In the workshop of Chengdu Kanopu Robot Technology Co., Ltd. (Kanopu), workers are busy packaging industrial robots for shipment worldwide following the May Day holiday. The company's workforce has been growing steadily this year.

"The company is developing rapidly. We plan to hire about 100 new employees this year, which is roughly a 25% increase in staff. Recruitment interviews are non-stop," said Gou Yunhui, Human Resources Manager at Kanopu.

This expansion of 25% in personnel is attributed to the company's rapid development. It is reported that the company's order volume in the first quarter of this year showed significant growth compared to the same period last year, continuing a trend of steady revenue increase over the past four years.

"We have been operating at full capacity since after the Spring Festival to ensure the delivery of domestic and international orders. Currently, our automated production line achieves 'using robots to build robots,' with the fastest cycle time being 12 minutes to produce one robot," said Li Daichun, Production Manager at Kanopu.

The company's performance contributes to the robust first-quarter data for Sichuan Province, where industrial robot output grew by 50.6% year-on-year.

The surge in orders for industrial robots is directly linked to the ongoing transformation in manufacturing, as more factories require robots to "work." Kanopu's industrial robots are applied in fields such as welding and automotive component assembly, with downstream customers spanning industries including automotive, electronics, and new energy. The company reportedly has over 500 direct sales clients, a sales network covering more than 250 cities across China, and exports its products to over 40 countries and regions.

"The increase in our orders comes partly from rising downstream demand and partly from our technological strength," Li Daichun stated. Currently, as one of the few enterprises in the industry possessing a full stack of proprietary core technologies and a fully self-developed product matrix, Kanopu's in-house R&D in the industrial robot field covers the entire chain from "underlying hardware—OS—application—cloud." It holds significant advantages in dimensions such as positioning accuracy, trajectory accuracy, and cycle performance.

Recently, the company launched its second-generation wheeled humanoid robot for the international market at the Hannover Messe in Germany.

"Factory workshop environments vary across different countries and regions. Customer demand is for efficiency, hoping robots can be more 'intelligent.' Therefore, our new generation robot combines a wheeled chassis with a humanoid upper body. The wheeled chassis has a maximum movement speed of 3 meters per second, featuring functions like autonomous obstacle avoidance, path planning, and slope traversal. The upper body is equipped with 33 high-performance drive joints, all using self-developed servo motors and reducers, capable of performing complex actions like bending, turning, and grasping, making it more aligned with practical industrial needs," Li Daichun explained enthusiastically.

Accelerating technological iteration is also due to facing intense industry competition. In the industrial robot sector, whether it's international brands like Fanuc and ABB or domestic manufacturers like Estun and Inovance, everyone is speeding up to capture market share. Technology has become a key factor in competing for the market.

A report from the Zhongguancun Industry Research Institute points out that in the industrial robot field, dexterous hands and intelligent sensors will become focal points of technological competition. Only by achieving technological breakthroughs in these two areas can industrial robots continue to move towards large-scale implementation. Among these, dexterous hands need to focus on cost reduction, while intelligent sensors need to improve precision stability to meet the high-reliability application demands in complex scenarios.

Therefore, for companies like Kanopu, failure to keep pace with the rhythm of technological change could risk losing market share.

"This year, we will also consolidate our advantages in areas like welding robots, deepen cooperation with customers, and advance brand building and overseas expansion. Simultaneously, we will further strengthen R&D, optimize our product portfolio, and expand applications in fields such as automotive, new energy, general industry, and even home services," said Zheng Minzhi, Brand Director at Kanopu.