High accuracy & precision sensors for industrial robotics | Global Sources

by Vianie Li & Cecile de Veyra

Sensors are the workhorses of automation, enabling equipment to work with minimum human intervention. In an industrial setting, they collect and provide physical data, allowing monitoring and control of manufacturing processes in real time.

As industrial robotics makes headway in the Industry 4.0 sphere, sensing technology has assumed a vital role and is being deployed more widely. Robots have position, acceleration and torque sensors, while in the environment where they operate, there are cameras, and proximity, distance and force sensors. Other types used include laser, IR and ultrasonic sensors.

The government of China has ambitious plans for the country, the largest robotics market,  to achieve hub status in this field by 2025. The focus of the project is on boosting capability for key components such as servo motors and control panels. "The goal is that by 2025, the performance and reliability of these homegrown key components can reach the level of advanced foreign products,” said Wang Weiming, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, quoted by China Daily in December 2021.

This has also generated interest among sensor manufacturers and is encouraging further R&D to realize high precision, integration, stability and reliability, and compete for market attention on these fronts. Companies are also looking to offer more smart types with self-diagnosis and -compensation, information storage and digital output capabilities.

High-tech enterprise Changzhou Right has introduced six-axis force sensors for industrial robotics, automated equipment and biomechanical applications. These components, which are made of high-quality aluminum alloy and 17-4PH stainless steel, have a special parallel structure, low coupling, internal digital decoupling and robust anti-interference features. They offer 0.1 percent accuracy, 0.1 or 0.2 percent repetition, 0.05 or 0.35 percent linearity, 0.1 or 0.3 percent hysteresis, 0.1 percent return-to-zero error and 0.1 percent zero balance.

Currently, the range made in China consists mostly of entry-level and midrange sensors, pitched based on price-performance ratio and supplier readiness to provide aftersales services.

Unique opportunity

The global robotics market reached $33.58 billion in 2021, with 43 percent coming from the industrial segment, according to the Chinese Robots Industry Development Report (2021) released at the 6th World Robot Conference in Beijing in 2021.

In China, the number of industrial robots produced has been rising. It jumped by 26.9 percent to 237,100 units in 2020 from 186,900 in the previous year, according to China Industry Net. In 2021, this market realized $6.55 billion and is forecast to skyrocket to $58.9 billion by 2023. This presents a valuable opportunity for China’s ambition to grow its robotics industry and pursue overseas expansion.

Globally, there is already an upward trend in sensors for this application, having increased by 8 percent in 2021 over the previous year, according to Sohu News. This will remain on this path alongside the industrial robotics market in the coming years. Camera sensors are already forecast to reach $5.7 billion in 2027, while force sensors will go past $6.9 billion.

There are about 200 manufacturers of sensors in China that can offer products for industrial robots. They include big-name suppliers such as Omron, Epson and Tyco, but the majority are domestic enterprises. Many are based in Shenzhen, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Suzhou, Wenzhou and Qingdao. There are also factories in the inland provinces of Shaanxi and Sichuan.

Chinese companies export at least 30 percent of output, mainly to Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region.