World Robot Conference 2017 in Full Swing, Robot Giants Swarming into the Exhibition
Fluttering “Fairy Wings”, the dragonfly–like BionicOpter flies elegantly; AquaJelly shuttles back and forth in the air, rather than in the water; humanlike BionicCobot simulates grabbing with resilience and flexibility. Today, World Robot Conference 2017 is officially opened in E-town, Beijing. Quite a few robot giants gather there and exhibit their products.
Yesterday, journalists from Beijing Youth Daily took the lead in exploring the robot conference hall, where cool and extraordinary robot exhibition, fascinating robot performance, intelligent and sophisticated technology equipment gathered. E-town’s continuous success in holding World Robot Conferences has promoted the intelligent manufacturing industry to a new level. The Development Area has attracted a growing number of intelligent manufacturing enterprises to settle down, gradually established a robotic industry cluster, and become the “wonderland of robots”.
BionicOpter, AquaJelly and BionicCobot are intelligent machinery equipment brought by Festo, a noted German company. In fact, after the first World Robot Conference was held in 2015, Festo, world's leading manufacturer of automation technology, was highly motivated. As a company engaged in the research of bionic robot for 11 years, Festo has been launching two or three bionic machinery "animals" almost every year since 2006, covering "water, land and air", namely, jellyfish, penguin, ant, dragonfly, kangaroo, seagulls and so on.
Two months before World Robot Conference 2016, Festo grasped the opportunity and came to E-town, Beijing. Two months later, a machinery butterfly had its stunning debut. Its appearance was very similar to a real butterfly. Weighing only 32 grams, with wings spread of 50 cm, the butterfly attracted a crowd of onlookers lost in its perfection.
Three new products brought by Festo on August 23rd this year are highly creative. Yesterday afternoon, an officer from Festo holding a BionicOpter at the exhibition site introduced that it simulated the highly complex flight characteristics of the dragonfly, and that it could maneuver in all directions, glide without having to beat their wings and hover in the air.
The AquaJelly is Festo's first indoor flying object that emulates swarming behavior, unprecedented in the history of aviation. The eight tentacles for propulsion are similar to biological swarming, which can be remotely manipulated by built-in bearings and can be propelled by airbag swarming.
Before World Robot Conference, BionicCobot, the latest bionic product of Festo this year, has already caught much attention. With human arm as the prototype, the entire structure includes shoulder, upper arm, elbow, radius, ulnar, and claw. The robot has seven joints, each of which utilizes the natural mechanism of biceps and triceps by applying the agonist-antagonist principle, i.e. the interaction of flexor and extensor.. This robot can achieve delicate movements, boasting functions no different from those of a human arm.
In just one year’s time from 2016 to 2017, Festo has brought more than the eMotion Butterfly; it has also brought constant inspirations in science and technology to the Development Area. It is understood that Festo has established a new experience center for the public and customers in E-town, Beijing, in order to further promote the intelligent manufacturing. This will provide solutions to automation challenges, and meet the upgrading product demands.
The relevant person in charge of the Development Area expressed that a robot industry innovation base with Etrong Intelligent Robot Industry Park (the location of Etrong International Exhibition & Convention Center (Beijing)) and Dazu Business Bay at the core. The base has attracted a number of global leading enterprises and R&D institutes to settle down, including HIT Robot Group, Yaskawa Shougang Robot Co., Ltd., and ABB Group. At present, there are about 100 robotic enterprises in the Development Area, with an industrial scale of about 3 billion yuan, covering key industrial links such as industrial robots, service robots, special robots, core components and R&D experimental platform for intelligent manufacturing. In the future, the Development Area will continue to give full play to the industrial advantages, gradually form economies of scale, and create a robotic industry cluster with more global influence.