The Role of Industrial Robots in the Development of Automotive Industry in China

International audienceThe world’s largest user of industrial robots in production processes is automotive industry, because global competition in the market requires continuous automation and modernization of production processes in the automotive industry. The use of robots in the world is continuously increasing year by year, so it is expected that about 414.000 robot units will be used in 2019. China is the first country in the world in the application of industrial robots, and is increasing the use every year, so that we can say that the annual trend in the application of robots in China is exponential by function. The leading countries in the application of industrial robots, in addition to China, are: Republic of Korea, Japan, North America (USA) and Germany. The tendency of application of industrial robots in the automotive industry in the world is growing on annual and total level. High application of industrial robots in China has resulted in the development of the automotive industry. The estimate is that in the future China will become the largest user of industrial robots, meaning that China is planning to implement the modernization and automation of production processes in the automotive industry, but also in other industries including electronics industry, metal industry and plastics and rubber industry. The development of new technologies and innovations is leading to the development of robotic technology which has been increasingly used in the automation of production processes. This will, in return, lead to the development and application of "smart automation" or "smart factories" in the future that will, besides vehicles, also produce other high quality products in short time period and with large varieties