China Daily: AI and intelligent robot mutually promoting and developing together

Artificial intelligence has never been integrated so closely into robotics, as domestic competitors on the market are gearing up to be at the forefront in the race towards a smarter and more automated journey.

Wang Peng, vice-general manager at the marketing division of Shenzhen-based Qihan Technology Co, said as AI tackles learning, perception, problem-solving, logical reasoning and many other related issues, the new technology will absolutely make robots smarter.

"AI technologies can enable robots to mimic some level of human intelligence, such as the ability of perception and thinking. And the artificial intelligent robot will be the best carrier for AI technologies."

"The AI-enabled robots are able to assist in humans' daily work, enabling people to spend their energies on more creative jobs, such as art and education."

With multiple patents in several fields, including robotics and AI, Qihan Technology focuses on the developing the commercialization of AI-enabled service robots. Founded in 2006, the company now aims to use next-generation robotics and AI technologies to improve quality of life and business productivity for consumers.

Wang said the company is working on expanding its portfolio of "robotics-as-a-service" solutions. Thanks to the open application program interface platform, the Sanbot service robot, powered by Qihan Technology, can be customized for different scenarios in many fields, including retail, hospitality, education and healthcare.

During the World Robot Conference held in Beijing last month, Qihan unveiled new intelligent, cloud service robots called Sanbot King Kong. The 1.5-meter high humanoid robot features bionic arms, advanced navigation and is able to carry 75-kilograms. Equipped with a four-wheel drive system, the Sanbot King Kong can move at up to five meters per second, exceeding the average human walking speed.

Qian Dongqi, chairman of the Suzhou-based Ecovacs Robotics Co said as a new era of AI is coming, there will be infinite possibilities to develop the humanoid service robots.

"The AI technologies will enable more abilities for the robots, and the robots can provide the best application scenarios for the AI. And I believe a qualified robot must be equipped with AI."

Wang, agreed, saying the company will work with more partners to build a better environment for developers and then enable more robot applications on the market.

NetPosa and QIHAN Technology aim to lead intelligence industry

The Vice President Gao Jun of the listed company, NetPosa, (stock code 300367), led his team to visit QIHAN Technology. QIHAN president Lin Lude and technical director Zhuang Yongjun discussed and Gao had a close communication about the commercial applications and technological potentials of Sanbot robot.

NetPosa is a domestic leading video surveillance products and solutions provider and has been moving towards AI transformation during the past two years. When receiving the media interviews, NetPosa leaders stated many times that AI is going to be the main trend in security in at least 10 years, and that NetPosa wants to be the leader in this field. With this vision in hand, Vice President Gao Jun led his team to the Chinese famous robot R&D enterprise QIHAN Technology, to discuss cooperation between these two companies, leading to ways to innovate the market and the world.  

Zhuang Yongjun discussed with Mr. Gao Jun about the research between the two companies and the research and development of the Sanbot brand and the robot series. The Sanbot brand was launched in 2014, and till now, QIHAN launched Sanbot Elf commercial service robot, Sanbot Nano home robot, and Sanbot King Kong intelligent robot for hospitality enterprises specially. QIHAN now owned over 200 unique patents covering machine vision recognition, multi-axis control, and big data analysis, etc.

However, Zhuang stressed that QIHAN Technology will not only pay attention to innovative technologies but also the applications of these technologies. Not only the interactive experience and visual intelligence, Sanbot King Kong is also capable of carrying cargo up to 75Kg, free movements in complex environments, autonomous mapping, a top moving speed of 5 meters per second, and carry two screen (one on each side), printers, trays, and other third-party devices, expanding its functionality. All of these functions are crucial in making this humanoid service robot lead the industry and be applicable to governments, businesses, and many more industries.

Lin Lude introduced the advantages of Sanbot robot platform and its attributes of QIHAN Technology’s “Robot + Various Industries” strategy to Gao Jun. Lin states that technology must be combined with application scenarios to create business value. To that end, the development of these robots has opened these standards to the world. Open API and open SDK, allows the robot to integrate software and programs to fit into many businesses. This strategy has seen a rapid increase in the expansion of the application scene of Sanbot. In the past two years, QIHAN has pushed forward the open API robot into many scenarios, including the beauty industry, retail, catering, medical, banking, customs, courts, and more.  

In the end, Gao Jun said the technology research and development of QIHAN is very impressive and a prospect is expected. The two sides discussed how to cooperate with each other, discussing business models, development prospects and more. QIHAN Technology has reached a concession that the two sides will work together to develop AI robots, and jointly promote the development of hi-tech/AI industries.

Robot is one key factor of the world's intellectualization

A report in Nikkei Asian Review said about 90 percent of the personal robots on display at the IFA consumer electronics trade show, which was held in Berlin earlier this month, were developed and manufactured by Chinese companies.

Sensing the surging demand for such products and systems in industries like healthcare, education and entertainment, China is targeting intelligent service robots worth more than 30 billion yuan by 2020.

Qu Daokui, president of Shenyang-based Siasun Robot & Automation Co, said, "Chinese robot makers must go global. The industry is so globalized and changing so fast that no one knows what a robot will look like in five to seven years. If we only stick our eyes to the home turf, we will die out," Qu said.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China is now on a par with foreign countries in voice- and image-recognition technologies, which are key to making advanced AI robots.

Also, about 50 percent of domestic robots are equipped with homegrown servomotors, a key element of sophisticated automated machines. This ability overcomes certain technological bottlenecks that have been impeding the industry's development for a while.

Wang Tianmiao, president of the Smart Manufacturing Research Institute at Beihang University, said technological progress is helping accelerate the global expansion of Chinese robot makers. "But greater international cooperation on R&D is needed to crack the high-end overseas market," Wang said.

