Educating robots to build their own technology toys

Educational robot

In the field of robot entrepreneurship, in addition to the highest proportion of industrial-grade robots, service robots have also received much attention. From sweeping robots, educational robots to humanoid robots, different companies are cutting into different application scenarios. Among them, the educational robot has gradually warmed up in the past two years. On the one hand, the policy has promoted the increase of demand; on the other hand, the advancement of technology and industry chain has made the product more mature.

However, for service-oriented robots with lower thresholds, Zhang Yi, president of Ai Media Consulting, said: “There is no need to place high expectations on service robots. Now many robots focus on toy attributes, and toys can be edited and controlled, for example, learning machines . It looks like a robot."

At the moment, robots can be better applied to the education and entertainment industries, but the bottleneck of cutting-edge technology has allowed robots to stop at more application scenarios.

Robot education warms up

At present, there are two types of application forms for educational robots. One is robot training, there are educational courses for primary and secondary students, and there are vocational trainings focused on learning to operate industrial robots. The other is to make products, including The teaching aids used by the teachers and the science toys that the students can build themselves.

Makeblock, which acquired Sequoia Capital's investment, belongs to the latter. According to Wang Jianjun, founder of Makeblock, the company provides one-stop robot creation and construction solutions for makers and DIY enthusiasts, including metal blocks, electronic modules, and software. Class robot kit. After discovering that the niche market of Maker has reached the bottleneck, Wang Jianjun plans to enter the mass market of education and take the lead in the foreign market. By using Makeblock's products, teachers can graphically present students with drawings, programming, and more.

“In 2015, 70% of the company’s revenue came from abroad, and its gross profit remained above 60%. The number of schools covered by our products was around 30,000.” Wang Jianjun said: “The rise of robot education is not isolated. Around 2005, the United States Beginning to propose interdisciplinary education, but there are still some distances in the application of hardware and software technology to education. Now that technology is more feasible for education, it will promote robot education."

Since 2015, domestic robot education has begun to heat up. After the robot industry was included in the “Thirteenth Five-Year Plan”, “the education departments of all provinces and regions have paid more attention to robot teaching, and many schools have allocated money for maker education or robot education.” Wang Jianjun Said. In 2016, Makeblock will focus on expanding the domestic market, with more than 300 cooperative schools, doing 2B business through distributors.

Wang Jianjun said, "If you only do a few products, the technical threshold is not very high, but the combination of hardware and software tools, platform construction, process chain support, etc. can not be completed overnight." How to better integrate products In the teaching scene, meeting the needs of students and teachers requires long-term communication and running-in. After all, after the purchase of robotic products, there are many cases in which the machine is dusted in school.

In fact, this type of robot for K12 education is a new type of "tool" after Lego. The low-level educational robot is similar to the building block. It is assembled and taught. The advanced one is to learn simple programming. A number of industry insiders said that products can attract children, have a wide audience, and have a considerable sales volume.

Technical restrictions

Wang Jianjun pointed out that the service chain of service robots is not complicated. "Upstream is some core components, chips, sensors. If there are high-precision core sensors, there are only a few suppliers, and manufacturers like motors and other components choose a lot. Then proceed The combination of R&D and finally manufacturing, our foundries are mainly concentrated in Foshan, Shenzhen and Dongguan. Some foreign educational robot manufacturers will also contact Shenzhen companies for manufacturing."

However, at present, domestic robot technology is generally low, at the edge of the market, and the core technology is occupied by foreign companies. The lack of core technology has also led to robots failing to achieve satisfactory results after cutting into sub-segments.

Some investors said that in the field of service robots, only the market for sweeping robots is relatively mature, and the robots and welcome robots for catering services have not reached a very advanced level. Although the robot attracts attention, the lack of dexterity and the timely response to obstacle avoidance need to be further improved.

"Many domestic companies have made the shell of the robot, and then installed the chassis and imported the vision system. The cost is in the order of tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands, but there is no just-needed product. The service robot has not achieved the goal in terms of technology and cost."

At the moment, education and entertainment are the two industries that are the easiest to cut into the business of robotics.

The investor also said: "There are more companion robots on the market, mainly two or three thousand products, and there are not many functions. Although many sensors are installed, there is not much practical use. Many companies have written business plans. To finance, I want to build a companion robot for home entertainment, but in fact I can’t produce a product every year."