The temperament is more like a workshop director. This Tsinghua professor has visited hundreds of companies in three years.

Release time:Jun 12, 2024 06:21 AM

"I am very willing to go to the enterprise. Compared with staying in the office and working hard, I prefer to go to the workshop." When talking about intelligent manufacturing, Yang Xiangdong, deputy director of Zhejiang Tsinghua Yangtze River Delta Research Institute, opened up.

Yang Xiangdong wore a dark plaid shirt and casual pants, paired with some old sneakers, and his image and temperament were indeed closer to the stereotype of a "workshop master". He explained that this made it easier to meet the needs of enterprises and also gave entrepreneurs a natural sense of trust.

In 2016, Yang Xiangdong came to Jiaxing from Tsinghua University and established the Intelligent Equipment and Technology Research Center at the Zhejiang Tsinghua Yangtze River Delta Research Institute. He led the team to carry out research and product development in the fields of robotics, automation technology, and artificial intelligence, and innovatively proposed intelligent solutions.

Yang Xiangdong has been engaged in research related to robots and intelligent manufacturing for nearly 40 years. Once, he communicated with an entrepreneur, who said to him: "Teacher Yang, I know your robot technology and products are very good, but can you extend the technology of intelligent manufacturing to my product end? Our company needs more intelligent and excellent products." At this time, Yang Xiangdong found that the focus of enterprises has shifted from robots in the workshop to the intelligence of products. "Entrepreneurs' thinking goes directly to the consumer terminal. No matter how much improvement is made in the workshop, if your product is still low-end, it will not be sold."

Yang Xiangdong realized that paying attention to the real needs of enterprises and transforming scientific research samples into valuable commodities should be an important orientation for the Third Institute of Changchun Institute of Technology. Only in this way can we truly connect the innovation chain and the industrial chain and realize the transformation of scientific and technological achievements.

When you enter the Third Hospital of Changchun University, you will see a smart electric bed in the special exhibition hall which is a real "eye-catcher".

At first glance, this product seems to be no different from an ordinary bed, but it is actually full of technology. In addition to being able to automatically rise and fall, fold, and massage, the product uses the high-sensitivity non-contact sensors built into the bed to organically combine sensing technology, AI intelligence, and big data algorithms to build a smart sleep system that can monitor vital signs data such as heart rate, respiratory rate, snoring, micro-movements, tossing and turning, and getting out of bed. At the same time, users can also get their own health predictions and sleep suggestions through the accompanying App.

During the Beijing Winter Olympics, more than 6,000 smart beds were deployed in three Olympic villages. The product became popular and brought "digital sleep" into the public eye. Last year, this smart bed was put into mass production and launched on the market, which received good reviews from the market. Behind this product from research and development to production is the eight-year cooperation between the Third Institute of the Changchun Medical University and Qisheng Technology Co., Ltd.

The origin of this relationship can be traced back to 2016. At that time, Yang Xiangdong had just arrived in Jiaxing. Thanks to the powerful resource group behind the Third Institute of Changchun University of Science and Technology, he quickly built a bridge of communication with enterprises. Among them, the needs of an electric bed manufacturer attracted his attention. At that time, Jiaxing Shufude Electric Bed Co., Ltd., the predecessor of Qisheng Technology, was trying to "replace people with machines."

Yang Xiangdong and his team in the company's workshop. Photo provided by the interviewee

As the world's largest electric bed manufacturer, Shuford began mass production of civilian electric bed products in 2005. Initially, it relied on pure manual manufacturing. Since 2009, with the sharp increase in sales, manual welding could not meet production needs, and gradually used welding robots to create a "robot welding workshop". Unfortunately, this development path is not easy. After using robots in large quantities, the company found that during the product switching process, mold replacement requires a lot of robot programming and adjustment time. The cost of using robots is "not cheap."

