Lead: In the era of Android mobile phones, the brush allows the mobile phone to quickly upgrade functions and switch themes, and customize the functions. Don't underestimate this. Xiaomi's MIUI-based masculinity captures this wave of dividends. From the personal brush machine to the custom-made "brush machine" boom era, it is the maturity and standardization of the smart phone software and hardware industry. Now this road is becoming a major trend in the field of consumer robots, will bring a round of reshuffle in the consumer robot market?
When Turing robots and ROOBOs successively launched their own robot systems, and Tencent also set about building a robot platform, it seems that the era of “brushing†of robots is coming. Of course, the "brushing machine" we are talking about here is not a simple brush system, but a robotic industry path such as system, hardware, and service. It is a good thing to package the system and motherboard solutions to form a standardized and mature integrated solution for hardware manufacturers to simplify and accelerate the landing of robot products.
Through the multi-party communication and communication between the intellectual and industrial chain, based on the survey and data foundation of the domestic robot market, we have carried out a more in-depth analysis of the vision of “system standardization of robotsâ€, the modes and contexts are presented, problems and Obstacles followed. Perhaps the actual skinny is not enough to support the weight of the platform, but we also see a lot of hopes and possibilities from the actual case.
The consumer robots we refer to here usually refer to the current mainstream market products such as family companionship and children's education. After the past one to two years of development, such products have developed to a certain scale, and their predecessors can be traced back to children's story machines. , tablet or children's learning machine.
First, the market status: annual shipments below 100,000 units
In recent years, related technologies such as voice interaction, Internet of Things connection, cloud service and big data have developed rapidly, which has effectively promoted the product landing and market improvement of the robot industry. However, there are many risks and challenges in the blue ocean market.
Through in-depth investigation and analysis of dozens of existing entrepreneurial brands, we find that the homogenization of robots for flat, desktop and story models is still obvious, and there are several trends:
1) In terms of user population, early childhood education and companion products occupy an important proportion and demand of domestic consumer robots.
2) At the functional experience level, the human-computer interaction mode still lacks autonomy and fluency, and the accuracy of identification needs to be improved, and content becomes an important back-end competitiveness.
3) In terms of sales volume, the annual sales data of domestic brands are basically below 100,000 units. The main channels are still mainly in the domestic market, and the ideal results are concentrated in the range of 50,000-60,000 units.
4) The price level, products below the thousand yuan level are more likely to form a certain sales scale, and the products with a price of 1500-2000 yuan and 2000 yuan or more usually have an annual sales volume of no more than 30,000 units.
5) In terms of product maturity, voice interaction technology is the first to land, and technologies such as visual recognition and deep learning are gradually integrating. However, it is limited by the slow development of the system, the difficulty of integration of the supply chain, and the long product promotion cycle.
The general technical force team, from the launch of the prototype to the real product landing, usually needs to toss a year and a half, miss the current demand trend, and even face the survival dilemma.
Overall, the rise of artificial intelligence technology has spawned the development of the robot industry, but everything is still in its early stages. However, there is no shortage of brave people in the hopeful direction. Although sales data and profit points are not encouraging enough, firm belief and capital support have spawned entrepreneurs who have followed suit.
When the single product model is difficult to break through, the system/platform style of play begins to pay off.
Second, the platform model: division of labor cooperation reduced by half cycle
The so-called platform mode means that the system/platform side provides the motherboard and supporting system solutions, and the hardware manufacturers use their own personal IP, brand resources and other advantages, such as Disney, Aofei and other companies that hold a large number of animation IP, with production and Toy companies that have accumulated channels, as well as some traditional home appliance brands, also hope to deploy IoT fields through service robots. They give product prototypes or ID design references, and then both parties define and drive the product's landing.
In order to ensure the maturity and reliability of the system manufacturer's solution, usually the system/platform provider will test a prototype of the robot in the early stage as a reference for the product template.
In a cooperation case that the author followed up, the team lacking relevant development experience reduced the product development cycle from about one year to about half a year through a model of cooperation with system integrators.
First of all, after the cooperation intention is reached, both parties will set up a specific project docking group to communicate and confirm the product definition and form communication. In the case, the manufacturer used its own animated IP image, and applied the integrated system and the simple application chip motherboard. A preliminary prototype was completed in about one month.
The formation and confirmation of the prototype marked a preliminary match between the intentions of both parties. Next, the system integrator will develop according to the specific needs of the manufacturer's product image, including personal voice characteristics, identity background, knowledge system and other personalized features. Personalized voice intonation can be synthesized by specifying sound training and TDS voice technology. The identity background and knowledge base of the character will be used as important content resources of the robot.
Then, both the vendor and the system integrator enter the mass production phase, the system provider will provide the motherboard chip based on the customized integrated system, and the partner manufacturer will be responsible for the production of parts and casing. In the product debugging and quality control process, the system needs to be completed together with the hardware manufacturer. Finally, mass production and product launch.
From the establishment of the project to the final product landing, through the cooperation between the system provider and the hardware manufacturer, the advantages and resources of both parties are effectively utilized, and a new product cycle is controlled in about 12 months. Compared with ordinary teams or startups, the progress and time to market have been greatly improved.
Zoolied provides your fab, University, or research center with Silicon Wafers from solar to prime grades with: A stock inventory of over one million silicon wafers, in sizes from less than one inch to twelve inch diameter. Zoolied specializes in smaller orders and unique specifications. Special requirements and smaller quantity orders are welcome.
3 Inch Silicon Wafers,Silicon Wafers Undoped,Silicon Wafers Layers,76.2 Silicon Wafer
Zoolied Inc. , https://www.zoolied.com