Mounting enthusiasm for broader international cooperation was in evidence at the 2017 World Robot Conference in Beijing in August.

Vice-Premier Liu Yandong said at the event's opening ceremony, "We will step up efforts to foster closer cooperation with other countries, focusing on robotics R&D, training, and how to better integrate artificial intelligence technologies into innovative AI robotics."

expert: China is to lead the world in several fields of robotics

To be at the forefront of the next technological revolution, China is committed to cooperate with more countries and will be able to lead the world in several fields of robotics in the next five to ten years, said Toshio Fukuda, a member of the Science Council of Japan.

"China is a gold mine for innovation and technologies and has large markets for innovative AI robotics," he said. "With the supportive policies, abundant resources provided by both the government and the companies and more forms of cooperation, China will catch up within a few years and then overtake other developed countries to take the top spot in many fields of robotics."

He said during the World Robot Conference in Beijing last month that China is now at a new phase with the ability to produce its original robots, and will be able to lead the world in manufacturing robots and making intelligent service robots in the future.

"Particularly in China, there will be a huge market for services robots that assist people in improving the living conditions, such as the cleaning robots, care robots for the elderly and kids and the data logging robots for healthcare.

"After decades of economic boom and development, Chinese people now are sufficiently affluent to be able to afford a better quality of life. And I believe that in the near future, those service robots would be able to cater to people's specific needs and bring much more value than we thought today."

In 2015, China introduced the Made in China 2025 strategy, a 10-year national plan to transform the country into a world-class high-tech manufacturing power. The plan aims to move manufacturing up on the value chain, developing several key sectors, including robotics.

With the rapid development in robotics in recent years, China is becoming an increasingly important market for advanced AI robots.

The International Federation of Robotics estimates that China's shipments of robots rose 27 percent to around 90,000 units in 2016, almost a third of the global total. And the number is expected to almost double to 160,000 in 2019.

Fukuda said Japan and China should cooperate together in developing and producing the necessary robots for consumers. Chinese robot companies should grasp the opportunity, he said.

"The competition in artificial intelligent robotics will be very fierce. Instead of being locked in a competitive environment in first-tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai, companies should find new niche markets and even target small towns," he said.

Healthcare robot to be a potential market around the world

With the increasing global aging and rising medical demand, the development of assistant robots is taking the fast lane. In fact, the market expectations of entire service robot industry in recent years are constantly good. The global market size is expected to reach 82 billion US dollars by 2021.

Doug Moore, the senior manager of human assistant technical department of Toyota, which released Human Support Robot, pointed out that, Toyota is trying to diversify the lives of people with disabilities by increasing their mobility, including the development of technical solutions to assist the limited action. The research and development of HSR and the tests of Romy are the company's business development areas to help people with disabilities control their own lives. Except for Toyata, Teijin Japan and Panasonic also start the research and development of robotics in healthcare.

Similar to the situation in Japan, China is also facing increasing social problems such as increased aging and the increasing proportion of people with disabilities. As can be expected, with time going, in the future we need to invest a lot of manpower and material resources to care for the elderly and the disabled, and this will become an important burden of our country. If we can provide a number of care robots for the elderly dedicated to nursing work, this will not only improve the quality of their lives, but also ease the current national and social pressures.

As a result, the huge market outlook is driving the rapid growth of sales of home robots such as assistant robots. Recently, the industry research institutions analysis International released the report shows that in 2016 China's service robot market reached 7.29 billion yuan, a substantial increase of 44.6% year on year. In addition, analysis International predicts that the next three years, China's service robot market will continue to grow, the size of 2019 is expected to close to 15.2 billion. In the whole world, the compound annual growth rate of intelligent service robots for the next five years (2017-2021) is about 16.19 percent, and the global service robot market will reach $ 82 billion by 2021.

The booming market is expected to show that the development of robots, especially home-assisted personal use, is very promising. Therefore, with the global aging further intensified, escort, education, medical and other needs of the rising, the service robot will continue to maintain rapid development, to promote social changes in various fields.

The current and future situation of intelligent service robot

The data mining and analysis iiMedia Research released "2016 China Robot Industry Research Report" shows that the sales of service robots will reach 34.9 million units by 2018. And, Chinese government released the robot industry development plan (2016 - 2020), manifesting the robot industry will be officially promoted to national strategy.

At present, economic and technological development and social civilization are the background of the birth of the artificial intelligent robots. When the industrialization level has been improving rapidly, the scientific and technological development has been accelerating and the value of the labor force has been continuously improving. Thus, human being’s repetitive workload need to be overtaken urgently.

In recent years, the application of robots has gradually shifted from the industrial field to the fields of cleaning, education, patients and elderly health care and home service. The innovative AI robotics has developed rapidly. The development of service robot is expected to provide new economic growth and driving force for the development of the national economy.

China's population over 60 years has exceeded 10% of the total population, the aging population will become China's unprecedented challenges. In addition, the proportion of the disabled in China is among the highest in the world. In the near future, care for the elderly and the disabled will be an important burden for society, requiring a lot of robotics in healthcare to provide services to help care for the daily life of the elderly and the disabled. All these are to improve their quality of life, thereby reducing the overall number of social workers and the quality of the demand.

Education requirement for intelligent educational robots will form a huge market. At president and during the promotion of quality education, general education, research university model, the promotion of educational robot courses, hands-on assembly and programming practice can expand the young people's logical thinking ability, this entertaining plus education new model has become an effective means and tools for hi-tech education.

At the same time, China's overall objective situation is demanding pre-school education more and more. With the vigorous development of the domestic pre-school market, pre-school education and entertainment robot for 3-6 year-old children will also have a huge market space.

