From Chaser to Global Leader: The Rise of China’s Humanoid Robot Technology Patents

UBTECH has become the company that holds the largest number of valid humanoid robot technology patents in the world.

On November 27, the People's Daily Online Research Institute released the "Humanoid Robot Technology Patent Analysis Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"), which conducted an in-depth analysis of humanoid robot technology patents around the world and discussed the development of the humanoid robot industry so far. In particular, the trend of technology patent layout in the past two decades is highlighted, and the future technological development trend of the industry is prospected.

In early November, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Guiding Opinions on the Innovation and Development of Humanoid Robots", which also clarified the staged time node goals of the humanoid robot industry for the first time. The opinion proposes that by 2025, China's humanoid robot innovation system will be initially established, cultivating 2-3 ecological enterprises with global influence and a group of specialized small and medium-sized enterprises; by 2027, the technological innovation capabilities of humanoid robots will be significantly improved , related products are deeply integrated into the real economy and become an important new engine of economic growth.

The issuance of the "Guiding Opinions" reflects the national level's support for the entire humanoid robot industry. The development of the humanoid robot industry is inseparable from the accumulation of technology. In this innovative era driven by two wheels of robots and artificial intelligence, whoever can break through more core technologies and obtain patents, whoever can put the technology into more scenarios, and achieve the perfect combination of basic research, technological innovation and practical applications will reap the rewards. More markets.

The future of patents is also the future of Chinese humanoid robots

In recent years, humanoid robot technology innovation has continued to be active, relevant companies have released new products one after another, and patent applications for humanoid robots have also shown rapid development. The report found that global patent applications for humanoid robots can be divided into four development stages: technology embryonic stage (before 2000), slow development stage (2000-2014), rapid development stage (2015-2017) and stable development stage (since 2018).

At different stages, the number and proportion of patent applications in each country are different. In 2012, China was in the slow development stage and surpassed Japan to become the world's number one. In 2017, in the rapid development stage, the United States officially surpassed Japan and became the world's second place.

In the stable development stage, humanoid robots have become the main field of competition between China and the United States. China, in particular, has become the main market for humanoid robot patents. Whoever can take the lead in the field of patents will win the battle for humanoid robot patents

Specifically for enterprises, according to report statistics, in the field of humanoid robot technology, UBTECH ranks first in the world in terms of the number of valid patents. Although Honda and Sony rank among the top three in terms of total number of patent applications, it can also be seen from the report data that Honda and Sony have a large number of expired patents, causing their rankings in the number of valid patents to lag behind Ubisoft. After further screening and elimination, Honda, UBTECH, and Samsung have more than 400 valid invention patents, ranking among the top three, and belong to the first echelon of applicants in this field. Toyota and Seiko have more than 300 valid invention patents. Epson belongs to the second echelon, mainly established Japanese and Korean companies with strong strength. Among other top-ranked applicants, universities and scientific research institutions are the main ones.

YouBixuan Technology is among the representative enterprises of humanoid robots in China, and it also represents the rapid development of the Chinese industry in the field of humanoid robots.

In fact, the study found that during the patent validity period, the early valid patents were mainly owned by Honda, Sony, Samsung and other companies. For example, Honda reached the peak number of patents in 2005, while Samsung's patent applications were mainly concentrated between 2007 and 2012. The number of valid patents in other years is smaller and has shown a slow growth trend in recent years

Mid-term valid patents are mainly concentrated in Toyota, Seiko Epson, SoftBank and other companies. Toyota's effective patent applications mainly started in 2007 and reached their peak in 2018; Seiko Epson's effective patent applications mainly started in 2011, reaching a high point in 2016 and then decreasing year by year; SoftBank's effective patents were mainly distributed in 2014 Between 2017 and 2017, the peak occurred in 2015, but in recent years no new valid patents have been produced

In the recent ranking of effective patents, dominant companies in the field of humanoid robots from China and the United States have begun to appear among the top applicants, such as Boston Dynamics in the United States, Youbixuan, and Datman in China.

From the perspective of overall patents, China was indeed a catch-up in the field of humanoid robots ten years ago. From a follower to a leader, China's humanoid robot industry cannot do without the related domestic enterprises, universities and scientific research institutions taking the first step in patent layout.

