SHAS Intelligent Robot Technology Company officially announced the completion of the pre-A round of financing for hundreds of millions of yuan.
SHAS is positioned in the development, manufacturing and supporting solutions of exoskeleton robot products in the pan-industrial field. After this round of financing, the company will begin to invest in mass production and research center expansion, and work with partners in different industries to explore and implement multiple models, and simultaneously develop overseas business.
The founder Xu Zhenhua graduated from Shanghai Jiaotong University and has successively participated in the founding of two medical equipment companies. The early research and development of exoskeleton robots and large-scale medical robot products are mainly used in the field of medical rehabilitation. However, on the one hand, medical exoskeletons have always had the problem that patients cannot use them autonomously. Generally, they still need to be used according to specific medical plans and under the guidance of physicians. On the other hand, in the field of medical exoskeletons, most of them wait until the injury has occurred before proceeding with treatment. , SHAS hopes to advance the treatment process to the prevention stage, so that more exoskeletons can enter the operation link to prevent occupational injuries to workers, and also help effectively improve production efficiency. Therefore, Xu Zhenhua decided to create SHAS in 2016 to make the exoskeleton move from medical applications to industrial applications, and is committed to promoting pan-industrial exoskeleton robots to a broader civilian market.
For example, the landing application scenario of China Southern Airlines is mainly in the cargo terminal. The volume of cargo is very irregular and needs to be handled manually, ranging from 30 kg to 60 kg. SHAS provides exoskeleton solutions to save workers more than 50% of the power used.
Since its establishment, SHAS has launched three main line products of upper limb, waist and lower limb exoskeleton, and its core hardware and software have completed several iterations. The products are all driven by electricity, which can provide 10-50kg of power in 6-8 hours of battery life. The product is subdivided from R1 to R4, where R1: MAPS-U upper limb exoskeleton robot load range 5-15kg, R2: HEMS-L waist exoskeleton robot load range 15-30kg, R3: HEMS-GS lower limb exoskeleton robot load range 30-50kg, R4: HEMS-HD full-body exoskeleton robot has a load range of more than 50kg (under development), and the size and angle of the assistance can be adjusted by software. At present, Osha has nearly 50 exoskeleton equipment, which have been implemented in many large aviation ground service companies (such as Beijing Daxing Airport, China Southern Airlines), automobile brands, home appliance manufacturing, logistics and warehousing and other enterprises.
From a technical perspective, exoskeleton is mainly divided into two categories: passive (spring) and active (electric drive and pneumatic). Passive exoskeleton is mainly assisted by springs, mainly represented by EksoBionics and Suitex products. The advantage is that the weight is light, but the strength is small and there is no barrier, and it is mainly used in the overhead station of the car. Active exoskeleton is mainly driven by electricity and pneumatic. Pneumatics are not used by many companies because of the need for external air source support, limited movement and inconvenience, and high overall system weight. Electrically driven exoskeleton, due to the relatively mature development of technologies such as motors, drivers, sensors, and encoders, has more corresponding development tools, and can be well integrated into artificial intelligence applications, providing exoskeleton with flexible perception capabilities, human adaptability and assistance Power, currently the most used companies, such as Japan Atoun and Germany Bionic. The current SHAS exoskeleton robot products are also electric drives.
The SHAS R&D team has more than ten years of exoskeleton robot R&D accumulation. The core team has rich design and R&D experience in robot control systems, motion control algorithms, multi-sensor data fusion, human-computer interaction, machine vision, etc., and has led the completion of many robot projects Landing. Its core hardware and software research and development are scattered to the lowest level, including power system, bus system, software control, etc. The key components have basically realized localization, and the establishment of technical barriers for its own products has been initially completed. Compared with the medical scene, the industrial scene uses a larger amount, but requires a higher cost performance, but SHAS has controlled the price to 1/4~1/5 of the original, laying a foundation for its own advantages in the market. The founder Xu Zhenhua participated in the founding of Jinghe Robotics and Fourier Intelligence, as a co-founder and CTO.
Compared with the foreign exoskeleton market, Chinese exoskeleton companies are still in the stage of continuous adjustment and adaptation in terms of international standards and commercial applications. Many foreign exoskeleton companies have matured at the level of commercial application, including Hyundai, LG, Honda, and other listed companies focusing on the R&D and sales of exoskeleton robots by Cyberdyne and Eksobionics, as well as startups such as Atoun, Innophys, and Germanbionic. Companies, they are widely used in medical, industrial, logistics, agriculture and other scenarios. Eksobionics, which landed on Nasdaq in 2014, currently has industrial products mainly used in automakers such as Ford. Sarcos tested heavy exoskeletons in its military infrastructure through a series of contracts signed with the US government. Innophys disclosed that its Muscle Suit Every single product shipments exceeded 10,000+ sets. According to a research report by ABI Research, the rapidly growing exoskeleton market is expected to exceed USD 5 billion in annual revenue in the next 10 years.
China's exoskeleton companies are still mainly concentrated in the medical field, such as BJDA robots, SZMB robots, SHFL intelligence, CDBF robots, flexible mechanical exoskeleton BJTJ intelligence technology, SZMB intelligence, etc.
Overseas markets are also part of SHAS's layout. At present, the SHAS team has cooperated with many well-known international companies and local service providers in Japan, France, the United States and other well-known international companies. The products have applied for multiple international certifications. SHAS CMO Zhang Hua said that SHAS plans to expand overseas business next year, focusing on the Japanese, South Korean, and European and American markets. These countries are seriously aging and many elderly workers. At the same time, these countries have sound labor law protection requirements, and the safe operation and safety of frontline workers The importance of health protection has made factory managers and workers have an urgent need for exoskeleton robots. Exoskeleton robots can effectively improve the working environment, reduce labor shortages, and reduce occupational injuries to workers.