Motion controller can be divided into PLC, special controller and PC-based motion controller, PC-based motion controller is also divided into three sub-categories (IPC+ motion control card, embedded motion controller and IPC+ soft PLC), which leads to all kinds of industrial software, industrial Internet, etc. The downward connection driver controls the operation of various devices. Its position as a link shows the complexity relative to other automation products.

1. The controller accounts for 12% of the cost of the robot and is the brain of the industrial robot

The controller is one of the three core components of industrial robots. In the robot cost, the three components of the controller, servo motor and reducer account for about 70% of the total cost, and the controller accounts for 12%. It is the "brain" of the industrial robot, and the controller is responsible for issuing action instructions to the robot and controlling the movement position, attitude and trajectory of the robot at work. The controller determines the performance of the industrial robot.

Although China's industry started late, but the development speed is extremely fast, so far, China is the only country in the world with all the industrial categories announced by the United Nations, in recent years, the country attaches great importance to industrial intelligence, digital transformation, the application of industrial robots in all walks of life has been greatly expanded, China has become the world's largest industrial robot market.

Market demand is expanding rapidly, and many manufacturers have entered the game, all of which want to carve their own territory on this huge cake. European and American manufacturers, Japanese and South Korean manufacturers, with deep accumulation in the field of robot core technology, firmly control the majority of China's industrial robot market share, especially in the upstream core parts, the controller to the Japanese manufacturer Fanuko as the leader (market share of 18%), servo motor concentrated in the hands of Japanese manufacturers Yaskawa, German manufacturers Siemens, The reducer is monopolized by Japanese manufacturers (Nabotsk, Hamanaco and Sumitomo occupy more than 95% of the market share).

Many domestic manufacturers due to the late start, low level of technology, weak competitiveness, in the core field is almost foreign monopoly under the background, can only hope in the industrial robot ontology and system integration and other downstream areas, has been living to see the face of others.

2. Domestic controller manufacturers are making concerted efforts, and the domestic replacement process of controllers is accelerating

In order to break the technological monopoly of foreign manufacturers, domestic manufacturers continue to increase the research on controller technology, some head enterprises have gradually realized independent controller research and development, Siasun robot, Xinshida, Guangzhou CNC, Huazhong CNC, Gu high-tech and so on have also squeezed into the list of top 10 suppliers of China's industrial robots. The situation that the core components are subject to people has been alleviated to a certain extent.

The domestic robot controller "Rui Zhi" independently developed by Zhejiang Zhichang Group in 2018 broke the foreign technology monopoly, was included in the national key research and development plan of the "intelligent robot" of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and was installed on more than 3,600 industrial robots produced by Japan's Kawasaki Robot Company.

Siasun Robot's "High-performance intelligent industrial robot controller product development and industrialization", Efte's "New controller board for robots", Zhichang Group's "Annual output of 10,000 robots and controller production line technology transformation" and other projects have been selected in the "2018 Industrial strong base engineering key products, process" one-stop application plan demonstration List of Enterprises and Demonstration Projects.

In 2021 ITES Shenzhen Industrial Exhibition released its new controller products SC series motion controller, the controller supports 32-axis interpolation, 128-axis control, pulse axis, the use of quad-core up to 1GHz high performance CPU, the shortest cycle up to 120us.

In addition, Guangzhou NC has fully mastered the intellectual property rights of the robot controller and independently developed the GSK-RC robot controller; Huazhong CNC independently developed CCR series robot controller; At the beginning of the year, Mairui Robot released its self-developed mobile robot intelligent controller ADC1000; In 2001, Gu high-tech developed a four-axis robot controller, and in recent years, it has successfully developed an eight-axis robot control system and achieved mass production.

The continuous improvement of the independent research and development level of domestic manufacturers in the controller field will also greatly accelerate the domestic replacement process of robot controllers.

3. The output of industrial robots is increasing year by year, and the domestic replacement space for controllers is huge

Industrial robot controller market space is huge, generally speaking, according to the standard of an industrial robot equipped with a controller, the demand for industrial robot controllers in 2020 is about 237,000, as can be seen from the figure below, China's industrial robot output maintains a sustained growth momentum, and 173,600 sets of industrial robots have been produced in the first half of 2021. Year-on-year growth of 61%, the annual output is expected to achieve 300,000 sets of scale. From the current situation that the domestic production rate of industrial robot controllers in China is less than 20%, there is still a lot of room for domestic substitution of industrial robot controllers in the future.