On June 29th, GBA Robotics Industry & Emerging Engineering Education Development Summit series events with the theme of “Developing Industrial Ecology, Nurturing Innovative Talent” were hosted at Hyatt Regency Hotel in Songshan Lake.
The summit was attended by about 350 people, including Jia Jingdun, Director of the Torch Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Song Xiaogang, Executive Vice President of China Machinery Industry Federation and Executive President of China Robot Industry Alliance, Xing Feng, Deputy Director-General of Department of Education of Guangdong Province, Zhuang Lecong, Chief Economist of Department of Industry and Information Technology of Guangdong Province, Liang Weidong, Secretary of Dongguan CPC Municipal Committee and Chairman of the Standing Committee of Dongguan Municipal People’s Congress, Xiao Yafei, Deputy Secretary of Dongguan CPC Municipal Committee and Mayor, Zhang Ke, Deputy Secretary of Dongguan CPC Municipal Committee, Secretary of the Party Working Committee of Binhaiwan New District and Secretary of the Party Working Committee of Dongguan Port, Bai Tao, Member of the Standing Committee of Dongguan Municipal Committee of the CPC and Executive Vice Mayor, Huang Shaowen, Member of the Standing Committee of Dongguan Municipal Committee of the CPC and Secretary of the Party Working Committee of Songshan Lake, and Liu Wei, Vice Mayor of Dongguan. Scholars, leading figures , and representatives of technological innovation tutors in the field of robots from China and broad also attended the summit.
The annual event co-hosted by relevant institutions of Songshan Lake,Dongguan, Guangdong and the country showed great diversity in its content and forms.
The summit witnessed the presence of leading figures in the field of robots,technological innovation tutors , scholars of home and abroad as well as representatives from governmental departments. They gathered in Songshan Lake and exchanged views on the development trend and opportunities of the robotic industry of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Many robot enterprises and universities in the Greater Bay Area also displayed a wide range of “black technology” products, which facilitated exchanges and alignment of results achieved in the industry.
Among the series events, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Innovation and Entrepreneurship Youth Exchange Conference was also hosted. Youth representatives were invited to exchange views on the innovation and entrepreneurship opportunities against the backdrop of development of the Greater Bay Area.
Innovation path of Songshan Lake’s robot industry attracting attention
GBA Robotics Industry & Emerging Engineering Education Development Summit was jointly hosted by the People’s Government of Dongguan and China Machinery Industry Federation, and co-organized by the Administrative Committee of Songshan Lake, Dongguan Robotic Industries Association and International Robotic Industries Base of Songshan Lake, While China Robotic Industry Alliance, Hong Kong Society of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Hong Kong X-Tech Start-up Platform, Dongguan University of Technology, Guangdong Robotics Association, Shenzhen Robotics Association and other institutes also took part in the summit. Extensive help has been sought in the Greater Bay Area and about 350 representatives attended the summit, including leaders at city, province and state levels, industry experts and
representatives from renowned enterprises and institutes in the field.
As the host of the event, Songshan Lake’s robot and intelligent equipment industry (hereinafter referred to as “Songshan Lake’s robot industry”) has won attention and recognition in and outside China in the past few years. This is largely attributed to its pioneering exploration in facilitating innovation collaboration in the Greater Bay Area and nurturing talent in emerging engineering.
Compared with other places in China, Songshan Lake connects Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao and converges innovation resources from across the globe. It has built two vigorous robot industrial platforms, namelyInternational Robot Institute of Songshan Lake TechX Institute and Guangdong Intelligent Robotics Institute, and is dedicated to driving development of the industry by focusing on innovation incubation and development of key components.
In the last few years, a batch of high-growth enterprises led by ePropulsion Technology and AgileX Robotics have sprung up and started going global. Extraordinary talents such as the team led by Ma Xiuquan returned from abroad and has inventedworld-leading intelligent equipment; leading projects such as Inovance Technology, Topstar, ADTECH and Shenyang Machine Tool have been introduced; Songshan Lake’s robot industry was approved as “Guangdong Innovative Industrial Cluster Construction Pilot” and “Third Batch of National Innovative Industrial Cluster Pilot of the Ministry of Science and Technology”.
