China unveils new plan for wider robot use from manufacturing to agriculture, as population shrinks
- Beijing wants to accelerate the application of robotics in manufacturing, agriculture, logistics, energy, healthcare, education and elderly services
- The blueprint came after China registered more deaths than births last year, marking the first time that the country’s population had dropped since the 1960s
China has published a new action plan laying out 10 industries where it wants to use more robots, as the country rushes to automate sectors from manufacturing to agriculture after recording its first population decline in six decades.
Policymakers aim to achieve more than 100 innovative robotics applications and over 200 model use cases where the technology can be applied, as the country works towards transforming into a global robotics power by 2025.
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This Chinese-made robot dog is a combat specialist
China had been the world’s largest industrial robot market for nine consecutive years since 2013, and is also one of the fastest-growing markets, according to data from the China Robot Industry Alliance. In 2021, sales volume of industrial robots in China reached 271,000, up by about 50 per cent from the previous year.
However, robot density, measured by the number of robots per 10,000 manufacturing workers, is often considered a better indicator of automation adoption in the manufacturing industry.