As early as its establishment, UBTECH has been conducting in-depth research on servo drives in the key field of robots, and has taken the lead in self-research of servo drives. UBTECH's prospectus mentioned that it is not only the first company in the world to complete the mass production of servo drives from small to high torque (torque from 0.2Nm to 200Nm), but also the first company in the world to be equipped with multiple servo drives in the consumer market. One of the companies commercializing multi-jointed service robots.

Based on the analysis of technology application activity, in the field of humanoid robots, in the past five years, UBTECH has filed an average of nearly 200 patent applications per year, which is higher than the number of established applicants such as Honda and Companies such as Toyota, Samsung, Seiko Epson, Sony, and Boston Dynamics, which have attracted much attention in the field of humanoid robots in recent years.

Full-stack technology layout promotes the maturity of the humanoid robot industry

Rewritten content: Unlike industrial robots that focus on precision manufacturing, humanoid robots refer to robots that are specially designed and manufactured to imitate the appearance and behavior of humans. Since the real world is designed according to the human body shape, only humanoid robots can be developed with the same flexibility and adaptability as humans. Human production and life scenes are very complex, which means that unlike simple and repetitive mechanical operations of industrial robots, humanoid robots need to deal with complex and diverse production and life scenes, which requires companies to be deep enough in technology accumulation to cope with it

Zhou Jian, founder, chairman and CEO of Youbi Technology, previously mentioned that intelligent manufacturing will become the first large-scale application field of humanoid robots. Commercial service scenarios are the fastest application market for humanoid robots, and home implementation scenarios are It is the most potential application market for humanoid robots. In the humanoid robot track, what capabilities are needed to serve the differentiated needs of more scenarios?

The report points out that companies that invest in R&D in all fields of humanoid robots have the potential to implement humanoid robot products in multiple scenarios. The full-stack technology layout will play an important role in the research and development and commercial promotion of humanoid robot technology. effect.

The report divides humanoid robot technology into five main modules: body structure, core components, intelligent perception, drive control and support environment. The report also found that in terms of humanoid robot technology, body structure, intelligent perception and drive control are the three main areas of technology patent layout. Among them, technologies such as joints, legs, machine vision and gait control are the key patent layout branches

Since 2013, UBTECH has been conducting patent layout in the field of humanoid robots, mainly in technical branches such as heads, joints, reducers, and machine vision. The technical layout coverage is relatively high. After 2018, UBTECH continues to lay out joints, reducers, and machine vision. At the same time, positioning, navigation, and motion control technology branches are the key technical branches of the layout, and humanoid robot arms and lower limbs are used as new patented technology layout points. This is basically consistent with the key growth areas of patent applications in technology branches of the global humanoid robot industry after 2014.

Generally speaking, except for a few branches, UBTECH Technology basically has a layout in all patented technology branches. Compared with other companies, the coverage is more comprehensive. Together with Honda, Sony, Toyota and other companies, they are all in the field of humanoid robots. Applicants with relatively comprehensive technical layout coverage; at the same time, in key technical branches, UBTECH has also achieved basically the same layout trend as the global humanoid robot industry.

Based on UBTECH’s full-stack R&D capabilities, the large-scale humanoid robot Walker has undergone four iterations, and its cost has dropped to less than US$100,000, and will be further reduced in the future. Thanks to technology and cost factors, UBTECH Walker is the first large-scale humanoid robot in China that has been commercialized. It has been implemented in scenes such as NEOM Future City in Saudi Arabia and the Dubai World Expo.

In fact, Chinese companies represented by UBTECH continue to accumulate core technologies for humanoid robots, making China one of the few countries in the world that has produced and commercialized finished humanoid robots. In the humanoid robot industry A certain foundation has been laid at this stage of development. This also reflects the important role of full-stack technology layout in the commercial promotion of humanoid robots mentioned earlier.

Compared with other single-function robot products, humanoid robot products are more versatile. Whether in the fields of industry, medical care, home, education or elderly care, humanoid robots can achieve functions that are difficult to achieve with traditional robots. With the maturity of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence and large-scale models, humanoid robots are expected to bring more changes to our lives in the future. Before the era of humanoid robots truly arrives, technological accumulation will determine whether a country can take the lead in this industry. At present, it seems that China’s humanoid robot industry is ready

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