Robots Handle Tough Workplaces With Ease

With no cables visible on its body, an innovative cleaning robot specifically developed for the casting and engine manufacturing industries can withstand harsh industrial conditions like acid and alkali corrosion, high temperatures and humidity.

Developed by Shenyang Feyoo Special Robot Co., the robot is the first of its kind in China. In just three years, the company has already become an important link in the robot industrial chain in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning province.

Overcoming technical challenges

Back in 2021, the domestic industrial robot market was extremely competitive, and the profit margin for developing general purpose robots was negligible. To find an edge over others in the industry, the co-founders of Feyoo chose a different path: robots working in harsh environments.

Domestic high-end robots have long been absent in harsh operational environments, such as flammable and explosive scenarios, vacuum conditions, sterile settings and highly corrosive environments.

If production companies have such needs, they usually buy foreign general purpose robots and then "customize" them manually, according to Chen Guijun, co-founder and deputy general manager of Feyoo. However, this approach is not only costly, but it also makes it difficult to acquire explosion-proof verification certificates, and overcome after-sale issues.

Feyoo therefore decided to design and develop robots to cope with harsh working conditions while benchmarking against major international manufacturers. Technically, this was a huge challenge, but one that Chen embraced with confidence.

Shenyang is the birthplace of China's robot industry, generating many firsts such as the country's first industrial robot and the first underwater robot. The city's industrial foundation and talent pool played a big part in Feyoo sourcing skilled technical personnel.

Rebuilding hardware and software

With technical talent gathered, Feyoo began tackling the hardware and software challenges.

Taking explosion-proof robots as an example, volume and heat generation are key factors for entering explosion-proof workshops and vacuum chambers. The research team developed a new type driver by replacing traditional modules with new type materials.

This new driver has a very low heat generation volume and very large power density.

With the same power of five kilowatts, the driver has a volume that is one third smaller than traditional products, thus it can be integrated inside the robot body. This greatly enhances market competitiveness, Chen said.

The transformation of controllers also matters. Feyoo developed a controller named "Y-River 2," which integrates motion control, interface display and teach pendant operation. More importantly, the controller operates at extremely low energy levels and will not ignite explosions even in extreme dust or gas environments.

With this hardcore technology, Feyoo acquired explosion-proof verification from national institutions, and now plays a crucial role in dangerous scenarios like specialized manufacturing, petroleum refining and chemical processing, and fireworks production.

Hardware helps build strong bodies for robots and software injects "soul" into them.

In the spraying industry, the shape of machine parts is complicated, and traditional robots can only be taught by manual dragging, but the workshop is flammable, explosive and pungent.

Feyoo designed an AI-driven, intelligent and teaching-free spraying solution. An extremely precise point cloud 3D module will be generated for a part using 3D visual sensors. The robot can recognize the part regardless of the irregular shape or position.

The AI "brain" then starts functioning automatically: calculating the distance and overlapping ratio of the spraying gun based on the coating type and requirement for film thickness, planning for an optimal trajectory where collision will never happen in a complex six-axis space.

Winning the market

In the first two years of operation, Feyoo earned no revenue, and spent many millions of RMB in the development of robots, aiming to generate refined principled sample machines.

But as in all businesses, the market is the ultimate test. In 2024, Feyoo managed to generate sales of five to six million RMB when the company began testing the waters with its sample machine. In 2025, with construction of their self-owned factory complete and the production capacity improved, sales surged to between 40 and 50 million RMB.

Some cautious clients bought one or two robots for trial purposes at first, but then ordered 10 to 15 more after usage. It is estimated that orders will double or triple in 2026.

Besides the significant gap in the market for robots operating in harsh working environments, another reason for Feyoo's success is that their products are robust.

The company's dual-engine architecture has opened up an atomic instruction set based on the underlying layer, enabling downstream clients to introduce the technical "skills" of their industry into the robot. This made Feyoo's products spread rapidly across spraying and coating, laser cutting, explosion prevention and vacuum welding sectors.

In the next step, the company plans to deeply integrate robots with visual sensing and large model learning, "[With just] one glimpse of the new part, the robot can generate its own working path to meet new production demand," Chen said.

Source: Science and Technology Daily