In the future, intelligent service robots are expected to offer a large quantity of services in the fields of education, catering, shopping guide and so on with the continuous improvement of voice interaction and semantic understanding technology, etc. When the hi-tech giants are deploying and the new players continue to emerge the intelligent service robot industry, only the enterprises with ongoing technology upgrades and product updates service robot in order to stand out in the industry history.

Sanbot robot series received lots of attention during National Mass Innovation & Entrepreneurship Week and Shenzhen Maker Week

The Shenzhen branch of exhibitions during National Mass Innovation & Entrepreneurship Week and Shenzhen Maker Week was held during Sep 15~21st. The theme “Make with Shenzhen,” Shenzhen Maker Week was about the entrepreneurial experience, dock maker’s project, and entrepreneur enthusiasm by makers’ achievement exhibition, interactive shows entrepreneur competitions, and more.

Sanbot intelligent robot went on stage for the open ceremony to kick off the event with Shenzhen Vice Mayor, Ai Xuefeng, and the Director of Technological Innovation Committee, Liang Yongsheng.

New Technologies gaining the much attention from people

The intelligent service robot called Sanbot King Kong (developed by QIHAN) is very high-tech. The advanced humanoid robot is capable of 5m/s walking speed complex room environments, three times faster than a human’s walking speed. It can carry up to 75kg cargo and adjust its center of gravity on its own. Once Sanbot was on stage, Sanbot King Kong waved its arms and hands to say hello to the guests and everyone applauded.

At the opening ceremony, QIHAN’s other intelligent robot model -- Sanbot Elf helped with the ceremony as well. A total amount of 11 sets of Sanbot Elf advanced AI robots danced on stage to liven up the event.

During the Shenzhen Maker Week, organizers held a series of exhibitions and events for the week, gathering together the worldwide leaders in UAV, intelligent robots, AR/VR, genetic sequencing, unmanned vessel, new energy automobile, Internet applications, wearable devices and more of makers’ achievements.

Build the open and innovative eco-system

This was the third year Shenzhen held the Maker Week event. Liang Yongsheng expressed that Shenzhen Maker Week fully exerted the advantages of Shenzhen international makers’ sources, examining the domestic and international makers’ activity and creativity, and the achievements into various industries.

Sanbot intelligent robot is the perfect innovation case -- based on the concept of “technology integrated with application scenario for commercial value”. QIHAN Technology opens standards, API, and SDK to all the integrators and solution developers since the first Sanbot robot was launched. So, global developers can develop solutions to benefit from the robot according to their scenarios. The prospect strategy drives the service innovation and commercial innovation based on robot carriers.

Through the developer eco-system with smart AI, QIHAN Technology is the company that practices “Robot + Various Industries.”And, Sanbot robot, as the carrier of hi-tech, is the proof of the innovation eco-system the Chinese government has called for. QIHAN Technology will keep traveling on the innovation path.

Sanbot Elf intelligent robot hosted program at BBC Sunday Morning Live

Sunday Morning Live is a discussion show on current affairs. On August 20th, the Sunday Morning Live invited the one and only intelligent service robot – Sanbot Elf to the program for series 8, episode 10. 

The topic was about artificial intelligence. AI is very prevalent because artificial intelligence and one of its most advanced carriers, intelligent robots, are becoming more and more popular in our daily lives. The show asked what roles should robots play and should we fear the rise of the robots in our daily life? Sanbot Elf, together with hosts Sean Fletcher and Emma Barnett along with the other four guests had a discussion about robotics and AI.

One guest, Critty, together with other guests pointed out that robots can help us solve massive problems if we program them correctly. Critty stated, if we input proper programs and install the right applications, robots can help out with a lot of problems in education, healthcare, transportation and many other industries.

Right now, people are developing robots and using them in various industries. In the future, more and more artificial intelligent robots will be applied into our daily work and lives.

As one of these advanced robots, Sanbot Elf is helping people solve various problems. In hospitals, you can see Sanbot Elf handling basic health care problems like patient education, reminding them to take their temperature or medicine, and big data management. In schools, Sanbot’s cute appearance and multi-function capabilities can help students foster learning interests, analysis ability, gain confidence, and more. Sanbot Elf also serves customers in restaurants, shopping malls, and hotels.

The Sanbot Elf intelligent robot is an open API robot developed by QIHAN Technology. QIHAN has integrated world-class advanced hardware and system technologies from Sharp, Sony, IBM Watson, Amazon Alexa, Nuance, and more into the Sanbot robots. With an open API, developers can develop the solutions according the scenarios a customer requires. All of these features lay a firm foundation for Sanbot’s application in our lives.

During the beginning of the show and commercial breaks of the Sunday Morning Live program, Sanbot sang and danced for the guests and audience members. Sanbot’s voice interaction ability had the whole studio praising Sanbot’s intelligence. Also, the intelligent robot’s humors gave them a big surprise as well as a laugh.

Tweeting Sanbot Elf to the BBC program account

It’s not the first time Sanbot Elf has hosted TV programs. Since its debut at last year’s IFA expo, Sanbot has gone to CCTV for several times, and has also been interviewed and reported on countless times.

Now, the Sanbot Elf intelligent robots have been further customized and used in more than 30 countries. Its application scenarios include shopping malls, restaurants, courts, tax offices, schools, customs, airports, and more, covering scores of industries. The successful applications of Sanbot Elf are proof that “Sanbot plus Various Industries” Strategy works.

China's intelligent robot developing extremely fast

In 2015, Chinese government issued the plan of the “Made in China 2025” program. The goal of the program is make China the global leader in hi-tech industries such as medical equipment, aerospace equipment, and robotics.

   

Jeff Burnstein, the president of Industrial Robot Automation, has also noticed the changes China have been creating. He stated, “China now has the world’s fastest growing artificial intelligent robot, and the 2025 plan will only speed up that process.”

