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He Huifeng

China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation has picked China’s booming innovation hub Shenzhen as the site of its intelligent robot branch, it said yesterday.
CASIC, one of the country’s largest state-owned military enterprises, said it will focus on the integration of civil and military projects in robot technologies.
READ MORE: Electric vehicles in deep space - China hails its new ion thruster for rockets as the world’s best
Moreover, the branch will act as a manufacturing base to turn cutting-edge technologies into robotic products, said Shi Xiaomin, who will run the operation. Shi declined to reveal a more detailed agenda.
“You know we have a strong military background,” he said.
“I only can say our mission is to explore how to find applications for our technologies in the civil sector and to aid further industrialization.”

CASIC falls under the direct administration of China’s central government and is chiefly devoted to missile research and development.
It established a limited liability company called Aerospace Science and Industry Intelligent Robot in Beijing last October with the aim of becoming a domestic leader in artificial intelligence.
READ MORE: Guangdong moves into the future as it builds a post-industrial society
“CASIC will fully support the Shenzhen branch in core technology. Our main research and development resources are based in Beijing. But Shenzhen would be the best choice for our expansion in production layout,” said Shi.
“Shenzhen is close to Hong Kong and is good for attracting capital investment and helping us to internationalise,” he added.
“In addition to this, the city has a mature industrial chain for automation and robot projects.”

In January, Hong Kong Chinese University teamed up with the the Chinese Academy of Sciences to set up a research and development centre for robotics and artificial intelligence in Shenzhen.
China overtook Japan to become the world’s largest market for industrial robots in 2013. But despite various government measures and incentives, including subsidies and funding, its home-grown technology still lags that of industry leaders from overseas. China still relies largely on imports, according to industry insiders.
READ MORE: Chinese team expects to launch first robot in space by 2020 to fix orbiting satellites
Since 2014, Shenzhen, as well as other key cities in southern Guangdong province, have begun attracting investors with the goal of turning themselves into hubs for the country’s robotics industry. They are now building the largest cluster of robotics companies in China.
Provincial authorities have vowed to spend 943 billion yuan (US$144.74 billion) on replacing human labour with robots between 2015 and 2017. Cities in the province are handing out annual subsidies of between 200 million and 500 million yuan to makers of robots and to manufacturers who install robots on assembly lines.
Robots are set to invade factories in the Pearl River Delta as manufacturers gear up their investments in technology to take advantage of such incentives, according to reports.
In addition to CASIC, many Chinese research institutes are actively developing military robots. Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) Robot Group demonstrated three models at the Beijing 2015 World Robot Conference: explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), reconnaissance and combat robots. 
The recon variant runs on a 10-12kg tracked chassis and can be carried in a soldiers' backpack, according to HIT Robot Group literature. The other two models are unlikely to have this capability due to the size of the weapons mounted on them, according to popsci.com.
The systems are remotely operated, akin to the controls of US systems like the iRobot's PackBot - one of the world's most renowned battlefield robots - or QinetiQ's TALON special weapons observation reconnaissance detection system (SWORDS) variation, which can be equipped an M16 rifle, M240 machine gun and other weapons.
 


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Science

Shenzhen to house intelligent robot branch of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp as civil and military projects set to merge

A visitor gestures to an android at the World Robot Conference in Beijing last November, where China showcased a version of its space robot as its robotics industry takes off. Photo: Reuters

(111208) -- BEIJING, Dec. 8, 2011 (Xinhua) -- Robotic arms are busy working on the assembly line in Geely Auto factory in Linghai, east China's Zhejiang Province, Dec. 2, 2011. "If China had not entered into WTO, we wouldn't have Geely," remarks Li Shufu, president of Geely Holding Group, who always attributed Geely's achievements to China's WTO admission. As one of China's top auto manufactures, Geely, the private automaker transforming its business from low end fridge-making, found its success in automobiles. Li says the worries and concerns served to up the pressure under which some would wither and some thrive. After entering the WTO, China's auto industry has survived the impact of cancelling the protective tariff and maintained strong momentum. Geely acquired the Swedish brand Volvo from U.S. auto giant Ford for 1.8 billion U.S. dollars last August, marking the first time a Chinese car maker acquired an international car brand. It was reported that Volvo's auto sales in world mar

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