Academic Journal of Science and Technology

ISSN: 2771-3032 | Vol. 2, No. 2, 2022

A Review on Development and Application of Industrial

Robot
Zijie Zhang1, 2, Jing Zeng1, 2
1 Schoolof Automation and Information, Sichuan University of Science and Engineering, Yibin, 644000, China
2 Artificial
Intelligence Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Yibin, 644000, China
* Corresponding author: Zijie Zhang (Email: [email protected])

Abstract: Stability, efficiency and practicality are important characteristics of industrial robots. This also enables it to well
assist human beings in carrying out various complex, tedious and dangerous processes. Nowadays, with the changing
international situation, the advanced level of industrial robot technology has increasingly become the standard to distinguish the
industrial strength gap between big countries. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the development and application of industrial
robots in detail. This paper first summarizes the development status of industrial robots at home and abroad, and introduces the
typical applications of industrial robots in different industries. Finally, it makes a prospect for the development of domestic
industrial robots.
Keywords: Industrial robot, Development status, Typical applications.

1. Introduction 2. Industrial Robot

The origin of the term ‘industrial robot’ can be traced back 2.1. Working Principle of Industrial Robot
to 1960, when it was first proposed in the magazine
‘American metal market’. At that time, it was defined as ‘a Among all industrial robots, manipulator is the most
mechanical component that can be controlled by program, or mature and widely used one. The theory of manipulator
a special mechanical device controlled by program [1][2]’. combines the knowledge of many disciplines, such as
This definition has now been widely accepted. machinery, electronics, computer, material chemistry and so
Industrial robots are characterized by stability, efficiency on. It can be regarded as a programmable control device,
and practicality. A well-designed industrial robot can not only which can simulate human arms to complete tasks such as
help human beings complete all kinds of complex, boring and assembly, welding, painting and so on.
dangerous work, but also operate continuously, which greatly Industrial robot system is a typical closed-loop control
improves the production efficiency. Undoubtedly, it will play system. It gives the reference value through the preset
an irreplaceable role in the transformation and upgrading of program, uses the sensor to get the feedback value, generates
China's traditional manufacturing industry. the control signal through the difference between the
Since the reform and opening up, under the leadership of reference value and the feedback value, generates the control
the party and the state, industrial robot technology has signal through the power amplification circuit, and the control
ushered in its golden period of development. Government signal acts on the actuator (usually the motor), so as to realize
support, the influx of workers into big cities and the injection the drive of the robot. High performance general-purpose
of foreign capital have greatly promoted the development of industrial development robots in factories generally adopt
industrial robots. However, today's global economic model joint type mechanical design structures, and each joint is
has greatly changed the overall pattern of manufacturing. controlled by an independent drive motor [4][5][6].
With the increasing cost of social labor resources, a large A typical manipulator system has many components, they
number of labor-intensive industries in China are facing the are: manipulator body, computer system and driving device.
challenges of transformation and upgrading and regional Technicians can monitor the parameters of the manipulator
transfer. through the computer system, and can issue instructions in
The migration of traditional manufacturing industry from real time to bypass the program and directly control the
developed countries to developing countries seems to be an manipulator. The driving device (usually high-precision
irresistible trend, which leads to the hollowing out of the motor) is the core of the manipulator system, and it is the
economy of large countries with traditional manufacturing power source of the manipulator. By solving forward
industry. Nowadays, the old industrial powers represented by kinematics, inverse kinematics and dynamics, the control
the United States hope to reverse their disadvantageous signal of the driver can be obtained, and then the manipulator
position in international trade through the return of can be moved to any position in space.
manufacturing, and industrial robot technology is the key to 2.2. Classification of Industrial Robot
manufacturing. Google's acquisition of eight robotics
companies and its move into logistics and warehousing The following is a general classification of industrial robots
service robots has attracted widespread attention in the based on their development history. According to the era of
industry [3]. technological innovation, industrial robots can be roughly
divided into three generations. [7][8][9][10]
The first to enter the stage of history is the imitation

