[观察]Besides industrial robots, what technologies are Japan researching?

Inside the Wangke shopping mall in Tsukuba, Japan, “robotThe suit” listens to the user’s brainwave commands and twists gently, driving the patient’s body in recovery; the robot in the Yokohama Nissan Auto Factory Museum “picks up a paintbrush” and easily completes a portrait of Hello Kitty. Taiwan’s six-axis robot is in his 20s and is an “old man” who has retired from the production line; the driverless car research team led by Professor Jingshan Ichiro at Nihon University is trying to make cars learn the driving functions of humans, “Japan Plan 2020 Unmanned buses will be realized on the expressway during the Tokyo Olympics in 2018.”… “The new strategic policy for Robots is not only aimed at robots in the manufacturing industry, but also includes the elderly care industry and service industry. ” said Koji Omiyama, a member of the Japanese Senate and chairman of the economy and industry committee.

In Japan, the multinational research group saw a society where robots are highly used in production and life.This has been used on a large scale since the 1980sindustryThe country of robots is popularizing robots and industries in more fieldsautomation, intelligent, to a “robot country”. In particular, the research and development and application of robots for medical care and elderly care services are setting off a new upsurge in this country that has entered the development stage of an aging society.

The Foshan Municipal Committee Plenary Session held at the end of July proposed to take the development of intelligent manufacturing as the main direction to enhance the core competitiveness of Foshan’s manufacturing, and proposed to speed up the introduction of intelligent equipment technology to benchmark against the international advanced level. On the road of developing intelligent manufacturing and making every effort to build a “national manufacturing innovation center”, Japan is an Industrial power worthy of Foshan’s focus.

　　A 30-year “time difference” from workshop to museum

“60% of the mobile phone circuit boards in the world use ourmechanicalSMT, including the world’s best-known brands. “In the headquarters of Fuji Machinery in Chiryu, Nagoya, Japan, executive director Ezaki pointed to the machine in front of him and said, “There are more than 2,000 electronic components on the circuit board of smartphones, and our main product is the electronic component placement robot. . “

　　

A circuit board is inserted from one end of the machine, and after a few minutes, the processing process is completed. “In the past, a complete mobile phone circuit board production line required 200 people to complete the production, but our production line basically does not require manual operation.” Ezaki said, “The entire production line is currently priced at 100 million yen, or about 55 million yuan. .”

Electronic component placement technology directly affects the overall development of smartphones. When the mobile internet economy is sweeping the world and every move of a mobile phone manufacturer has become a hot topic, the automation technology level of this Japanese company is affecting the development of the mobile Internet industry in the upstream of the industrial chain in an unfamiliar way.

Similar to this ultra-high-precision sizeautomation equipment, is an industrial puzzle that Foshan urgently needs to make up. Around 2013, Foshan set off a robot boom. A batch of robots for stamping, welding, palletizing, grinding, handling and other purposes have appeared on the production lines of ceramics, home appliances and other industries, replacing some traditional human positions. In terms of time, the rise of industrial robots in Foshan is about 30 years later than that in Japan.

“The robot generation implemented by Foshan, Japan began to do this work in the early 1980s, and we have achieved increased productivity without increasing the number of manpower.” Said the Japanese Senate member and chairman of the economy and industry Koji Omiyama. .

More than 30 years of leadership has made some technologies still used in other countries today into exhibits in Japanese corporate museums. At the Nissan Yokohama Factory Museum, the docent let an Industrial Robot manipulator for Display “grab” two colored crayons, and then the robot took a minute to draw a vivid portrait of Hello Kitty.

“This robot used to be used on Nissan’s production line and is now retired. It is in his 20s and is an old man,” said a museum guide. The research team has seen multi-axis robots with similar structures in the workshops of some domestic enterprises.