Up until now, Songshan Lake has over 400 enterprises involvingrobots and intelligent equipment, among them 71 are high-tech enterprises, enterprises of manufacturing key components accounting for 11%, ontology enterprises 2%, intelligent equipment enterprises 55%, integrated system enterprises 17%, robot enterprises in such fields as service, education, agriculture, and healthcare 14%, and industrial Internet enterprises 1%. There are 7 enterprises with revenues worth of over RMB 100 million, 6 enterprises being listed and listed on National Equities Exchange and Quotations, and 33 industrial enterprises above designated size.
In 2018, Songshan Lake launched “Interim Measures for Boosting Development of Robot and Intelligent Equipment Industry” and other supporting measures for robot industry, which are helpful supplements to the existing policies at city, province and state level. Enterprises are encouraged to attend exhibitions abroad and go global. Songshan Lake also took the lead in developing first set of equipment, building vertical ecological chain of intelligent manufacturing industry and promoting high-quality development.
As a key engine driving Dongguan’s innovative development, Songshan Lakeseizesthe historic opportunities brought by the development of the Greater Bay Area, by strengthening promotion and application of ingenious technology, software, products and devices, exploring innovative layout of the new generation of intelligent manufacturing industry, and accelerating iteration and upgrade of the ecosystem of robot industry to speed up innovation of the Greater Bay Area.
Jia Jingdun, Director of the Torch Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology, expressed in his speech that robot industry, combining technology of multiplesubjects, is unfolding new development opportunities and space for wealth accumulation brought by artificial intelligence. Dongguan, particularly Songshan Lake, has already equipped with such conditions and capabilities to nurture and develop a competitive robot industry.
Jia Jingdun expressed that Dongguan is situated in the urban region of the Pearl River Delta, a region with relatively large size and strong innovation capability. Through development in the past several decades, the region has formed sound environment and conditions for industrial development.
In terms of industrial foundation, the Pearl River Delta also has a batch of universities, research institutes, new types of R&D institutes and a batch of thriving technology enterprises. The sound industrial basis and remarkable innovation ecosystem have laid a solid foundation for development of robot industry. At the same time, the urban cycle including Shenzhen, Dongguan, Huizhou, Guangzhou, Foshan and Zhaoqing, has taken the lead in transformation and upgrading in an effort to drive high-quality development. The region generates a favorable market demand for development of robot industry in the way of high-tech and high-end development.
In addition, the Pearl River Delta also enjoys a wonderful business environment. As a pioneer in China’s reform and opening-up, the regionhas witnessed the sound combination of a capable government and effective market through endeavors in the past 40 years.
Jia Jingdun pointed out that todevelop and strengthen robot industry, Songshan Lake needs to place emphasis on the building of innovation capability and a healthy innovation ecosystem; it also needs to give priority to R&D to support development of core industry by acquiring and applying core technology; it needs to nurture a robot industry cluster and build a vigorous supply chain to ensure a robust and orderly development; it also needs to nurture a new generation of talents such as engineers and scientists along with the flourishing artificial intelligence.
More players in Guangdong emerged in robot industry
Robot is crowned as “pearl on the crown of manufacturing industry”. In recent years, robot industry in China has experienced fresh development with each passing day. The global “four giants” (FANUC, ABB, YASKAWA, KUKA) of robot industry have all settled in China and China’s homegrown robots also start to shine brightly.
Statistics indicate that by 2018, the added value of intelligent equipment industry of Guangdong province reached RMB 300 billion,with an average annual growth of around 20%. The output value of robot and supporting industries was RMB 60 billion and output of self-owned brand of industrial robots exceeded 32,000 sets, accounting for 22% of the country’s total output. The output of service robots exceeded 2 million, accounting for one fourth of the world’s total. This shows that Guangdong has more players in robot industry, particularly Dongguan.
