Meet the real-life robocop

Mechanical workers are playing an ever-increasing role in Chinese life

Security officer AnBot, on patrol at the Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport, stands out from the other security officers at the scene. They are tall - and cool. In contrast, AnBot is just 1.5 meters high, portly and oval-shaped. But it's AnBot that attracts the attention of passers-by.

AnBot is no ordinary security officer. It is China's first "robotcop" and came into service in August.

The smart machine can move on wheels at speeds of up to of 18 kilometers per hour. Equipped with four cameras, it can automatically map the best routes for itself to move, communicate with people and recognize and track faces. When its battery is about to die, it can find the nearest charging point, enabling it to patrol nonstop for eight hours.

More important, in an emergency situation, human officers can guide the robot by remote control to disable or disarm a target. According to the Shenzhen Municipal Public Security Bureau, AnBot can patrol 24 hours a day and is of great help at the short-staffed airport.

The smart machine, developed by China's top military academy, the National University of Defense Technology, is part of the country's effort to develop service robots for both professional and personal use, amid the dual challenges of an aging society and rising labor costs.

"Though China became the biggest market for industrial robots as early as 2013, its service robot industry is still at a very early stage," says Luo Jun, CEO of the Asian Manufacturing Association.

In 2014, 212,590 service robots were sold in China, accounting for less than 5 percent of the global market, according to the Shenzhen-based Forward Business Research Institute.

But that is changing rapidly, partly fueled by strong policy support from national and provincial governments, and rising demand from China's swelling middle class.

In April, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology unveiled an ambitious plan to sell more than 30 billion yuan ($4.4 billion; 4.1 billion euros; 3.5 billion)-worth of domestic service robots by 2020 to meet demand from the healthcare, education, entertainment, medical and defense industries.

"If you ask me to describe the development of China's robotics industry in one word, I'd choose 'explosion'," says Zhao Jie, a professor of mechanical engineering at Harbin Institute of Technology.

According to Zhao, investment and talent are flooding into the industry, with the involvement of giants as well as startups. In line with the trend, the institute's startup HIT Robot Group was launched in 2014, in partnership with the Heilongjiang provincial government.

The university has done years of cutting-edge robot research. It is the maker of China's first space robots and lunar vehicle. One of its priorities now is to develop service robots for professional use, such as defense robots.

Some of its anti-terrorism robots, which can sniff out bombs, climb slopes, monitor the environment and operate guns, have been exported to countries in the southern hemisphere already, an employee at HIT Robot says.

"Universities and enterprises are working closely on the research and development of robotics technology, which is pushing China's service robot industry forward," says Hao Yucheng, deputy director of the China Robot Industry Alliance.

According to Hao, the professional robot industry is investment-intensive, highly risky and generates slow returns. Any breakthrough demands long-term effort. Shortsighted strategies will lead to failure, he says.

Zhejiang University, in association with Nanjiang Robotics, a startup that was created in 2014, unveiled Chitu - China's first four-legged robot, that can jump and run - at the recent Third World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province.

The mid sized, spider like Chitu can walk upstairs step-by-step, just like human beings, and can carry a load of up to 50 kg.

"In the future, Chitu could be used to carry goods in earthquake-stricken areas and outdoors where the roads are pretty bumpy," says Li Chao, a member of the research team from Zhejiang University.

A vacuum cleaner robot outsold TVs to emerge as the top-selling electronic appliance on Alibaba's Tmall.com on Nov 11, China's annual Singles Day online shopping festival.

Online sales of DeeBot, the vacuum cleaner developed by Ecovacs Robotics Co, generated 200 million yuan.

Such an encouraging consumer response is pulling new players into the industry. Xiaomi Corp, which has evolved from a smartphone maker to a tech giant, unveiled an automated vacuum cleaner in September.

This explosion of service robots is spawning unlikely uses beyond households, in places like cemeteries. In central Henan province, a cemetery deployed a humanoid robot in October to escort female patrol guards on night duty, local media reported.

Winnie Tang, a founding member of the Hong Kong Professionals and Senior Executives Association, an organization to promote communication between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, says in a column for the South China Morning Post that there are three stages in the evolution of the service robots in China: tool, governor and companion.

"China is still at the 'tool' stage, where robots are mainly used to do household chores. To progress, the country must enter the 'governor' and 'companion' stages, where the main objective is social interaction," she says.

masi@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 12/02/2016 page28)