With the continuous maturity of robot development,the application of robot has been expanded from the earliest industrial fields to medical and health care,life service,space and Marine exploration,military and entertainment,etc.Robot technology will not only push the manufacturing industry into a new stage,but also usher in the rapid development of non-manufacturing automation technology.

The robot can choose the main metal materials are steel,aluminum alloy,magnesium alloy,titanium alloy and so on.Because the density of steel materials up to 7.8g/cm3,although a few moving parts of the robot are made of titanium alloy(4.5g/cm3)or aluminum alloy material(2.7g/cm3)replaces the steel material,but the density of titanium alloy is still high,and the cost is expensive,the density of aluminum alloy is also higher than magnesium alloy.

Magnesium,or magnesium alloy,is the lightest structural metal material,with a density two-thirds that of aluminum,less than a quarter that of steel,and less than 10%that of polycarbonate composites containing 30%glass fiber.In addition,China's iron and aluminum reserves only account for 18 percent of the world's total.7%and 2.However,China's magnesium resources are the richest in the world,and magnesium materials have unique resource advantages.Therefore,magnesium and magnesium alloy materials,with their light weight and high specific strength,have significant advantages in reducing weight,improving robot mobility and endurance,and are one of the most ideal materials for robot manufacturing.

Lightweight robot materials can greatly improve its maneuverability and work efficiency,highlighting the advantages of robots in reducing motion inertia,improving operating speed and motion accuracy.Honda's third-generation ASIMO is made of light alloy,and its shell is made of magnesium alloy,which greatly reduces the robot's self-weight and walking speed.6km/h goes up to 2.5km/h,the maximum running speed reached 3km/h.

Magnesium alloy material though to get the preliminary application in the robot,but limit magnesium alloy materials in the field of robot components application of magnesium alloy is one of the important bottleneck still existing brand strong toughness compared with steel,aluminum alloy is lower,is apart from the requirements of material properties to have robots,cannot entirely replace for materials such as steel,aluminum alloy.Therefore,the development of high performance magnesium alloy and its forming technology for robot parts is of great significance to reduce the quality of robot moving parts,improve the accuracy of movement and realize energy saving.

In October 2015,Beijing university of technology launched the"big scientific research promotion plan--intelligent robot"in view of the current research status and development prospects in the field of robotics.In addition to focusing on the major common key technologies,key parts,whole machine research and development,and integrated application of intelligent robots,the plan highlights the"key technology research of lightweight materials for robots"represented by magnesium alloy materials.The"big scientific advance plan"relying on Beijing university of technology institute of materials more than ten years in the direction of the lightweight magnesium alloy materials research and development team and r&d platform advantages,in Mg-zinc-Er,Mg-Gd-Er-Zr materials of high performance magnesium alloys such as design,fine organization control,plastic forming mechanism is the basis of research results,such as targeting high-value medical robot,domestic robot in material lightweight requirements,aiming at new magnesium alloy materials with high strength and high tenacity,develop high performance for medical/housekeeping and other home service robot magnesium alloy parts,Focus on the lightweight of the robot's arm and other moving parts,and gradually realize the overall weight reduction of the household service robot.

Under the background of China's manufacturing industry facing industrial upgrading and aging society transformation,the demand for traditional industrial robots and new household service robots will continue to rise in the next decade or even decades,and the application potential of robot market is very significant.The application of lightweight alloy materials represented by magnesium alloy in robots has the advantages of significantly improving the mobility of robots,reducing energy consumption and improving standby time,which is one of the important directions of robot research and development.

(robot network)