Big Four of Industrial Robotics

工业机器人四大家族Common

The industry's collective name for four long-established industrial-robot giants: FANUC, ABB, KUKA, and Yaskawa.

This is the industry's collective term for four established makers of industrial robots: Japan's FANUC, Switzerland's ABB, Germany's KUKA (majority-owned by China's Midea Group since 2017), and Japan's Yaskawa Electric. They have long held the bulk of the market for multi-joint industrial arms used in car welding, handling, and painting lines, and control the core technology in controllers, servo drives, and reducers. When discussing China's industrial-robot sector, the “Big Four” is commonly used as the benchmark that domestic makers are trying to catch up to and displace through domestic substitution. According to reports, ABB announced in 2025 that it would sell its robotics business to SoftBank Group.

ExampleThe rows of orange KUKA and yellow FANUC 6-axis arms on an automotive body shop's line are a textbook example of the Big Four at work.

Also called: FANUC, ABB, KUKA, Yaskawa
Related: Industrial Robot · FANUC · ABB Robotics · KUKA · Yaskawa Electric Corporation · Domestic Substitution
Sources: Industrial robot - Wikipedia
KUKA - Wikipedia
As of: 2025-10