Responding to an aging populace and rising wages, Beijing is pushing investment in automatons
Inside a lab at Beijing-based e-commerce giant JD.com Inc., a spider like robot plunges from its gray frame, seizes a book on a conveyor belt with its suctioning claws, and throws it into a crate. The machine, developed for use in automated warehouses, can sort 3,600 objects an hour—four times as many as a human can. Almost 1,200 miles away, in a break room at E-Deodar Robot Equipment Co.’s factory in south China’s Pearl River Delta manufacturing hub, a human-looking droid is deftly handling a more mundane task: serving workers coffee. Both are key to the mainland’s hopes to rule the market for service robots that can handle tasks such as delivering mail or making breakfast for a pensioner.
“They’re putting a lot of money and a lot of effort into automation and robotics,” says John Roemisch, vice president for regional operations at Fanuc America Corp., a unit of Japan’s Fanuc Corp., the world’s No. 1 robot maker. “There’s nothing keeping them from coming after our market.”
China is embracing robotics with the same fervor that made it a world leader in solar energy and high-speed rail—its more than 22,000 kilometers (13,670 miles) of installed track totals far more than any other nation’s. Beijing’s economic planners view it as a way to a broader strategic goal: dominating emerging markets for artificial intelligence, driverless vehicles, and digitally connected appliances and homes. “China has a great history of being an effective fast follower,” says Colin Angle, chief executive officer of U.S.-based vacuum and defense robot maker IRobot Corp. “The question will be, can they innovate?”
Denne historien er fra May 1 - May 7, 2017-utgaven av Bloomberg Businessweek.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra May 1 - May 7, 2017-utgaven av Bloomberg Businessweek.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Instagram's Founders Say It's Time for a New Social App
The rise of AI and the fall of Twitter could create opportunities for upstarts
Running in Circles
A subscription running shoe program aims to fight footwear waste
What I Learned Working at a Hawaiien Mega-Resort
Nine wild secrets from the staff at Turtle Bay, who have to manage everyone from haughty honeymooners to go-go-dancing golfers.
How Noma Will Blossom In Kyoto
The best restaurant in the world just began its second pop-up in Japan. Here's what's cooking
The Last-Mover Problem
A startup called Sennder is trying to bring an extremely tech-resistant industry into the age of apps
Tick Tock, TikTok
The US thinks the Chinese-owned social media app is a major national security risk. TikTok is running out of ways to avoid a ban
Cleaner Clothing Dye, Made From Bacteria
A UK company produces colors with less water than conventional methods and no toxic chemicals
Pumping Heat in Hamburg
The German port city plans to store hot water underground and bring it up to heat homes in the winter
Sustainability: Calamari's Climate Edge
Squid's ability to flourish in warmer waters makes it fitting for a diet for the changing environment
New Money, New Problems
In Naples, an influx of wealthy is displacing out-of-towners lower-income workers