Weekly Summary Every ThursdayPERSONAL WORK SUMMARYThisIssueTopicEdge AIIntroduction: Advantech’s AS&R Solutions Empowering Innovation in the Robotics Industry.
The global manufacturing industry is currently undergoing a profound transition from “automation” to “intelligence,” with robotics technology having become the “new focus” of international competition. According to data from the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), the global installation of industrial robots is expected to exceed 5 million units by 2024, with China maintaining its position as the world’s largest robot consumer market for nine consecutive years.
As the robotics industry accelerates its transformation towards intelligence, Advantech, a leader in the global Industrial Internet of Things and artificial intelligence sectors, is injecting strong momentum into industry innovation with its Autonomous Systems and Robotics (AS&R) solutions.
On May 29, the 2025 Advantech Embedded Design Forum was successfully held in Shanghai under the theme “Technological Innovation and Ecological Synergy.” With 42 years of deep engagement in the industrial control sector, how does Advantech view the current development of the robotics industry? What new strategic plans and challenges does it face in the new situation? During the conference, Li Yicheng, Senior Product Director of Advantech’s Embedded IoT Platform Business Group, was interviewed by the media, sharing insights on how Advantech’s AS&R solutions empower innovation in the robotics industry.
Discussing the Industry: Breaking Through Industrial Dilemmas to Create Systematic Solutions
The birth of Advantech’s AS&R solutions is essentially a precise response to the changing market demands of the robotics industry. On one hand, the explosive development of visual AI technology and the urgent need for efficiency improvements from end-users compel robot manufacturers to seek professional technical support for integrating and processing visual AI technology in real-time; on the other hand, the global robotics industry chain faces a “fragmentation” dilemma—Germany and Japan are technological strongholds, while China is the largest installation market, but cross-border industrial chain transfers encounter complex challenges involving thousands of components. Advantech has observed that traditional robot manufacturers, when transitioning to AI and unmanned operations, require not only hardware upgrades but also a systematic solution that integrates “visual integration-edge computing-ecological collaboration.”
In this context, leveraging its deep technical accumulation and extensive customer base in the robotics field, Advantech launched the AS&R solutions, focusing not only on technological innovation but also on global strategic layout and ecological cooperation, aiming to provide customers with comprehensive support from hardware to software, promoting the robotics industry towards intelligence, unmanned operations, and efficiency.
Based on the integration of four forward-looking key technologies: powerful AI technology, sensor fusion, ready-to-use development environments, and intelligent fleet capabilities, Advantech’s AS&R solutions are now widely applied in various scenarios such as indoor automation, outdoor robots, and ground and aerial unmanned vehicles, accelerating the empowerment of robotics across various industries.
Discussing the Solutions: Centered on Edge AI, Full-Stack Solutions Breakthrough
Advantech’s AS&R solutions have a very clear market positioning: assisting upstream and downstream industry customers in building a complete ecosystem, helping the machinery industry achieve AI integration, unmanned operations, and deep integration of visual AI.
Li Yicheng stated that within Advantech’s overall strategic layout, the AS&R solutions focus on the “brain” of the robot, namely the intelligent upgrade of the upper control system. The traditional robot architecture, dominated by cloud-based AI computation, suffers from high latency and costs, while Advantech’s AS&R solutions leverage edge computing and Hardware-Accelerated Intelligence (HAI) technology to deploy AI models at the edge, achieving real-time decision-making and cost optimization, which is crucial for industrial manufacturing, logistics, and other scenarios that require high real-time performance.
Upon closer examination, Advantech’s AS&R solutions have significant advantages at the technical level. First, the integration capability of semiconductor resources. Advantech has established strategic alliances with major chip manufacturers such as NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Rockchip, Intel, and AMD, forming a full-spectrum controller product line that balances high-end Edge AI computing power with mid-to-low-end cost-effective solutions, covering the needs from industrial robotic arms and AMRs to service robots. This “full-stack supply” capability is a competitive advantage that is difficult for industry rivals to replicate.
