In the field of mobile robot chassis, Songling Robot is undoubtedly the leader among domestic manufacturers. In just 4 years, Songling Robot has built a solid moat by virtue of its excellent chassis design capabilities, and established a four-wheel differential type, four-wheel Ackerman type, crawler type, four-wheel four-transformation, etc. A comprehensive mobile robot chassis product matrix, the products serve various fields such as security inspection, Industrial park industry, agricultural irrigation, logistics and transportation, testing and exploration, scientific research and education.
China Transmission Network interviewed Wei Jidong, the founder of Songling Robot, and asked him to talk about what stage of development the mobile robot chassis industry is currently in, how Songling Robot has laid out its products in order to shape its core competitiveness, and how to face the ups and downs the domestic and foreign environment, and what are the plans for the future.
Constructing Strong Product Matrix and Shaping Core Competitiveness
In recent years, the product types of mobile robot chassis have been continuously enriched, the application scenarios have been continuously expanded, and the application in agriculture, logistics, inspection and other fields has been more in-depth. But Wei Jidong also saw that, as the upstream industry of mobile Robots, the chassis market is small and the application fields are scattered. “Difficult to do!” Wei Jidong commented.
Although “difficult to do”, Songling Robot’s chassis shipments have achieved the first place in China. Songling Robot’s revenue in 2020 was affected by the epidemic, and it only achieved 70% of the target set last year, but compared with last year, it achieved a 200% increase. In addition, the all-round universal chassis SCOUT of Songling Robot and the chassis HUNTER with Ackerman steering design achieved mass production and shipment this year, making significant progress in market development.
SCOUNT2.0
It is understood that SCOUT is designed for industrial applications based on a new energy consumption design. The body is compact and compact, with low energy consumption. It is equipped with a new cooling system and safety protection system. It can come and go indoors and outdoors freely, four-wheel drive, differential rotation, and abundant power. It can easily handle complex application environments. Standard protocols and CAN bus support fast two secondary development. HUNTER is an Ackerman front-wheel steering-by-wire chassis with car-like characteristics, suitable for hard roads such as ordinary cement and asphalt. Higher movement speed, suitable for long runs.
Wei Jidong believes that on the whole, the development of my country’s mobile robot chassis industry is still in the early stage, so there are difficulties in technical exploration and market development. This also means that the blank market for mobile robot chassis needs to be tapped urgently. To this end, Songling Robot has launched a variety of new products from two directions, and built a strong product matrix to shape its core competitiveness. Although a domestic competitor on the mobile robot chassis track has not yet emerged.
“The design and development of mobile robot chassis mainly have two thinking: one is robot thinking, and the other is car thinking.”
Wei Jidong said, “For products developed based on robot thinking, flexibility should be the first priority. In this dimension, Songling Robot has developed two four-wheel four-turn robot chassis. These two products have obvious advantages in flexibility and have The strong competitiveness is currently in the testing stage and will be put into production within this year. The robot chassis developed based on automotive thinking should have excellent performance of fast speed and heavy load. For this reason, Songling Robot has developed an Ackerman structure. HUNTER series of robot chassis. At present, the second generation product HUNTER2 has been launched.0, can run 10 kilometers per hour and carry a load of 150 kilograms. “
Compared with the previous generation product HUNTER, the new product HUNTER2.0 In addition to the obvious difference in appearance and volume, the parking function on the slope is also added. Even if the power is cut off on the slope, the chassis will not slide backward to ensure the safety of the product. In addition, the battery is also replaced with a detachable battery, users can change the battery at any time to ensure battery life. This product is also equipped with dual 400w motors, which have more power and greatly increase the load. Based on the above technologies, HUNTER2.0 has an absolute competitive advantage in similar products in the market, and has become the leader of low-speed unmanned chassis.
HUNTER2.0
At present, Songling Robot has developed 8 mobile robot chassis products including four-wheel differential type, four-wheel Ackerman type, crawler type, four-wheel four-transformation, etc., as well as automatic driving, parallel driving, etc. Multiple solutions are widely used in various fields such as security inspection, industrial park industry, agricultural irrigation, logistics and transportation, detection and exploration, scientific research and education.
Consolidate the technical foundation and accelerate the expansion with the market as the guide
As a technology-driven company, the importance of technology itself is self-evident. New product development, market expansion, and even the company’s development and growth, all need technical support. Wei Jidong said, however, that technology is the least important for Songling Robot at the current stage. He further explained: “The technical genes of Songling Robot are deeply ingrained, which subtly guides us to put it in the most important position, and there is no need to deliberately emphasize the prominent position of technology. At the same time, our strong R&D team has been carrying out technological innovation reserves. and precipitation.”
Therefore, for Songling Robot, which has built a solid technical foundation, the biggest obstacle to the current development is the small market size and scattered application scenarios. As an entrepreneurial enterprise that has been established for less than 5 years, although Songling Robot has achieved small-scale profits, its chassis business structure is quite unbalanced. The field of education and scientific research has reached 50%, and the remaining 50% of its business involves anti-patrol inspection. , park industry, agricultural irrigation, logistics and transportation, detection and exploration and other fields, the application scenarios are extremely scattered.
Wei Jidong said: “People from technical backgrounds often put technology first, thus ignoring the importance of the market. This is unreasonable in business behavior.”
Mining emerging markets and quickly occupying the market is the next big step for Songling Robot. Wei Jidong said: “In the past, we first pre-set the demand, and then developed the product. After a few years of product development, we found that the market was quite niche or even non-existent. In the future, we will be market-oriented, keep up with the development trend of the industry, and have a deep understanding of the market. To meet the needs of customers, build a market service team, and gradually cultivate technical “tension”. Only when the key technologies mastered by the company have sufficient tension, can we seize the new needs in the changing external environment and quickly expand the market.”
Based on the understanding of the market demand, Songling Robot is currently developing a new product for civilian use. In order to further open up the market, Songling Robot will start the A round of financing in the spring of 2021, and the funds will be mainly used for the mass production of this new product, although the current cash flow is abundant. Wei Jidong revealed that the company’s performance target for next year is to continue to achieve 200% growth on the basis of this year.
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