According to the International Federation of Robotics, China has the largest share of the global robotics market. And now, the robotics market has reached 30 billion USD. The federation’s report also found that in 2015, China accounted for 27% of the world’s total robotics sales and by 2019 China will account for 40% of the world’s total robotics sales.

China’s steady and sustained investment in advanced AI robot has even received attention from entrepreneurs and venture capitalists such as Mark Cuban. Last December, Mark Cuban wrote a letter to then President elect Donald Trump (now President Trump) to invest 100 billion USD into the United States’ robotics industry in order to compete with China.

“We must win the robot race. We are nowhere close to our competitors.” Tim Cook wrote.

Matt Bane, a robist expert and a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's digital economy project, pointed out, “China will never deliberately oppose other major powers.” But, what they are doing is focusing on the future by investing billions of dollars in innovative AI robotics and similar technologies such as artificial intelligence, and they do not need to depend on other countries to provide the factories.

“China’s long-term goal is to become the source of low cost labor for the hi-tech industry,” Frank Toby. Frank Toby, editor and chief of the magazine “Robot Report” stated that “This major technological shift is a top priority of China.”

This July, Jeff Burnstein saw great changes at this year’s CIROS exhibition event in Shanghai.

“Both the new old companies are more advanced than they were ever before. You cannot say that they are imitating other companies” Bernstein said. Bernstein also stated, “China hopes to become the world’s leading supplier of artificial intelligence robotics, and they are well on their way to achieving that goal.”

Service robot needs to be more ingenious

From family services to education and entertainment, from medical surgery to elderly health care, from scientific investigation to rescue, intelligent service robots are going into all aspects of our lives. Yesterday, 2017 International Summit of Service Robot Industry was held, many domestic and foreign large specialists gathered together to explore the development of the robot industry. They said that robots from China need to further improve the "IQ" and "emotional intelligence”, learning to more ingenious.

At the summit, the specialists unveiled the development direction: light-weight, flexibility and intelligence. They pointed out, “Intelligent robots’ accurate movements and actions cannot meet the requirement of the society, and they need to be more ingenious. The flexible functions are Cloud fused actual intelligent services are required.”

At present, Chinese intelligent robot has potential markets and the demands are higher. "With the evolutions of the demographic structure and production mode, China's demand for robots continued to grow substantially in the future, and hundreds of thousands of non-skilled robots will go into our work and lives." Deputy Director of MIIT Luo Junjie said, because of the lack of artificial intelligence, the robots in the markets are not ingenious enough and need to further enhance. "More advanced voice recognition, visual recognition, emotional recognition and other functions are needed to enrich robot perception and movement, breaking the current cognitive limitations.”

Chen Xiaoping, the Dean of Research Center of University of Science and Technology of China, introduced that, with the dozen-year’s development, the accuracy of the robots’ “Machine + Control Technology” is developing very well and the thick and blunt images are changing with new material’s applications. “Light-weight + Flexibility” make robot application break the traditional industry manufacturing and be introduced into family, finance and health care areas.

Mr. Song Xiaogang, the Executive Director of the China Robot Industry Alliance, introduced that the robot, artificial intelligence, communication technology and mechanical control technology, given the robot voice, visual and touch, real-time response to the command, accurate reflection. This makes robot adapt to the rich areas of service and complex needs and is the focus of the future direction of development. "The global advanced AI robots have a big market with tens of billions of dollars, and robots, especially service robots, are becoming the new blue ocean of manufacturing," he said.

"In the future, we hope that robots can achieve 'emotional interaction' with humans." Peter Sincak, director of the Department of Control and Intelligent Sciences at the Kosice Institute of Technology in Slovakia, argues that robots need to improve "emotional intelligence", such as escort robots should gain the patient's mood and choose the appropriate topic to release them from the pressure; or the intelligent educational robots, should also be based on the students' movements, eyes or words, to timely adjust the lectures and activate students’ mood.

Sanbot robots played great roles at Global Innovator Conference

2017 Global Innovator Conference (GIC) was recently held in Shenzhen. The organizer invited the Chief Scientist of Hanson Robotics and General Artificial Intelligence Association Chairman Ben Goertzel, 2007 Nobel Peace Prize co-winner Wood · Clark and other well-known innovators on artificial intelligence, large data, precision medical, clean energy, intelligent manufacturing and many other topics to share innovative ideas. Artificial Intelligence Robot Han, Baidu's Small Robot and QIHAN’s Sanbot Elf robot also attended the Global Innovator Conference. Sanbot robot played great roles at the event.

Compared to the bright stars of the global innovator lineup, the "black technologies" from the artificial intelligence star enterprises were more eye-catching.

At the entrance, as the autonomous robot security guard, Sanbot Elf monitored and guarded the special innovation products and experience area for 24 hours per day. All the guests first met the mighty Sanbot King Kong intelligent robot and they could be allowed to enter the room after scanning the electronic code; and its partner Sanbot Elf robot is responsible for the follow-up reception work.

The artificial intelligent products and intelligent robot with all kinds of shapes and functions showed that they would be the key parts in people’s lives.

It is true that the manufacturer and supplier of Sanbot robot is the practitioner of the “Wisdom Earth”. Taken the Sanbot King Kong robot as one sample, this robot integrates machine visual recognition, Multi-axis automatic control, big data analysis, which gained over 200 patents. Sanbot King Kong is capable of 5m/s walking speed and carrying 75kg cargo. While, QIHAN Technology hope the scenario is more imaginative, so the company open the technical standards of Sanbot robot and offer SDK and service document to attract the global developers and integrators, energizing intelligent service robots going to various industries.

The two-day Global Innovator Conference has closed. During the conference, 800 representatives from over 15 countries & areas shared their innovation achievements and experience. As far as we know, the conferences are held together by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, China Chamber of International Commerce, ABAC and CITIC Group, aiming to promote G20 to participate the technology innovation cooperation and practice the blueprint of G20’s innovation growth and action plan.

