang, for instance, proposed in May to set up a 20 billion yuan industry fund to cultivate stronger domestic robot makers and meeting the growing demand of manufacturers like Midea.

"Smart manufacturing is the only way to China's future growth. It's not something you can choose to follow or not. It's an inevitable trend," Wu says.

Contact the writers through masi@chinadaily.com.cn

Realism puts Jiajia in class of its own

In a glitzy exhibition hall in Tianjin, a man talks with what appears to be an elegant Chinese woman. In a gentle voice, the female figure speaks, "Sir, welcome to the 2016 Summer Davos."

Now look again. Dressed in a traditional white robe, the speaker, Jiajia, is in fact a robot, but one so realistic it's hard to tell the difference at first glance. She has red lips and shining black eyes, and can be taught to interact with people in both conversation and movement.

This humanoid is part of China's broad effort to develop service robots, as the world's second-largest economy is seeing a surge in demand for them in the healthcare, education and entertainment sectors.

With an aging population and increasing labor shortages, China plans to sell more than $4.5 billion worth of service robots by 2020.

Jiajia, which was developed by a research team at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, Anhui province, was unveiled in April and quickly earned the nickname "robot goddess" for her combination of physical beauty and deep learning ability.

The machine can move her eyeballs naturally and show micro expressions on her face. More important, her speech is in sync with her lip movements.

Chen Xiaoping, head of the research team, says Jiajia is a breakthrough for China's service robot industry.

"Most domestic enterprises just focus on voice recognition. We not only enable robots to move, but also match movements to speech," Chen tells China Daily.

He explains that Jiajia shows micro expressions appropriate to what it is saying, such as smiling when saying "I'm happy", just as a human may do. "The next step is to teach Jiajia to recognize other people's facial expressions and make appropriate responses," he adds.

It took the research team three years to finish the robot. Among other applications, Chen believes Jiajia will be a good assistant for the elderly.

"Many seniors travel to southern China for health reasons, but most of these 80-year-olds are taken care of by 60-year-olds because of a shortage of young people," Chen says.

Researchers at the Hefei university have also developed a service robot called Kejia, which prevailed at the RoboCup championship in 2014.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 07/02/2016 page29)