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.

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.

Caregiving robot is a good companion for elderly

Elderly people dealing with social isolation and loneliness are at increased risk of a variety of ailments, from cardiovascular disease and elevated blood pressure to cognitive deterioration and infection. In short, being old and alone can kill you. But robots aren't just good for improving the elderly's movement, they're surprisingly adept at keeping retirees socially, emotionally and mentally engaged as well.

The annual birth rate dropped below a million for the first time since 1899 and a quarter of the population is already greying in 2016 in Japan, that’s why the care robots for the elderly are springing up. Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry expects the robotic service industry to boom to nearly $4 billion annually by 2035 -- 25 times its current level. Europe and the US are also accelerating the development and adoption of support robots.

Serving robots do exactly that. Take the Care-o-bot from Fraunhofer IPA, for example. This robot has been deployed in a number of German assisted living facilities. It is able to keep the elderly entertained by playing memory games to help keep their minds sharp. The Care-o-bot is programmed to behave like a gentleman, Dr Ulrich Reiser, Project and Group Leader at Fraunhofer IPA, wrote in a 2015 release.

QIHAN Technology’s Sanbot Elf intelligent robot, which was firstly launched at IFA Expo in last September, can overtake the responsibilities of intimate companion. As one APP controlled robot, you can have a remote caring video call with your parents or kids through the mobile APP. Make an appointment online in advance if you are bored about waiting in a hospital. The intelligent health care robot is equal to special elderly care, patient education and simple diagnosis, etc. QIHAN Technology practices the “Robot + Various Industries” strategy based on Sanbot Elf robot.

In addition, QIHAN will launch another intelligent service robot - Sanbot Nano in a couple days at this year’s IFA Expo. Different from the Sanbot Elf for commercial use especially, Sanbot Nano is designed, especially, for home use. It is the first home robot, adopting the Amazon Alexa AI system, and it gives you an outstanding voice interaction. The three-panel design of Application Integration Panel, Game Panel, and Address Book Panel on the Sanbot Nano touch screen reduces the operational difficulties and brings an incredible interactive experience for users.

These kinds of robotics in healthcare don't even need to be people-sized. Of course, growing old in a nursing home is a vastly different experience than doing so in your own home. Care facilities are, by their very nature, communal -- there's nearly always someone around. But for elderly folks who live alone, the services that robots provide must go beyond turning off lights and fetching small items.

Robots make the future of healthcare more advanced

What does the future of healthcare look like? For the past decade, cutting-edge technology has led to medical advancements and innovative practices that have reshaped healthcare. Today, healthcare professionals have the tools, computing power and collective research, to effectively diagnose and care for their patients. From augmented reality to 3D printed drugs, the healthcare industry is truly living in the future.

Recently, the healthcare industry has explored leveraging robots in everyday care, from streamlining administration tasks to improving healthcare practices. Intelligent service robots offer a new way to collect and share data, while expediting the process at the same time. Below are practical ways in which robots can be deployed in the healthcare environment to assist healthcare professionals and improve patient experience:

1. Automate Diagnostics: Roughly 130.4 million ER visits occur in the United States each year. With the abundance of patients requiring medical attention, it is critical that doctors are able to diagnose patients in a timely manner. To ensure an efficient use of time, advanced medical robotics can be used to assist doctors in streamlining visits by automating practices including checkups, testing, diagnosis and prescriptions. 
2. Protect Patient Privacy: As new technology devices emerge, privacy has increasingly become a top concern for patients, healthcare providers and hospitals. To ensure that patient records are kept secure, an open API humanoid robot can be programmed to connect with a hospital’s private cloud server, ensuring patient’s confidential information can only be accessed with hospital credentials.
3. Entertain Patients: Hospitals often have the negative connotation of being a scary place. To make patients’ visits more enjoyable, robots can provide entertainment by dancing, playing games and communicating using voice commands and gesture control capabilities.
4. Shorten Wait Times: In 2014, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the average Emergency Room (ER) wait times were roughly 30 minutes and the average treatment times were about 90 minutes, resulting in wait times of roughly two hours. To reduce long wait times and improve the patients’ experience, intelligent robots can be deployed in waiting rooms for a variety of applications including assisting patients waiting in the ER with their administrative paperwork.
5. Enhance Physical Therapy: In addition to waiting rooms, service robots can assist with physical therapy sessions. Using a projector or touch screen, robots can display instructional videos to help patients learn the proper technique for rehabilitation exercises.
6. Comfort Children: Hospitals can be a foreign place for children. To ease any concerns children may have prior to their appointment, a robot’s touchscreen can be used to tell stories, display educational materials, or stream videos to calm a child during stressful situations.
7. Overcome Language Barriers: As global travel continues to grow, the percentage of patients who visit a hospital outside of their native country increases. Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and a programed language database, robots can help doctors communicate and quickly diagnose patients from abroad.
8. Provide 24/7 Care: Robots equipped with cameras and sensors can also assist patients by performing around-the-clock patient monitoring, ensuring that patients receive constant care. Additionally, as the care robots for the elderly, robots can connect to wearables such as a heart rate monitor to keep an eye on a people’s vitals and contact a healthcare professional should an issue arise.

The applications for robots in the healthcare environment are continuing to grow, and some of the top hospitals in America are already deploying robots to help reduce costs, streamline operations and improve the patient experience. Ultimately, the future of robotics in healthcare will be determined by implementation, but for now the future looks bright.