Yang Xiangdong, who has experience in robot design and application, became the "robot doctor" invited by Shuford. "Looking back, Shuford's confusion is actually the common confusion of many traditional manufacturing companies, that is, the effect of the robot is far from what expected." Yang Xiangdong said that the problem was not caused by the poor performance of the robot, but by the problem of the use method, which led to the low efficiency of the robot. "What we need to do is to help companies use robots better and bring out the potential of robots." The solution to the problem is to develop a robot automatic programming system, which Yang Xiangdong figuratively compares to "equipping the robot with an intelligent brain - letting the robot program itself."

In the actual contact process, the scope of cooperation between the two sides has been expanding. Tang Guohai, chairman of the company, has been thinking: "How to make traditional bedding have future attributes?" He has a new idea: to make a smart bed that "can manage sleep and health", sense the user's physical condition during sleep, and present a data to help them manage their health. Soon, Yang Xiangdong and the Shuford team reached a cooperation goal: to study "smart home products". The Intelligent Equipment and Technology Research Center of the Third Institute of the Changjiang Institute and Qisheng Technology began an 8-year scientific research cooperation.

In order to solve the bottleneck problems in transforming new technologies into innovative products, the Third Institute of Changchun Normal University and the company jointly established Qisheng Data Services Co., Ltd. to implement relevant academic achievements in sleep health application scenarios and solve many problems in the process of innovative technologies and products entering the market.

"It has the 'brain' of Tsinghua University and the 'feet' of an enterprise." Yang Xiangdong described Qisheng Data in this way. This not only enables good communication between entrepreneurs and scientists, but also opens up the "last mile" of achievement transformation. Today, Qisheng Technology has transformed from a traditional manufacturing company to a smart sleep service provider and successfully listed.

Over the years, the problem of transforming scientific and technological achievements has been a commonplace. Yang Xiangdong found that university teachers are very capable of making samples, but from samples to products, they need to go through steps such as forward-looking technology research, key technology development and system development. Many tasks are difficult to complete in universities, and many companies also lack this ability. Therefore, "many achievements often remain at the sample and prototype stage in the end."

The establishment of the Third Institute of Changchun Institute of Science and Technology has just built a platform between universities and enterprises. "From Tsinghua University to the Third Institute of Changchun Institute of Science and Technology and then to the business community, such a structure has just achieved the goal of connecting the innovation chain and the industrial chain." As enterprises gradually grow, it will become more and more natural for them to connect with universities and cooperate with other innovative resources. But before that, both enterprises and universities need such a platform to communicate and collide, to achieve the transformation from samples to products and then to commodities, and then build a complete industrial chain. Yang Xiangdong believes that "this is the real positioning of the Third Institute of Changchun Institute of Science and Technology, the best node for practicing the integration of science and technology and economy, and the best hub."

During his eight years at the Third Institute of Changchun University, Yang Xiangdong visited hundreds of enterprises, communicated with different entrepreneurs, and saw many changes. For example, in recent years, many private enterprises in Zhejiang have encountered the handover between the first and second generation of entrepreneurs. How to break through the achievements and directions of their parents and how to find a second upward curve are challenges faced by many second generation entrepreneurs.

Yang Xiangdong and his team in the company's workshop. Photo provided by the interviewee

However, challenges and opportunities coexist. In Yang Xiangdong's view, they have an international perspective, and their desire for technology and expectations for upgrading traditional industries are very strong. Moreover, it is not just the second-generation entrepreneurs, but now many older-generation entrepreneurs are also beginning to pay attention to these new things. At the same time, Internet means and artificial intelligence provide the feasibility of technological breakthroughs for all industries. The key lies in whether they can be the first to discover and master it. "In the past, when everyone was competing in a homogeneous manner, they could only expect to reduce costs and obtain higher profits. But now, more companies are paying attention to how to achieve a huge breakthrough in product functions, which is actually a good opportunity."

American scholar Kevin Kelly wrote in his book The Inevitable that now is the best time to start a business. Throughout history, there has never been a day more suitable for invention than today. There has never been an era with more opportunities, more openness, lower barriers, higher risk-benefit ratio, more returns and a more positive environment than now, at this moment. Yang Xiangdong agrees with this, saying, "I don't know how long the window period will last, but at least we are still in this innovation window period."

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