According to Zhuang Lecong, Chief Economist of Department of Industry and Information Technology of Guangdong Province, Guangdong Provincial CPC Committee and the People’s Government of Guangdong Province have been attaching great importance to the development of robot and intelligent equipment industry. With the constant advancement of transformation and upgrading of manufacturing industry, Guangdong province as a manufacturing powerhouse has gradually become the country’s most important manufacturing and application base of industrial robots and intelligent equipment. Regarding China’s robot industry cluster development, the Pearl River Delta is a major cluster of robot industry. Guangdong province leads the country in terms of robot industrial parks. With its strong development foundation, the industrial cluster led by Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Dongguan leads the country in innovation and influence.
Despite its rapid development, robot industry also encountered various challenges with breakthroughs to be made in key technology, expansion to be made in application areas, and innovation in nurturing of talent. The summit jointly launched by the People’s Government of Dongguan and China Machinery Industry Federation covered rich content and was attended by prominent figures. It enabled in-depth exchanges and cooperation among government, enterprises, universities and research institutes, which is of great importance to maintaining robust development momentum of robot industry in the Greater Bay Area.
Song Xiaogang, Executive Vice President of China Machinery Industry Federation and Executive President of China Robot Industry Alliance, pointed out that though China’s robot industry has been developing rapidly in recent years, its application in more than 110 industries is not wide, broad or deep enough. This has to do with the interaction between robot technology and different industries, which needs nurturing of industrial talents. In Songshan Lake’s case, its robot industry has formed a sound foundation from education to innovation and from industry incubation to developmentsuch as the Guangdong-Hong Kong Institute of Robotics established by Professor Li Zexiang of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Both the 2013 China Industrial Robot Results Alignment and Exchange Conference and this summit have played an active role in integrating industry and education of Songshan Lake and the country.
Song Xiaogang believed that Dongguan is fully capable of building itself into a demonstration area for integration of robot industry and education. The GBA Robotics Industry & Emerging Engineering Education Development Summit should be carried on next year and it should be a national one. The summit will be able to offer certain inspiration for addressing the bottlenecks faced by robot industry such as innovation in talent nurturing.
At present, Dongguan is making all-out efforts to build a center for advanced manufacturing industry in the Greater Bay Area. Xiao Yafei, Deputy Secretary of Dongguan CPC Municipal Committee and Mayor, expressed in his speech that as an international manufacturing city, Dongguan has seen faster formation of ecological chain of robot industry in recent years under the strong support of emerging engineering education. Currently, an industry-university-research platform led by Guangdong Intelligent Robotics Institute and Songshan Lake TechX Institute has been built, which converges robot and intelligent equipment enterprises such as Topstar and Quotient Kinematics Machine. Among them, 163 enterprises are above designated size, and R&D and manufacturing enterprises of industrial robots account for 10% of the country’s total. The integration and mutual reinforcement between robot industry and emerging engineering education have injected strong momentum into Dongguan’s efforts in building the center for advanced manufacturing industry in the Greater Bay Area.
“Today’s summit is a gathering of great minds, including both experts and scholars from famous universities and research institutes and leading industry leaders and renowned enterprise representatives. This is a great platform for us to learn, explore and facilitate cooperation between robot industry and emerging engineering education.” Xiao Yafei expressed that Dongguan CPC Municipal Committee and the People’s Government of Dongguan will strive to provide high-quality platforms, supporting environment and policy services for robot industry, and actively support development of emerging engineering education in an effort to achieve more prominent results in industry-university-research collaboration. It is also expected that leaders and experts here can offer more support and guidance to development of Dongguan’s robot industry and emerging engineering education. It is hoped that robot R&D and manufacturing enterprises can seize the opportunities and accelerate the forming of new advantageous industry clusters.