Secondly, the integration of visual AI and edge computing technologies. Advantech’s AS&R solutions integrate advanced visual AI technology, enabling robots to achieve more precise object recognition, environmental perception, and path planning. This not only enhances the intelligence level of robots but also provides the possibility for autonomous operation in complex environments; Advantech’s AS&R solutions have also made significant innovations in edge computing, achieving real-time data processing and rapid response by deploying high-performance computing modules on the robot itself.
Furthermore, open-source ecological cooperation. Advantech actively participates in open-source ecosystem construction, joining multiple open-source projects, and is committed to promoting the open development of autonomous driving and robotics technologies. Advantech not only contributes its technical expertise to open-source projects but also gains more technical resources and innovative ideas through the open-source ecosystem, aiming to build a complete robotics ecosystem that provides customers with one-stop solutions by integrating supply chains, technical resources, and partners. While enhancing market competitiveness, it also offers customers more convenient and efficient services.
Discussing the Future: Building Supply Chains and Regional New Ecosystems,
Promoting Robotics Business Development
When discussing market competition and geopolitical challenges, Li Yicheng also shared Advantech’s response strategies. Since its establishment, Advantech has always insisted on providing valuable solutions to customers. This value is reflected in multiple aspects, such as assisting customers in improving operational efficiency, promoting product upgrades, and ensuring that products can still receive after-sales service and parts supply after years of use. Advantech excels in “long-tail business,” and its organizational structure can meet customers’ long-term needs, effectively maintaining market competitiveness based on years of accumulated practical experience.
In response to U.S. tariff policies and the trend of regionalization in supply chains, Advantech has launched AS&R solutions that adapt to different regional standards, such as industrial-grade controllers that comply with North American safety certifications, ensuring compliance for cross-border projects. In the domestic market, Advantech’s Kunshan R&D team focuses on local needs, developing cost-effective visual AI modules and other robotics solutions that are more suitable for the Chinese market in light of the current “involution” situation in manufacturing.
Currently, with the rise of embodied intelligence, regarding cutting-edge fields such as humanoid robots, Li Yicheng stated that the focus remains on technical feasibility assessments. In his view, the early applications of humanoid robots are more likely to concentrate on consumer scenarios such as entertainment and companionship, for example, elderly companion robots and children’s learning assistance robots. He sees “safety” as the core barrier to competition in the future humanoid robot industry, and Advantech’s 40 years of experience in safety standards in the industrial field can be well transferred to emerging scenarios such as humanoid robots, for instance, by preventing erroneous actions of robots through hardware-level safety mechanisms, which is particularly important in the current context where the embodiment of AI may raise ethical risks.
Looking ahead, Li Yicheng added that Advantech will promote the development of robotics business through supply chain and regional ecosystem construction and optimization of product design. China has a complete robotics industry chain, but replicating it in places like Japan and the U.S. faces supply-side challenges. Advantech is committed to replicating its structure in different regions, seeking suitable partners, including not only distribution partners but also focusing on system-level connections with robotics companies in various fields to accelerate product integration and reduce integration difficulties. For its own products, such as dedicated control boxes, Advantech adopts modular design, allowing for flexible adaptation to the regional specificity of different robots and markets by adding or removing functions, achieving rapid response to market demands.
In Conclusion
From an industry perspective, the value of Advantech’s AS&R solutions lies not only in technological upgrades but also in reconstructing the development paradigm of the robotics industry. Advantech, as an integrator of edge AI, opens up a new path for the Chinese robotics industry: by promoting standardized architectures to lower development thresholds and strengthening industry chain collaboration through an open cooperative ecosystem, ultimately reshaping the future landscape of autonomous systems and robotics, allowing automation technology to break traditional boundaries and achieve smarter, safer, and more scalable cross-industry applications in fields such as smart logistics, precision medicine, and intelligent manufacturing.
As humanoid robots accelerate towards general artificial intelligence and surgical robots advance to millimeter-level precision, the open technology ecosystem built by Advantech is not only a driving force for industry development but may also become a key force in defining the standards for the next generation of robots. This development strategy will propel the entire industry from isolated technological breakthroughs to a new stage of systemic capability leaps, injecting strong momentum into the intelligent transformation of the global robotics industry. (Written by: China Robotics Network)
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