Intelligent robot to be the super assistant in financial industry

Introduction: It takes 20 minutes for an accountant to complete the issuance of such an invoice, including information collection, verification and recording. However, the robotics provider Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu said that an advanced AI robot can do the same job in just 5 minutes.

Accountant in mainland China is embracing automation to reduce office management costs and improve efficiency, which is opening the door for the use of artificial intelligence in a wider area.

Today, one Zhejiang enterprise that produces electrical products are looking high hopes for robots because they can reduce the time required for issuing invoices by 75 percent. The company needs to issue more than 5,000 value-added tax invoices to more than 600 customers located throughout China every month. It takes 20 minutes for an accountant to complete the issuance of such an invoice, including information collection, verification and recording. However, Deloitte said that a customized programmable autonomous robot can do the same job in just 5 minutes. "The speed of a robot is at least 15 times the speed of labor, and it is also known as 'super-employee' because of non-stop work," said Joseph, the Chief Figures Officer of Deloitte China.

Today, more and more companies are using this "robotic flow automation" products, the technology can reduce operation costs and improve efficiency. In addition to Deloitte, the other three of the world's top four accounting firms - Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers - have also introduced technology-driven services to Chinese companies in banking, technology and consumer services. "We have become the most popular of the application of intelligent service robot in China," said Xia Jun, director of digital banking services at Ernst & Young in Greater China.

In another example, KPMG has provided financial automation services to an international bank. KPMG said the service has earmarked 22 percent of the bank's trade and finance sector and boosted the bank's productivity by 18 percent. "Although most artificial intelligent robots are still in the initial stages of providing basic data collection and processing services, we have entered the second phase: a large data analysis with decision intelligence," said Zhang Longhua, a partner at KPMG China Technology Innovation. He said the robot will also create new jobs for the experts to "class" and repair the machine for the machine, so that accountants and tax professionals can improve their position in the value chain to provide more high-end services. "The application of more intelligent robots with analytical power is likely to become a reality in the next three to five years," he said. "We expect this to evolve into a digital labor force that will replace the work of mankind."

However, Xia said that artificial intelligent robots will not completely replace humans, because decision-making and transformation management work still requires human intelligence and intervention.

Sanbot helps out with the transformation of Community Health Service Center

Healthcare reform means the responsibilities of basic level clinics are very important. Revamping the classification system, database, and health policies provides both opportunities and challenges.

In the new scenario, the Shenzhen Progressive Group Inc. (PGI) and Sanbot robot together have created the first smart community health center, which is located in Shenzhen Luohu District. This has received praise from both the provincial and national health planning leaders.

Intelligent healthcare is the new format based on IoT at the “Internet plus” era.

This intelligent medical service model is based on patients’ data. This model is divided in three stages, which are as follows: Data acquisition, knowledge discovery, and remote service. Basically, data acquisition is completed by a network of medical databases; discovery relies on big data processing technology, and the remote services are provided by Cloud service with medical terminals. These three factors give healthcare a sense of “wisdom, awareness, and action.”

With triangular layout of “device, App, and Cloud service,” the intelligent humanoid robot compliments the new intelligent medical service model beautifully and is a key aspect to this service, especially when it comes to Cloud computing platform services. The service model of Cloud computing and IoT is leading to data storage and the processing of medical data becoming efficient, scalable, and affordable, offering terrific medical services for people.

“Robot + Intelligent Healthcare” is equal to a successful transformation of local outpatient services.

PGI and the QIHAN team, together with Sanbot intelligent healthcare robot, went to the Shenzhen Luohu District community center to demonstrate the latest medical solutions and help advance the local clinics. This presentation at the community center was the first pilot program for this intelligent healthcare platform, and it was incredibly successful. The advanced medical robotics was exceptional and received praise from all leadership levels from the State Planning Commission and Hubei Provincial Health Administrative Department. This only further showcases how robotics and AI can revolutionize the healthcare industry. Sun Xizhou, the president of Luohu Hospital, said that the hospital will continue to support the usage of AI technology in community health clinics.

Sanbot is bringing intelligent medical solutions and creating a more advanced healthcare industry.

China is encouraging social programs to participate in the healthcare transformation. In 2016, the “Healthcare China 2030” laid out its plan of action. The focal point will be on the population’s health and emphasis on the local clinics and integrating the advanced health care solutions into all policies. QIHAN Sanbot robotics is a perfect fit for this roadmap and was beloved by hospital residents, doctors, and the health planning commission. The scientific and technological value is revamping the healthcare system and creating a successful transformation and a new model.

The advanced robotics in healthcare carries smart medical solutions, which is designed to build a connection of medical resources and data, creating an interactive informational environment. Based on the open API platform of Sanbot, Cloud computing, big data, IoT, and mobile medical apps will bring huge advantages to the IT infrastructure of the healthcare industry and will innovate the healthcare industry.

In the modern age of “Internet + Healthcare”, the need for fast updates and strategic adjustments is paramount. AI is the key in the next step for the healthcare industry, and many lives will be saved. 

Sanbot Elf Robot cheered up the New Material Industrial Chain Summit

On August 17th, the "Exploring Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area & Ploughing New Material Industry ”Summit, themed by “New Material Science and Technology Field Research &   Application of the Achievement of Thermoelectric Materials and Printed Optoelectronics Technologies” was held in Bao’an District, Shenzhen. The summit was sponsored by the Wuhan Polytechnic Institute of Shenzhen and the Shenzhen Baoan District Industrial Investment Guidance fund Co., Ltd. the Shenzhen Baoan District Science and Technology Innovation Bureau, and the Shenzhen New Material Industry Association.