After more than 30 years of research and application, in the field of Japanese industry, industrial robots are no longer mysterious. “The research stage of Japanese industrial robots has been completed, and there are basically no technical difficulties. Now it is a question of popularization, and large companies have basically completed the popularization.” The general manager of the Japan Emerging Technology Research Institute, which is mainly engaged in the promotion and application of robots, told Yukio Kumagai. research group.

“There are basically no technical difficulties” summarized by Yukio Kumagaya, which mainly refers to industrial robots in the traditional technical system. From the perspective of new technologies, robot research that can be applied to various positions in industry and service is still hot in Japan. At the same time, highly intelligent robots that can “imitate people” are also becoming a research hotspot.

In Japan, a country that has laid out the Robot Industry in advance, what will be the next hot spot in the industry?

　　From factory to daily life

　　The research and development of service robots is included in the Japanese strategy

Walking into the Wangke shopping mall near the research student station in Tsukuba, Japan, surrounded by brand stores familiar to Chinese people such as Uniqlo and DHC, a set of “power exoskeletons” like those used by futuristic soldiers in science fiction movies are placed in front of customers.

This sci-fi “hybrid assistive limb” robot was developed by the Japanese company Cybedyne. It is a service robot for the recovery of bodily mobility. It can assist human limbs by sensing brain waves. It has a popular image name – “suit robot”.

The user can control this “suit robot” with “ideas”, without raising hands or feet, just need to imagine the movements of the hands and feet in the brain, and the robot can accept the instructions to complete the action… Cybedyne employee Yuki Kojima said, a member of the research team The first-hand experience of the HAL5 robot can generate a maximum force of 120 kg.

“This robot is almost integrated with the human body.” Kojima Yuki said that the key technology of the HAL robot is to screen the brain wave signals on the surface of the human skin. “There are many bioelectrical signals on the surface of the human skin, and HAL can analyze which ones are effective signals to the muscle tissue to receive instructions.”

At present, this robot has achieved market applications in Japan, Europe and the United States. Some hospitals in Japan have used a total of 380 HAL robots for walking training. In addition, Japan’s construction and logistics industries use a total of 320 HAL robots that are worn around the waist, making it easier for workers to carry heavy objects.

Behind the “suit robot”, Japan has set off a wave of research and development and application of service robots. The boom is closely related to Japan’s increasingly aging population and low fertility rate.

In Aichi Prefecture, Japan’s main producer of robots, some companies last year launched medical robots to replace human care. Such robots, which can move paraplegic patients to another location, are now on sale.

Hidetori Tsuzuki, director of the Next Generation Industry Office of Aichi Prefecture, said that the local area is promoting the development and production of service robots. “Fujita Medical in Aichi Prefecture owns many hospitals and uses a lot of robots for medical care. We will organize companies to visit and study, so that Fujita Medical can give valuable advice to the manufacturer.” Hidetori Tsuzuki said.

The scope of service robots is far from limited to medical treatment and handling. In Japan, many industries that seem to have nothing to do with robots are also using their imaginations.

“If robots replace manpower to build scaffolding, it can bring us great business opportunities, so we must take the initiative to do this.” In Osaka, Japan, in SRG, a listed company that produces and rents scaffolding as its main business, the Company President Kazuya Takamiya introduced.

“Let robots climb high buildings and build scaffolding” is a question that Takamiya has been thinking about. The company has developed a machine that can be installed outside the building and can move up and down like an elevator to help install scaffolding, he said.

The Japanese government is also vigorously promoting the application of robots in the service field. “In February last year, the government formulated the policy guidelines for the new robot strategy, which will provide greater support to private enterprises engaged in robots. The new strategy policy for robots not only targets robots in the manufacturing industry, but also expands the scope of robot use, including the elderly care industry. , service industry, etc.” Komian Koji said.

He said that in this field, government departments have collected a lot of data, including the demand for robots in the field of life, “including what robots are needed in the service industry and the elderly care industry, and the government will have policy preferences in development costs.”