What is the development trend of industrial automation? Is it free to expand with the renewal of technology? Or is it moving in a unified direction under the constraints or influence of certain factors?

Now, with the manufacturing boom and industrial automation booming, market changes and technological changes have always affected the direction of industrial automation.  Relying on the user's use needs and usage habits, the practical application has undoubtedly become the mainstream choice of many industrial automation suppliers.

Industrial automation suppliers choose to make progress in the direction of practical use and the actual development needs of users are the development goals of the company  which not only brings direct economic benefits  but also lays a foundation for technological research and development, innovation and further development of the products.

Industrial automation technology is becoming more practical. Automation mainstream products are also changing under the premise of satisfying users' needs. As the mainstream control product in the industrial control field, PLC module still occupies the leading position of the control system and is currently facing miniaturization. The development of openness and networking; DCS as a typical system of process control is actively expanding, and more and more plays the role of integration of management and control; IPC has regained the favor of users with its flexible and open features; CNC  In addition to its application on machine tools, it is also extending to a wider range of fields.  It is not difficult to see that product changes are the result of adapting to customer needs.

From the perspective of product development, automation products are also developing in a diversified direction according to the actual needs of customers.  On the one hand, automation suppliers can develop versatile automation products for users. The products can integrate multiple automation functions and meet the different needs of multiple customers in structure. On the other hand, they also provide simple automation for customers.  The product meets the single needs of the user; at the same time, for the users of a certain industry in the scale, the automation supplier will also go deep into the industry and launch products that are more in line with the industry characteristics.

The practicalization of automation can be confirmed in many aspects.  From the point of view of use, industrial automation companies and products have increased their investment in the industry.  According to a survey of related users, the automation level has been significantly improved in industries including textile machinery, packaging machinery, plastic machinery, electric power, petrochemicals, metallurgy, automotive, electronics and machine tools, on new mechanical equipment in these industries.  Automatic control technology is commonly used, and the level of industrial automation on mechanical equipment is increasing and presenting a variety of needs.

With the development and changes of industrial automation technology and the acceleration of practicality, the functions of the enterprise's automation system are gradually increasing, and the role has become more abundant.  In addition to controlling the production process, it is also responsible for the task of sending the production process information to the management system of the enterprise and the two-way supply chain, and further combining with the dynamic information of “need” and “supply” in the world.  This determines that the traditional closed system model must be improved to achieve a "new" automation system characterized by openness, intelligence and role diversity.

For the end user, not only that but also the customer-oriented sales principle, the sales and after-sales service of the automation products are more humane.  Of course, this also has the factors that make the specialized division of labor more and more detailed in the big environment.  As the specialized division of labor becomes more sophisticated, and the automation technology is significantly improved, the expectations of users for sales and after-sales service are also the items that automation suppliers must consider.  Providing customers with a package of projects has become a fashion trend in the automation industry.

As a supporting industry in the manufacturing industry, the development of industrial automation in China has not progressed synchronously with the host industry for most of the last century. It was only after the economic boom and the large-scale improvement of the manufacturing industry began to develop rapidly.  Especially in today's rapid development of manufacturing, industrial automation has become an indispensable force in the development of manufacturing.

The core of industrial automation is the control system. The advanced and applicable control system can greatly promote the automation level of manufacturing equipment, improve the production and processing level of mechanical equipment, and help users to improve production efficiency and thus obtain more economic benefits.

Technical development trend in the field of industrial automation

At present, under the trend of Industry 4.0, there are many automation startups emerging in the world, but their technological innovations often achieve a niche product and are subject to similar problems such as system aggregators being disguised as “kidnappings”;  Investors in the “automation” track are also confused about how to accurately judge automated start-up projects.

To this end, Titanium Media in Silicon Valley reporter interviewed Oculus's investor, the US first-line fund Formation 8 partner Shen Wei, asked him to deeply understand the current entrepreneurial trends, problems and solutions in the field of industrial automation.

"Object grabbing" becomes the bottleneck of industrial automation

At present, the world is about to usher in the era of Industry 4.0. Industrial automation, one of the main symbols, has become the most popular entrepreneurial direction.  According to Shen Wei, there are three main types of innovation in the field of industrial automation worldwide.

First, provide a total solution for new manufacturing and logistics application scenarios, adding new technologies such as artificial intelligence and data analysis.  This field is mainly concentrated in many automation giants such as ABB, Kuka, GE FANUC, and Kiva (acquired by Amazon).

"But for European and American start-ups, there is a large demand for start-up funds in this field, and the demonstration and sales cycle are long. The core technical barriers are often limited, and it is easy to fall into the competition price and price/performance ratio. For a large number of SME customers, the full set  Although the automation solution is enticing, it requires a lot of money, so the purchasing power is also limited."

Second, visual recognition technology.  Another essential factor in industrial automation is to "fit your eyes" to the robot.  In the past, industrial automation scene robots only had to repeatedly process objects of preset size.  However, with the development of manufacturing and logistics, the position, orientation, type, shape and size of objects are becoming more and more diverse, requiring robots to have visual recognition capabilities.  At present, this direction also faces some challenges and opportunities, mainly reflecting whether it can provide customers with the recognition accuracy and accuracy of the standard and satisfactory cost performance.

Again, object grabbing technology.  In terms of object grabbing, the traditional method is to grab objects by vacuum suction cups or mechanical claws, such as vacuum suction cups to absorb automobile glass windshield, etc., but there are still a large number of objects that cannot be grasped by traditional methods, such as cloth and fruit.  , flexible electronic devices, etc.

“When the fabric encounters the vacuum chuck, it will be permeable and deformed, and the flexible PCB will be easily damaged when it encounters the vacuum chuck. It cannot be grasped by traditional methods. At the same time, the existing object grabbing technology is required for high precision in order to achieve high precision.  It is relatively high, but has not yet seen a cost-effective visual recognition solution." Shen Yan told the titanium media.

How to look at industrial automation startup projects?

Investors who are betting on the “automation” track, in addition to identifying three major innovation areas, another problem that plagues them is how to look at the entrepreneurial projects in the field of industrial automation. In this regard, successfully cast a new star in the industrial automation field in Silicon Valley Grabit  The sinking also gave his own advice.

First, the product must be standardized and universal.  There are many entrepreneurial projects in the field of automation that originate from the founder's research in the laboratory, but there is a huge gap between laboratory technology and product commercialization.  “Some of the automation technology application scenarios are very broad at first glance, but the specific implementation should be changed for customer A, and changed for customer B. If you choose to introduce customized products for each segmentation scenario, then it is possible  There will be a customized version that can only sell 5-10 sets a year. R&D will continue to burn money, and sales growth will be slow. Therefore, to automate entrepreneurship projects, product standardization and universality are very important.  If so.

Second, product compatibility is good, and you need to be able to plug and play.  In order to reduce the barriers to entry and achieve scale, a good automation product should be compatible with the production or logistics processes that customers have already adopted to achieve “minimum disruption and destruction”.  Imagine that if an enterprise has spent a lot of money on an automated process, it is difficult to dismantle it for a new technology that effectively improves a certain link.

Third, control your own destiny, rather than being controlled by system integrators.  "At present, many automation products are often not dependent on system integrators for sales because they are not well standardized and compatible. This makes them disguised as selling parts. As a VC, I can't invest in such projects."  “A automation product that achieves standardization, compatibility, and plug-and-play should have the ability to get rid of the limitations of system integrators, direct sales and channel vendors, and maintain cooperation when working with various industry giants.”