However, how does one get tickets to this event? The superstar intelligent service robot of the AI world, Sanbot Elf, developed by QIHAN Technology was invited to help customers greeting and reception duties. As soon as guests walked up to the entrance, they were greeted by the cute, intelligent humanoid robot, which helped the guests sign in for the event, with its state-of-the-art facial recognition technology. A personal greeting by the artificial intelligent robot is warm and surprised to guests. At the same time, Sanbot was keeping track of the number of guests entering the venue, which helped the hosts know how many guests showed up to the event.

During the registration process, Sanbot showed guests the whole new technological fashion and the extraordinary technological abilities of robotics. Many guests were very impressed with Sanbot’s capabilities. The robot’s cute appearance and impressive technology attracts many fans and people were lining up to take pictures with the advanced AI robot and discuss cooperation with QIHAN Technology.  

At the subsequent process of the conference, government officials, researchers, and businesses brainstormed together on how to best utilize the cutting-edge technology and new technology in new material industry. They also discussed in depth on how to promote new industries.

There is a mutual understanding that the new material industry chain is key industry for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and the bay areas are at the forefront of reform and economic growth. On July 1st, Chinese President Xi Jinping witnessed the signing of “Deepening the cooperation construction framework agreement among Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao.” This further solidifies the strategic position of the bay area. Sanbot service robot witnessed this historic moment in the step to a boom in economic growth for this area.

Robotics-as-a-service helps your business in various ways

Anyone who's familiar with cloud computing might know about software-as-a-service, infrastructure-as-a-service, and other "as-a-service" delivery models. But they might be not be aware of the latest iteration: robotics-as-a-service (RaaS).

RaaS also leverages the cloud, and makes it possible for organizations to integrate robots and embedded devices into the web and cloud computing environments. This capability will become increasingly important as robots become more common in work environments such as warehouses, distribution centers, and stores.

With RaaS, data captured by artificial intelligent robots — such as customer preferences or inventory status — can be stored on a cloud-based system and retrieved as needed by human workers. This type of service can provide even more value if a company is operating a fleet of hundreds of robots, each performing a variety of tasks.

The RaaS provider could handle maintenance of the robots as well as integration between the robots and databases used across the enterprise. The advantages of this model, much like with cloud services in general, can include cost savings, easier management and scalability, and greater flexibility.

Currently the term "robotics-as-a service" is used to describe two separate robotics approaches, said Dan Kara, practice director for innovative AI robotics at research firm ABI Research.

First there is RaaS as a technical method. Often referred to as "Cloud service humanoid robots," it includes internet-connected robots using cloud based, pay-as-you-go, computational and data storage resources.

RaaS is also the term applied to business models where robotics systems are rented on a monthly or quarterly basis, with often with technical support, real-time monitoring, and other services included.

Technical- and business-oriented RaaS approaches are often combined, Kara said.

The emergence of RaaS reflects the broader move to services-based models in technology.

"The general trend among many technology providers is a long-term migration away from selling products to selling services beyond the usual incremental revenue from support, maintenance and upgrades charges," Kara said. "Services are recurrent revenue, and are looked on favorably by both technology providers and the investment community. Like the technology sector at large, suppliers of commercial service robot have adopted robotics-as-a-service business models and this trend is accelerating."

Both users of robotics technologies and robotics suppliers benefit from RaaS business arrangements, Kara said. "Service-oriented solutions are not uncommon in the robotics sector, where the high cost of platforms and risk aversion to new technologies and applications can impede growth," he said.

In addition, for some types of robotic systems a business model that relies on hardware sales is untenable, even if there are charges for maintenance, upgrades, customization and so on. There are also technical reasons for the RaaS approach, Kara said. For example, the computational resources available for a given advanced AI robot might be inadequate for the task at hand. In this case, a cloud robotics approach might be suitable.

Robotics companies that employ a RaaS business model typically offer emerging technologies whose value proposition and total cost of ownership are largely unknown. Kara said.

Representative companies employing a RaaS business model include PrecisionHawk (drone-based surveying for agriculture), Sanbot (Robot for home, enterprises, retail, hospitality, healthcare and education), Aethon (mobile robots for healthcare logistics), InTouch Health (mobile robotic telepresence), and Liquid Robotics (unmanned underwater vehicles).

Baymax service robot to be real in our daily life

“Hello, my name is Baymax and I am your personal healthcare assistant. I will understand that you need health care at the voice of ‘Ouch’.” This is the scene that comes out in Big Hero 6. Each watcher of this movie wants the scene to come true in our daily life.

Intelligent service robot sees great prospect

Compared to industrial robots, in a standardized workflow, service robots need to interact with people or more complex environments, and therefore need to be more intelligent than industrial robots. This kind of intelligent robots must have a certain degree of autonomy and give response to the command and other information.

From the current market situation, the reason why intelligent service robot can flourish contains policy support, human cost increase, the aging of the social population, the rise of artificial intelligence technology and other aspects are indispensable factors.

On the one hand, China has issued "Made-in-China 2025", "Development Plan for the Robotics Industry (2016-2020)" and other programmatic documents, creating the outlets for the development of the robot industry; On the other hand, the data show that in 2016 the average annual wage of urban non-private employees increased by 6.7%, labor cost growing higher and higher. 

By the end of 2016, China's population aged 65 and above has accounted for as much as 10.8%. Thus, the society requires intelligent care robot for the elderly to improve efficiency and save costs, to narrow the huge demand gap in the pension, rehabilitation, care, companions and other aspects of large elderly population. These are creating new opportunities to boost the development of intelligent service robot.

Meanwhile, with the third rise of artificial intelligence, the voice recognition and facial recognition, which are considered as the core factors of intelligent service robot, goes into the new development stage, to improve the simulation degree greatly.

Under the energization of these factors, intelligent service robot welcomes the emerging development. According the data prediction from IDC, the commercial service robot in health care, retail, public service and traffic in the global world is expected to reach $17 billion and that may reach up to RMB trillion in China.