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industrial robot, which is mainly composed of the robot body, in the near future, ROS will become the most powerful tool
motion controller and teaching box. Its typical feature is that in the hands of robot developers to realize their ideal of
the operation is very simple. When the control signal is powering the world's robots.
programmed into the teaching box, the robot will
automatically execute the program and make corresponding 3. Development Status of Industrial
actions, mainly including linear and circular motion. Due to Robot
its simple design and good visibility, analog industrial robots
are still widely used in production until now [11][12][13][14]. 3.1. Development Status of Industrial Robot in
With the development of computer technology, off-line China
programming robot has come into people's sight. The biggest The development of industrial robots in China is in an
feature of off-line programming robot is that it can verify the unprecedented golden period. On the one hand, the party and
reliability of the technical scheme in advance through the state strongly support the transformation of traditional
simulation technology. In the simulation environment, manufacturing and the development of high-end
technicians can establish a complete robot model, and analyze manufacturing, and have given many policy support. On the
and verify the reliability and practicability of the model other hand, the development focus of manufacturing industry
through the powerful computing power of the computer, has changed from ‘speed’ to ‘quality’. China's manufacturing
which greatly improves the efficiency of development industry has abandoned the rugged development model of
[15][16]. Today, ROS (robot operation system) system has seeking rapid development at the expense of destroying the
become the world's recognized largest robot development environment, and is gradually undergoing a complete
platform, which is free to all robot developers around the transformation. Following the development strategy that
world. green water and green mountains are golden mountains and
In recent years, with the rise of artificial intelligence silver mountains, the manufacturing industry pays more
technology, intelligent robots have gradually become a attention to environmental protection while developing
research hotspot. It not only has the advantages of the first steadily.
and second generation robots, but also has the ability of At the same time, in the era of artificial intelligence
environmental perception and intelligent decision-making. sweeping the world, the development of industrial robots in
Intelligent robot has a strong ability to adapt to the China is increasingly combined with artificial intelligence
environment. It can work independently in the unknown technology. The combination of artificial intelligence
environment without relying on human intervention. The core technology such as pattern recognition, machine vision,
to realize this function is the sensors carried by the robot, such machine learning and industrial robot technology has become
as visual odometer, laser sensor, monocular camera, etc. a research hotspot of domestic scholars. The combination of
When working, the sensor can directly or indirectly capture artificial intelligence algorithm and manipulator trajectory
external information, which will generate control signals after planning and Slam (simultaneously localization and mapping)
processing, and flexibly control the robot to work according technology are the perfect combination of artificial
to the changes of the external environment [17][18][19]. This intelligence technology and robot theory.
kind of robot is widely used in arc welding and handling work. On the whole, China has basically mastered many
At present, China's intelligent robot technology is still important technologies in the design, manufacturing,
relatively backward, and can only be applied in some basic application and research of industrial robots [23][24]. Many
fields, such as assembly, welding, painting, etc. domestic enterprises have fully mastered the key technology
2.3. Robot Operating System of producing manipulator, that is, the hardware design
technology and software programming technology of
The so-called robot operating system usually refers to ROS manipulator. Relevant theoretical research has also made
(robot operating system). ROS originated from a scientific some progress. The key technologies of arc welding, spot
research project of Stanford University in 2007. Then, the welding, large robot automatic production line and external
technology company willow garage took over ROS in 2008 equipment development and preparation have reached or
and launched version 1.0 of ROS in 2010. The launch of approached the international advanced level. China's
version 1.0 marks that the development of ROS has entered a industrial robot technology is developing at an unimaginable
new stage. The classic turtle routines inspired countless robot speed.
developers and have been used until now. In 2013, OFRs took
over ROS. Under the management of OFRs, ROS developed 3.2. Development Status of Industrial Robot in
rapidly, and the version iterated rapidly at the speed of two Other Countries
years. At the same time, with the unremitting efforts of
developers who are keen on robots all over the world, the After World War II, with the beginning of the cold war, the
functions of ROS have been continuously improved. Up to US Soviet hegemony undoubtedly accelerated the
now, ROS has become the most widely used robot development of industrial robots. Military, aerospace and
development platform in the world. nuclear technology all rely on more precise parts, which puts
At present, ROS system still relies on a subsystem of Linux forward higher requirements for the performance of industrial
system and cannot run independently. Although it also has a robots. In this context, foreign industrial robot technology has
version suitable for window, the overall completion degree is achieved unprecedented development.
still low. However, Microsoft has made it clear that it will Nowadays, in the developed industrialized countries led by
spare no effort to develop ROS on the window platform; the European Union and the United States, automatic
Semiconductor company ST company also joined the ranks assembly lines and their supporting industrial robots have
of developers and proposed to develop ROS system suitable become the measurement of the degree of factory evolution,
for the whole series of St microcontrollers. It is believed that and high-precision industrial robots have also become the
focus of academic research. All kinds of industrial machines

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are widely used in chemical industry, materials, automobiles, dimensional space, and can effectively improve the efficiency
electrical appliances, video, steel, logistics and other fields. of sorting, picking up, packing and assembly operations.
Today's industry can't live without robots. [20]。
Globally, Western European countries and East Asian 5. Conclusion
countries (especially Japan) have the strongest grasp of Nowadays, the development of China's manufacturing
industrial robot technology. Industrial robot companies from industry shows the development trend of automation,
the above countries, including FANUC, Yaskawa (Yaskawa) intelligence, greening, networking and informatization. In
in Japan and KUKA in Germany, account for 60% to 80% of recent years, the competition in domestic and foreign markets
the global share of industrial robots [21]. The United States is has become increasingly fierce, the labor cost has increased
good at special robot technology, and its robots used in service, year by year, and users' requirements for product
aerospace and military fields account for 60% of the global personalization have become higher and higher. At the same
share [22]. China is the largest market for industrial robots, time, the problem of population aging has gradually become
with an annual growth rate of 25% to 30%. In recent years, prominent. Under many challenges, China's manufacturing
driven by policies and the international situation, domestic industry needs to seize the time to upgrade technology and
industrial robots have developed rapidly, and there is a great equipment and enhance its core competitiveness. Therefore,
trend to replace foreign industrial robots. as the core technology of manufacturing development,
industrial robot technology has a huge development space.
4. Typical Applications of Industrial In the next few years, intelligent chemical plants will grow
Robot rapidly and spread all over the world, and the supporting
intelligent industrial robots will also usher in the golden age
4.1. BIW Welding Robot of development. The development of industrial robots will
The production of BIW requires large-scale and fast-paced strongly support the upgrading of manufacturing.
welding on 55 ~ 75 stations, with up to 4000 ~ 5000 welding
points [25]. BIW Welding production line is the place to References
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