Songshan Lake Hong Kong and Macao Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Base opened
It is clearly pointed out in the “Outline of Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area” that support should be extended to Hong Kong and Macao youths and enterprises of micro, small and medium size seeking development in the Chinese mainland. Active efforts have been made to facilitate the establishment of Dongguan Songshan Lake Hong Kong and Macao Youths Innovation and Entrepreneurship Base. The summit also saw the official opening of the base.
The establishment of Songshan Lake Hong Kong and Macao Youths Innovation and Entrepreneurship Base marks an important opportunity for Songshan Lake to integrate into development of the Greater Bay Area, further implement innovation-driven development strategy and realize high-quality development. The base centers on transfer and transformation of technology results of Hong Kong and Macao and follows the pattern of “one center and multiple stations”. The base will serve as the centerwhile International Robot Base of Songshan Lake, Songshan Lake Guangdong-HongKong-Macao Cultural and Creative Industry Experimental Zone, Songshan Lake High-Tech Entrepreneurship Base and Songshan Lake High-Tech Makerspace as stations. Professional Hong Kong and Macao projects transfer service team will be organized to facilitate settlement of high-quality projects. The base has attracted nearly 40 Hong Kong and Macao youths entrepreneurship projects.
Aside from the above, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Robot Entrepreneurship Camp was also officially opened in Songshan Lake.
The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Robot Entrepreneurship Camp jointly launched by Xbot Park, Southern University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and University of California, Berkeley serves to facilitate technology results transfer, create strong atmosphere of innovation and entrepreneurship, and nurture talent in the field of robot in a diversified way through multiple platforms. The theme of this entrepreneurship camp will be construction industry. From the end of June to early August, members of the camp will experience the advent and iteration of intelligent hardware sample machine, and combine design thinking, engineering skills and robot technology to create robot product solutions. The camp will serve as an instruction platform for youths entrepreneurship in robot industry in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao.
Masters from the field of robot gathering to analyze the industrial opportunities of the Greater Bay Area
Facing with the historic opportunities presented by the development of the Greater Bay Area, how to make good use of them and attain high-speed development in robot industry concerns the relevant stakeholders in the field.
During the summit, the “smartest minds” in the field of robot industry have conducted in-depth exchanges and alignment with the participants. They jointly presented a brainstorming summit.
Keynote reports about segment of robot industry have been made respectively byLu Bingheng, Fellow of Chinese Academy of Engineering and Professor of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Gu Peihua, Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, Director of Emerging Engineering Education Center of Tianjin University and Professor of School of Mechanical Engineering, Gao Bingqiang, former Dean of School of Engineering of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and Wang Tianmiao, Honorary Head of Robotic Institute of Beihang University. They thoroughly elaborated on the latest developments and future direction of the field.
On June 30th, several special forums related to key robot technology, intelligent robot system and application, innovative nurturing of talent of robot emerging engineering were hosted by representatives from top robot enterprises of home and abroad.
Among them, on the forum related to key robot technology, senior managers from ABB, FANUC, Gree Electric Appliances and Hexagon, Xu Chen, Founder of SmartSens Technology, Peng Xunlu, Deputy General Manager and Senior Strategic Director of Orbbec Shenzhen, He Ningning, President of Q Technology Group have share their latest perspectives on the following areas: chip design and application for image sensor platform adopting new generation of stack technology, challenges and opportunities of localization of industrial chips, 3D vision, and robot under human-machine collaboration.
On the forum about intelligent robot system and application, guests including Shi Jinbo, General Manager of Quotient Kinematics Machine, Wang Mingxi, R&D Director of Industry Application of DJI-Innovations and Cheng Ming, CTO ofYIJIAHE Technology Co., Ltd. have delivered reports on the following topics: challenges and opportunities faced by new generation of autonomous intelligent industrial robots, logistics robots and agricultural drones, application of AI computer vision to self-driving robot, and current application and prospects of robot in electric power industry.