China's entertainment robots are gaining ground, but robots used in the medical field are just catching up. (Photo : Getty Images)
China is set to publish new standards for the robotics industry in a bid to boost the country's competitiveness in the said sector.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) is crafting new guidelines for manufacturers and buyers in the robotics sector, Sun Feng, deputy director of the MIIT's Equipment Industry Department, was quoted as saying by China Daily.
The standards will cover areas such as research and development, product quality, sales practices, social responsibility and staff qualifications. This will help strengthen China's position in the robotics market, whose growth is predicted to hit $135.4 billion by 2019, according to International Data Corporation via Fortune.
"Lumping together everything from robot software to hardware components to robot services (like robotic hotel receptionists) in its tally of robotic spending, the report's authors explain that the total spend on robot services, business consulting, education, and training will eventually eclipse sales of the robots themselves by 2019," Fortune wrote.
Aside from publishing said standards, the MIIT is also set to roll out initiatives for service robots.
There are about 30 standards that are currently being discussed and they will be made available by 2018, said Xu Quanping, an analyst at the State Standardization Administration, in an interview with China Daily.
As of November, China has already manufactured 64,000 industrial robots, almost doubling last year's numbers. The overall production for this year is earmarked at 70,000 units, according to experts.
Industrial robots also prove to be an antidote to China's rising labor costs and struggling manufacturing sector.
Guo Xuan, deputy director of Yizhuang Smart Robotics Industry Research Institute, told China Daily that "automation thrives amid rising labor costs that are largely due to an aging society."
"But domestic robotics firms need to be wary of blind expansion. We have already noticed overcapacity in low-end robots," Guo added.