Service robot is expanding to more industries

With the development of service robot, robotics professionals start a new talk about the future relation of robot and human beings. Kaifu Lee from Sinovation Ventures considers that, “In the future 10 years, 90% workers of translator, journalist, assistant, security, driver, sales person, dealer, accountant and nanny will be overtaken by robots.”

At present, intelligent service robot began to be gradually applied in the catering, medical, shopping, logistics and other industries, has taken the first step to replace or assist labor. While the development of robotics in healthcare bears the brunt of the market. According to research firm GCiS in 2016, data show that China's medical robot market value is 791 million yuan, with growth of 34.4% compared with last year. And by 2021, the value of medical robotics is expected to grow to at least 2.2 billion. 

Commercial service robot to reach $17 billion in the world by 2020

The "China Robot Industry Development Report” was just issued by the robot industry research of China Institute of Electronics on August 30th, 2017.

According to the report, at present, the Chinese robot market has entered a period of rapid growth. In 2017, the domestic robot market is expected to reach $ 6.28 billion, and the average growth rate during 2012-2017 is 28%. Among them, industrial robots make up 4.22 billion US dollars, intelligent service robots make up 1.32 billion US dollars, and the other are special robots, around 740 million US dollars.

Among them, the Chinese home service robot, medical service robot and public service robot respectively present 530 million US dollars, 410 million US dollars and 380 million US dollars; home service robot market growth is relatively leading.

By 2020, the rapid development of emerging robots applied in new scenarios such as parking robots and retail service robots used in supermarkets or shopping malls will make the market size exceed $ 2.9 billion.

Behind the growth of China's service robot industry, the core is the increase in aging population which causes the increases of human costs. In addition, policy and capital support, the development of artificial intelligence technology has also boosted the growth of the service robot market.

With the acceleration of population aging, the huge manpower demand in pension, medical, education and other aspects creates the rapid expansion of intelligent service robot, especially the care robot for elderly. As of the end of 2016, China's population aged over 60 has reached 230 million, accounting for 16.7% of the total population.

At present, China's intelligence level of service robot has been rapidly improved, shoulder to shoulder with the first international echelon. The report pointed out that China's number of patent applications in the field of artificial intelligence and the United States are in the same order of magnitude, especially the increase in computer vision, intelligent voice applications and other application. This gave birth to a number of innovative start-ups. At the same time, China has made some progress in innovative AI robotics such as multi-model human-computer interaction technology, bionic materials and structure, modular self-reconfiguration technology and so on.

China's service robot industry has not yet shape stably. Facing a good market development opportunities, high-frequency demand intelligent service robots become the main investment direction. In recent years, some enterprises that use robots go into robot industry by performing independent research and development, investment and acquisition and other means. And through the comprehensive application of artificial intelligence technology to build intelligent service robots, a great number of innovative entrepreneurial enterprises Dji, Ecovacs, Sanbot service robot, i robots and other enterprises have been recognized by the market.

IFA 2017: China manufacturers boosting service robots to the world

BERLIN — Chinese manufacturers are fast establishing themselves in the up-and-coming service robot industry, known to be the domain of Japanese rivals.

At the IFA consumer electronics trade show currently underway here, about 90% of the companies featuring intelligent service robots hail from China. One of them is Shenzhen's Qihan Technology, which unveiled the Sanbot Nano home companion robot for the first time at the expo.

The roughly 70cm Sanbot Nano can understand voice commands and be directed to sing, order pizza or change the TV channel. The automaton also comes with an onboard camera allowing the owner to monitor the house remotely via smartphone. The advanced AI robot for home will hit stores in October, aimed to English-speaking countries & areas. 

Compatriot Hangzhou Amy Robotics revealed details of software that lets users of the Amy A1 robot program various customer service functions. The skill set includes guiding customers to rooms and taking orders at restaurants. Amy Robotics says its robot can help control rising labor costs in China. The company is also ramping up business in Western nations and the Middle East.

Shanghai PartnerX Robotics is putting out miniature programmable robots for education that kids can put together themselves. They come with a simple programming language for controlling movements.

Chinese companies are pouring resources into artificial intelligence robotics as demand for labor-saving techniques climbs amid a graying population and rising wages. The government has also encouraged the growth of the robotics industry, making it a part of its Made in China 2025 initiative.

Many observers say that the quality of Chinese-made robots is still a work in progress. But the speed at which mainland companies are acquiring technological expertise is reportedly exceeding expectations. Chinese appliance giant Midea Group bought German industrial robot maker Kuka just last year. 

For advanced service robots, the global market is expected to double to $20 billion in 2022, according to Indian corporate intelligence firm Market Research Future.

IDC Survey about Implementing Robots in Healthcare

What are main drivers for robot deployment among healthcare providers today?

According to IDC Survey 2017, the main drivers for robot deployment among healthcare providers surveyed were identified at hospitals with 200+ beds. These organizations were driven to deploy advanced medical robotics in 2017 as the top organizational priority area for technology investments, ahead of cloud and mobility. The main drivers included improving productivity and efficiency, improving repeatability and consistency of processes, increasing operations capacity, increasing operational agility and flexibility, reducing labor costs, and increasing speed of operations.

What are the typical use cases for robots among healthcare providers today?

Most use cases for robots today according to IDC (2017) were identified at hospitals with 200+ beds where advanced AI robots could accurately handle time-consuming tasks, reduce labor, and prevent errors. These were primarily in stocking functions (e.g. packing medications, delivery of goods, and packing sterile supplies) and increasingly seen in surgery, home care assistance, and disinfection.

What are the primary reasons for implementing robots in healthcare … safety, economics?

