Wu Jun writes in The Wave:
“Technology does not develop evenly; it advances in waves. Everyone should see the wave clearly and ride it — only then is a life well spent.”
Having lived through the great wave of informatization, we now welcome the great wave of robotics — the “right track” that Zhang Xiaolong, General Manager of iNexBot, firmly believes in: over the past few decades, everyone has enjoyed the dividends of automation and informatization; robotics will be the next wave of opportunity, and everyone who rides it will benefit.
Founded in 2015, iNexBot was a newcomer to the motion control field. After a small-scale pilot phase in 2016 and 2017, iNexBot control systems achieved volume shipment in 2018, and the company now serves more than 50 customers.
What China Needs Most Is an Industrial Software Foundation
As a serial entrepreneur, Zhang Xiaolong worked for multinationals such as Motorola and Thomson for many years before founding iNexBot, launching best-selling products like the Moto IronMax and holding multiple international patents. He later co-founded Dakele Phones and served as its CTO. His credentials also include Adjunct Mentor at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Research Fellow at Beihang University's Shenzhen Research Institute, and a Master's degree in Mechanical Automation plus an MBA.
Having witnessed the full life cycle of many electronic products — from emergence and growth to decline — Zhang is convinced that every industry transformation is driven by new disruptive technologies, and that intelligent operating systems will bring tremendous change to traditional robotics. “The convergence of traditional robotics with Internet technology will create the greatest opportunities” — those are his exact words.
That is why Zhang's vision for iNexBot is clear and unwavering. “From the past, through the present, and into the future, we will always remain a provider of robot motion control systems. That will never change.” In his view, China has never lacked robot manufacturers; what it lacks most is an industrial software foundation.
Looking back at the trajectory of Silicon Valley's giants: in the early days of computing, IT companies like IBM, HP, and SUN had to build both their CPUs and operating systems in-house. In the end, only focused industry leaders like Intel and Microsoft survived — one making only CPUs, the other only operating systems. Zhang believes that as technology systems grow increasingly complex, no single company can compete with an entire ecosystem, making specialization and division of labor across the technology stack inevitable. The smartphone industry followed the same path, from the vertically integrated era (Nokia, Philips) to the hardware/software specialization stage (Qualcomm, Xiaomi, Android). “Technological progress inevitably leads to specialization and collaboration across industries, because a single vertically integrated company is simply too inefficient.”
“I believe that major robot manufacturers will inevitably develop their own robot control systems, leveraging their application advantages in their respective industries. That is unavoidable.” Zhang is confident of this. But that does not mean these robot body manufacturers will become iNexBot's competitors — on the contrary, they will coexist and prosper together with iNexBot.
“We provide robot body manufacturers with a fundamental motion control platform. From day one, iNexBot has offered customers secondary development interfaces and functions, and all communication protocols are open.” Zhang explains.
Developing a controller is extremely complex, requiring deep knowledge of robot kinematics, dynamics, and more — technical details that have nothing to do with customers' industry applications. Customers have no need to spend excessive effort developing these underlying technologies. “Our positioning is as a fundamental motion control platform on which customers build their own applications through secondary development. We lower the development costs and barriers for the robotics and even the broader automation industry, allowing robot companies to devote all their energy to processes and applications instead of repeating development work.” he further explains.
“The Vast Countryside Holds Great Promise”
As for the gap between domestic core components and imported ones, Zhang believes that once domestic component makers complete their full supply chains, outperforming imported products in performance is only a matter of time.
In addition, domestic companies have access to enormous application scenarios and a strong manufacturing base. The end customers in China's manufacturing industry vary greatly in sophistication, making it very difficult for foreign companies to enter the long-tail market.
On this basis, Zhang divides China's robot market into three worlds: the first world is the automotive industry, which will remain dominated by foreign-invested enterprises for the long term because they have already built their own application markets; the second world is dominated by 3C and home appliances, an industry that pursues economies of scale with certain quality requirements, where imported brands compete head-to-head with leading domestic brands; and the third world is the vast number of small and medium-sized enterprises at the base of China's manufacturing pyramid — SMEs that foreign brands simply cannot reach and that even large domestic companies can hardly serve. These “long-tail demands” are the opportunity for domestic companies.
Although robotics is an entirely new track for iNexBot — from building the product portfolio to customer relationships and channel development, every aspect is challenging — Zhang believes the biggest challenge lies in domain knowledge of the industry: “We used to think that making a robot move was enough, but that does not solve the customer's problem. Process know-how is where the customer's real pain lies.”
The Hard Core: PC-Based, Customizable Control Systems
“We need to think from the big picture of intelligent manufacturing.” says Zhang.
With that big picture in mind, iNexBot's goal is to build bus-based robot motion control systems on a PC architecture, providing process and supply chain services to robot brands and integrators, and to become an open robot motion control platform that enterprises can build on through secondary development. CoDeSys is iNexBot's real competitor.
In Zhang's view, PC-architecture control systems have been validated by companies like ABB, KUKA, and Yaskawa, so their reliability is assured; at the same time, PC-based systems are highly extensible and offer the best networking and communication capabilities. Not only robot controllers — high-end PLC and DCS motion control platforms will all go PC-based. “I believe that in the future, every industry will be able to use a generic motion controller, or GMC (Generic Motion Control). That is the future of this industry.”
While delivering high-performance computing, PC-architecture controllers cost less than ARM- and FPGA-based ones; of course, in low-power applications, ARM- and FPGA-based controllers do retain their advantages.
In the pulse era, control systems could only act as execution centers. In the bus era, robot controllers connect to MES and ERP systems, becoming computing nodes of the industrial Internet — even the process-bearing center of an entire industry, controlling the whole production line. Controllers can also relay instructions up and down the stack, acting as data processing centers — this is what is known as “Edge Computing.”
Looking ahead, although the era of motion control over fieldbuses has arrived, TSN — the next-generation industrial bus technology built on 10-gigabit Ethernet — lets a single network card connect to both real-time and non-real-time networks simultaneously, enabling multi-machine networking and collaboration that better serve the fusion of IT and OT. As a member of the Edge Computing Consortium and a CLPA member, iNexBot will quickly adopt TSN networks.
Building on its core algorithmic strengths, iNexBot develops motion control systems for high-end manufacturing sectors such as 3C assembly, polishing, laser cutting, and welding. “Currently, iNexBot's multi-machine collaboration and laser cutting control systems are unique in the domestic robot industry.” Zhang further notes.
“I hope iNexBot can become the best technology supplier and partner for the entire robot industry — both robot body customers and integrator customers — and bring them greater business value.” To realize this vision, iNexBot is committed to helping customers break through key processes, such as advanced robot welding and polishing algorithms. “We want to break through the barriers of imported robots and dismantle their monopoly, one by one, helping customers break through one or two processes every year. Our competitors are not domestic controllers — they are foreign-brand robots.” Zhang concludes emphatically.
