From "Following Rules" to "Seeing Clearly and Acting Quickly": The Automation Machinery Industry Ignites an Intelligent Manufacturing Revolution
志聪 张
In Zoomlion Heavy Industry's smart industrial park, robots produce an excavator every 6 minutes on average, with the company's overall manufacturing automation rate exceeding 85%. Behind this transformation, China's automation machinery industry is undergoing a profound shift from simply replacing human labor to achieving comprehensive intelligence.
In the first half of this year, the added value of China's equipment manufacturing industry increased by 10.2% year-on-year, contributing 3.4 percentage points to the growth of all industrial enterprises above a designated size. Industrial robot output grew by 35.6% year-on-year, and the scale of the intelligent manufacturing equipment industry is expected to exceed 5 trillion yuan this year.
On factory floors, industrial robots are evolving from fixed-program execution tools into intelligent partners capable of autonomous perception, learning, and decision-making.
01 Current State of the Industry: A Trillion-Dollar Track and High-Speed Growth
The automation machinery industry stands at an unprecedented scale threshold. According to McKinsey estimates, the global market size for industrial automation products will reach approximately $108.3 billion by 2025. China's industrial automation market has already exceeded 250 billion yuan, accounting for over one-third of the global market share.
By the end of 2025, China's intelligent manufacturing equipment industry scale is expected to surpass 5 trillion yuan. In the first half of 2025, industrial robot output increased by 35.6% year-on-year, the smart sensor market size exceeded 160 billion yuan, and sales of intelligent material handling robots grew by 11.2% year-on-year.
In the first half of this year, China's industrial robot export value surged by 61.5% year-on-year. Currently, China holds over 190,000 valid patents related to robotics, representing about two-thirds of the global total.
02 Industry Chain Analysis: Technological Breakthroughs in Core Upstream Components
The automation equipment industry chain exhibits a pyramid structure, with core upstream components representing the "strategic high ground." These core upstream components account for 60%-70% of the total equipment cost but determine equipment performance and industry profit distribution.
In the field of precision reducers, the localization rate remains below 20%. For servo systems, the high-end market is still dominated by Japanese, European, and American companies.
Simultaneously, China's robotics industry has formed a relatively complete, full-industry-chain system, with significant technological progress in key areas such as precision reducers and high-performance servo drive systems.
According to McKinsey statistics, in the field of Distributed Control Systems (DCS), key industries such as power, petrochemicals, and oil & gas have achieved initial localization over the past decade, with the DCS localization rate now exceeding 60%.
03 Technological Evolution: Transformation from Programmable to Embodied Intelligence
The development of industrial robots has undergone three distinct phases. The earliest were locally controlled programmable robots, primarily in the form of industrial robotic arms, requiring the environment to adapt to them.
The palletizing workstation demonstrated by Estun Automation Co., Ltd. in Nanjing utilizes a self-developed graphical programming system to accurately identify bin positions and achieve smooth grasping trajectories. Customers only need to input basic parameters into the software, and the robot automatically completes the palletizing process.
The second phase ushered in adaptive robots with certain perception and decision-making capabilities. Factories began using robotic arms equipped with vision and force sensing, as well as mobile robots capable of autonomous navigation in complex environments.
The "Xing Weilai" series of AI cleaning robots from CRRC SIGMA (Shenyang) Technology Co., Ltd. are equipped with an AI vision system that can quickly formulate different cleaning strategies based on the type of dirt identified. Utilizing industrial SLAM positioning technology and multi-sensor hybrid navigation, they can not only avoid obstacles dynamically but also independently operate elevators.
The third generation of industrial robots is represented by embodied intelligence humanoid robots. German startup NEURA Robotics unveiled its 4NE1 Gen 3 humanoid robot at the 2025 Munich Automatica trade fair. Standing nearly 1.8 meters tall, it can lift loads of up to 100 kilograms.
04 Application Expansion: From Traditional Fields to Emerging Scenarios
Traditional manufacturing remains the main arena for automation equipment application. Industrial automation covers core sectors such as automotive, electronics, and chemicals, with the automotive industry accounting for 35% of the total. Logistics automation has become a "new engine" for growth, with its market size expected to reach 135 billion yuan by 2025.
The demand for intelligent sorting systems, AGVs, and other equipment is growing by 30% annually. The automation rate in e-commerce warehouses and express delivery sorting centers has increased from 30% in 2019 to 70% in 2025.
In the field of medical automation, the market size for surgical robots, intelligent infusion systems, and other equipment has exceeded 100 billion yuan. The penetration rate of surgical robots has increased from 1% in 2019 to 8% in 2025, contributing to a 15% improvement in surgical success rates.
The agricultural automation market is also experiencing rapid growth, with the intelligent agricultural machinery market reaching 22.4 billion yuan and a compound annual growth rate of 77.9%. Drone pest control covers over 1 billion mu of land, with efficiency 50 times that of manual labor, boosting agricultural production efficiency by 20%.
The rapid development of the new energy vehicle industry is injecting strong momentum into the sensor market. In the first half of this year, the production and sales of new energy vehicles increased by 41.4% and 40.3% year-on-year respectively, driving demand for products such as current sensors, angle sensors, and pressure sensors.
05 Future Trends: AI Integration and Human-Machine Collaboration for Intelligent Upgrade
The integration of artificial intelligence and robotics technology is accelerating comprehensively. Intelligent automation solutions provider KUKA has launched the iiQKA.OS2, a scalable and flexibly adjustable robot operating system.
This software and controller platform combines artificial intelligence with vision systems, making robots more flexible without requiring complex programming. KUKA has also collaborated with Microsoft to develop an AI chatbot that can convert natural language commands into program code.
Japanese robot manufacturer Yaskawa Electric showcased the concept of "dynamic safety zones." Robots can operate completely without protective fencing while ensuring safety and high productivity. The relevant software dynamically adjusts the robot's movement, reducing speed or stopping operation only when people genuinely approach the work area.
Safe human-machine collaboration is becoming an important development direction. Dr. Alexander Verl, Chairman of the International Federation of Robotics Research Committee, points out that achieving safe human-robot collaboration requires reducing robot operating speeds to allow people time to react.
As technology advances, the "eyes," "arms," "brains," and mobility of industrial robots will continue to evolve iteratively. Through successive technological breakthroughs, they will constantly redefine the boundaries and possibilities of intelligent manufacturing.
The robot AI visual inspection system developed by Yaskawa Shougang can inspect dozens of feature targets such as weld points and studs on automotive front floor reinforcement components in about 0.3 seconds, with an accuracy rate exceeding 99.5%. Such intelligent systems are already operating 24/7 in several automakers, significantly improving inspection efficiency and quality.
Looking ahead, President Hiroyuki Ito of the International Federation of Robotics identified five global trends driving the robotics industry: artificial intelligence, embodied robots, sustainability demands, new customer groups, and using robots to address labor shortages.