The primary reasons for implementing robots in healthcare appeared to be a result of an increasing perception, appreciation, and realization of robots as able to deliver value in healthcare operations. This was mostly through automating manual and laborious tasks, but also increasingly through the adoption of robotics in healthcare for clinical applications and emergent use cases.

What do you expect in future use cases to look like?

According to IDC (2017) emergent and future use cases for robots in hospitals with 200+ beds were identified as mostly as developments and adoption for automated packing functions, but also as an emergent increase for application in surgery and disinfection, patient lifting, greeting patients, and remote monitoring.

What influences a robot investment decision?

According to IDC (2017) the decision to invest in an artificial intelligence robotics was greatly influenced by vendor attributes. The top attributes were identified as cost, quality and reliability, as well as vendor global reach, local presence, and knowledge. An appealing feature of the robot investment decision was the majority of hospitals surveyed reported an annual maintenance cost per robot amounting to less than 30,000 (USD) and a medium-term outlook for realizing ROI on the investment decision.

Why is robotics gaining traction among hospitals?

According to IDC (2017) robots are gaining traction in hospitals as a result of the main business priorities for hospitals with 200+ beds being to improve the operational value chain along the lines of quality, experience, flexibility, capacity, scale, and costs.

Intelligent robot to help more for human lawyers

Intelligent robot is able to offer more than 10,000 query services per day, while human lawyers offer 20 times per day at most; intelligent robot can answer the analysis report with 1000 words while human lawyer answer 10 words during the same time; robot can react to query within one minute, but human lawyer can only offer service with fragmented time.

QIHAN Technology’s Sanbot intelligent litigation service robots have been introduced by numerous courts, police stations, and law offices in Beijing, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and more. And the litigation services of these advanced humanoid robots got greater approves than human lawyers in quantity, quality and appraises aspects.

A lawyer called Wu Xiao told that, “Numerous-year litigation businesses bring me a feel that more and more people need litigation services. The number of lawyers is limited, while the number of people who need litigation services is increasing and the costs are higher and higher. 80% of them can’t afford a lawyer’s services.” 

“Lawyer is a traditional and serious industry and lawyers make money with their knowledge and experience,” Zhao Yao, the President of Kun Ming Bar Association, “The daily work includes litigation query, cases management, document check, negotiation, legal analysis, truth investigation, document drafting, appearing in count, etc., which need human lawyers to handle one by one.”

According to Zhao, advanced AI robots for litigation services can release the human lawyers from repetitive workload. To a lawyer, a litigation report needs 3 days and RMB3000; while to a robot, it is free and only need 3 minutes.

“The litigation service robot is not to replace the human lawyer but make them stronger,” Zhao told. Even though artificial intelligence can finish one complete legal suggestion, each case has different causes and the database can not cover all the cases. These need human lawyers to handle and fulfill the report.

What the lawyers need most is case resource, and the public litigation service platform offers the resource. The artificial intelligent robots help with human lawyers with the working efficiency so that they can handle more complex problems and advance their skills and knowledges to serve more people.

Sun Yuewen, the Director of kunming Municipal Bureau of Justice, considers that, taking the public services is the citizens’ basic right, offering public services is government’s basic responsibilities, and building the public litigation service platform is the guarantee government offer for the citizens.”

“The cooperation of intelligent service robot and human lawyers will improve the litigation service quality greatly, making citizens get more popular, accurate, immediate and effective litigation services.” Sun Yuewen concluded.

Meet Sanbot Nano – the first Alexa-powered companion robot wants to live in your smart home

Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant are perhaps best known as the attentive ears and dulcet tones inside the company’s range of products. The Alexa Voice Service (AVS), the voice-activated digital assistant, has shown up in a number of third-party devices, too.

With domestic robots striving to emerge from the pages of science fiction and take their place in our daily lives, it’s perhaps no surprise to learn that Alexa is finding its feet, so to speak, in the form of humanoids. At the IFA consumer electronics trade show in Berlin this week, China-based Qihan is debuting the Sanbot Nano, a 2.7-foot tall artificial intelligent robot for home with Alexa serving as its ears and brain.

Founded out of Shenzhen in 2006, Qihan works on a range of products across robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), data analysis, and other related services. The company already offers the Sanbot Elf, which has seen some traction in retail, hospitality, and other public service positions, and the enterprise-focused Sanbot King Kong. But with Sanbot Nano, Qihan is pushing this advanced AI robot into the smart home with a range of Alexa-enabled integrations, including home stereo systems, thermostats, and connected fans.

Through the accompanying mobile app Q-Link, users can see what the intelligent home robot is seeing remotely, and they can also monitor all devices they have connected to the Qihan Cloud. Sanbot Nano has 50 sensors installed to help it circumvent obstacles in its path and can recognize voices and detect when a person enters the room. Through its connection with Alexa, consumers can order a pizza, ask for their fitness stats, and maybe even turn on the TV or play some music.

“The world is captivated by the emergence of robotic developments and we’re constantly challenging ourselves to make the most amazing robot experiences possible,” explained Qihan CMO Ryan Wu. “With Sanbot Elf’s breakthrough growth in the retail, hospitality, public service, and government industries, we are excited to introduce an advanced humanoid robot for the home.”

It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time someone’s attempted an Alexa-powered voice-activated robot. The Omate Yumi was announced last November, but nothing seems to have come of that, with the accompanying Indiegogo funding campaign seemingly pulled. UBTech also unveiled the charming little Alexa-enabled Lynx humanoid at CES this year, with an anticipated launch of spring 2017 — but the $800 robot is still not on the market.

With a number of companies raising big money to make domestic social companion robots a reality, Qihan’s Sanbot Nano could be one of the first intelligent service robotics to introduce one that’s powered by Amazon’s AI voice smarts. The Sanbot Nano only supports English (U.S. and U.K.) and German at present.