Curve Intelligence was founded in 2018 and received angel round investment from iVision Ventures. The company's primary business is providing 3D vision-based intelligent robotic spray painting solutions for small and medium-sized workpieces such as furniture, doors and windows, sheet metal, and building materials. Currently, the company serves leading industry clients such as TATA Wooden Doors, Oppein Group, and Federal Furniture.

The spray painting industry has long faced challenges with low workpiece standardization and automation, necessitating manual spraying. However, the presence of pollutants in the spraying environment poses health risks to workers. Furthermore, manual spraying is labor-intensive and difficult to ensure consistent spray quality, resulting in low yield rates.

In recent years, with rising labor costs and improved factory automation, spray painting robots have emerged. Their share of the spraying equipment market has steadily increased, from 6.33% in 2014 to 10% in 2018. However, most spray painting robots require a professional technician to operate a teach pendant and work with fixtures. They also lack intelligent workpiece recognition and cannot plan spray paths based on workpiece position and posture. Their low level of intelligence makes them difficult to adapt to the flexible requirements of home decoration spray painting.

To address these pain points, CURVE has developed its own 3D imaging system, robot body, intelligent control algorithm, and robot operating software. Curve’s product workflow can be roughly divided into two steps. First, a 3D laser scanner uses 3D structured light projection to obtain a 3D point cloud of the workpiece. Then, based on this point cloud data, the robot uses its own intelligent AI algorithm to determine the size and spray range of each workpiece, thereby performing the spraying operation.

Notably, CURVE has independently developed a six-axis robot body. Previously, the Chinese spray painting robot body market was largely dominated by foreign companies such as ABB, Dürr, Fanuc, Yaskawa, and Kawasaki.

"Our proprietary robot body features a special waterproof and explosion-proof design and wear-resistant materials, and the cables are enclosed within the body, ensuring maximum safety. Furthermore, the robot body features an extra-long arm span, and a 360-degree rotatable attachment at the final joint (the wrist) allows for better spraying on curved surfaces and around corners, eliminating missed spray holes," Qian Xin, CEO of CURVE, told 36Kr. Currently, one intelligent spraying robot can replace two to three spray painters, and customers can expect a payback period of two years.

In terms of spraying quality, CurveRobot are reportedly capable of achieving a uniform paint thickness of up to 175μm, with an error of ±10μm (for a spray painter with over five years of experience, the error is approximately ±25μm). Furthermore, CURVE’s proprietary robot body and 3D laser scanning hardware have significantly reduced costs, giving it a competitive advantage in both performance and price.

Spraying robots not only replace manual spraying operations, improving the yield rate of sprayed products, but also enhance the digitalization of the entire processing plant. CURVE utilizes industrial internet interfaces, enabling real-time data collection and monitoring, remote operation, and remote diagnosis.

In terms of its business model, CURVE primarily relies on direct sales and distribution channels, with the majority of its revenue coming from the sale of complete system solutions.

Looking ahead, Qian Xin believes that increasingly stringent environmental regulations for spray painting will drive further expansion in the spray robot market. Currently, electrostatic spraying technology and UV paint processes are two key approaches for reducing VOC (volatile organic compound) emissions. Compared to traditional manual spraying methods, robotic spraying is more suitable for these two advanced processes. First, electrostatic spraying utilizes a high-voltage electrostatic field, and spray robots can protect humans from high-voltage electrical hazards. Second, the use of UV paint requires mechanized equipment, and 3D vision-based intelligent spray robots can expand the application range of UV light-curing paint, enabling its use in more complex scenarios.

In addition to intelligent spray robots, CURVE also plans to develop welding and polishing robots in the future.

In terms of team, CURVE currently has a team of more than 30 people. The core members of the team come from well-known universities such as Tsinghua University, Renmin University of China, and Peking University. The founder, Qian Xin, was formerly the director of the Application Technology Center of Yaskawa Electric and engaged in robot application development. He has accumulated 14 years of experience in the robot industry from technology to market, and has led dozens of practical application projects in the fields of robot handling, welding, grinding, spraying, etc.