AI speeds the march of China’s factory robots into new sectors

{"text":[[{"start":7.85,"text":"At a cavernous 100,000 sq m factory in the southern Chinese city of Changsha, dozens of automated guided vehicles whisk heavy loads between an array of giant robotic welding arms, machine tool beds and a small smattering of human workers, churning out a new concrete pump truck every 45 minutes."}],[{"start":27.549999999999997,"text":"In the factory’s space-age centre, manager Peng Yonghui can oversee each machine’s efficiency and state of repair from a giant screen flanked by blue-tiled fountains and palm trees. With a few clicks on a touchscreen, he can monitor machines and manufacturing sites across China."}],[{"start":44.8,"text":"Sany’s No.18 factory, opened in 2012, is one of the planet’s largest “lighthouse factories”, a World Economic Forum designation given to particularly smart manufacturing bases. With recent improvements in AI, the factory has continued to innovate, says Peng: “it makes us much more efficient”."}],[{"start":63.15,"text":"For instance, it previously took a number of humans to manually sort through the array of metal frames delivered to the factory’s eastern end. But with the advent of AI, the factory’s robotic arms can identify the shape and weight of the parts, decide which magnets are needed to lift them and feed them into machine toolbeds for processing, or drop them on automated vehicles to take them to the welding station."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":85.95,"text":"“Originally, I had big parts, long parts, thick parts, small parts and short parts,” Peng says. Now, the system can not only discern size, weight and colour, but even the type of material. “Some materials are very similar, almost like twins, but they can still identify it.”"}],[{"start":104.55000000000001,"text":"Policymakers in China are pushing automation and other smart factory technologies in the hope that they will enable the country to keep its manufacturing edge as its workforce ages."}],[{"start":115.35000000000001,"text":"But now, the rapid advance of AI technologies is improving the efficiency of production lines, boosting quality control and enhancing oversight. Factories, meanwhile, are deploying more intelligent robots on more difficult work. Others are preparing for the arrival of humanoid bots that could perform tasks previously reserved for humans."}],[{"start":136.75,"text":"Better AI models are enabling automation and smart systems to spread beyond the strongholds of large-scale auto manufacturing and other high-end fields into previously labour-intensive smaller factories in traditional sectors such as garments and footwear."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":151.75,"text":"Budget-busting AI bills; transforming pharma; AI and trust in air traffic control; chatbots and mental health; astronomical implications; rewriting gaming rules; agentic travel agents"}],[{"start":164.65,"text":"“First, the growth of AI supply-chain industries is generating direct demand for robots in manufacturing,” Samantha Mou, a senior analyst at robotics research consultancy Interact Analysis, wrote in a note this month."}],[{"start":177.65,"text":"“Second, AI-powered software is enhancing robot capabilities and ease of use, enabling robots to perform tasks they previously couldn’t, thereby creating demand in markets that were difficult to penetrate,” she added."}],[{"start":191.15,"text":"The introduction of AI has improved industrial robots’ visual guidance and made them easier to programme and better at co-ordinating with others. AI has also enabled remote monitoring and maintenance of robots, she wrote."}],[{"start":204.1,"text":"Robot vendors the world over are reacting. Japan’s Fanuc and Denmark’s Universal Robots have each announced collaborations with chipmaker Nvidia to work on AI-enabled programming tools. Switzerland’s ABB and Shanghai-based Step, meanwhile, have released new robot models designed for the electronics and semiconductor industries, to capitalise on new AI-driven demand."}],[{"start":224.25,"text":"Back in China, the huge manufacturing sector is driving demand."}],[{"start":228.55,"text":"“China is a mass market. [Its] industry reach and manufacturing scenarios [are] in the millions. So that generates . . . a real need for robotics,” says Jerry Liang, a partner at Beijing-based venture capital firm CCV."}],[{"start":243.10000000000002,"text":"Liang made early bets on a number of Chinese internet groups, including ecommerce retailer JD.com. But in recent years, his team has shifted its focus to AI-empowered robotics to capitalise on the pressing need for more robots in China’s economy."}],[{"start":258.45000000000005,"text":"Liang argues that deploying more robots in industrial settings will help to gather data for better physical AI models. Factories could also represent the best chance for China’s many humanoid robotmakers to monetise their products at scale, he says."}],[{"start":273.20000000000005,"text":"“Chinese wages, worker wages, are not cheap anymore, and new generations are reluctant to do the boring and dangerous jobs . . . the manufacturing sectors have great anticipation of either humanoid or non-humanoid [robots] to do more complex jobs out there.”"}],[{"start":289.15000000000003,"text":"In the southern Chinese manufacturing hub of Guangzhou, GSK CNC Equipment was one of the country’s earliest industrial conglomerates to branch out into the relatively high-end field of industrial robots, developing its first models in the mid-2000s."}],[{"start":304.25000000000006,"text":"Like many Chinese industrial robot producers, the company’s biggest advantage over its Japanese and European rivals is its lower costs, says Huang Yongchao, a sales engineer at the company for 15 years. But he adds that workers in some of the lower-cost industries it sells to can struggle to adapt."}],[{"start":323.20000000000005,"text":"“The biggest challenge . . . is that our equipment is used in those kinds of factories where the work is dirty and tiring and the workers generally have lower levels of education. For tasks involving editing and manipulating text [to instruct robots], they might not be able to get to grips with them at first,” he says, standing in front of a phalanx of huge bronze-coloured robotic arms at a trade expo this month."}],[{"start":347.25000000000006,"text":"But Huang is hopeful that AI might have the answer. “They would prefer something simpler, or even something like cutting-edge AI technology, where people interact directly with the computer, which then uses language to tell them how to use it,” he says. “They want [the robots] to be able to understand their speech.”"}],[{"start":371.9500000000001,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1782807398_7281.mp3"}