Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries will make industrial robots in China, according to Nikkei Asian Review.

Kawasaki Heavy owns more than half (51%) of Chinese JV that plans to make a factory in Chongqing, China, poising to start production by year-end, Reuters reported.

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The plant aims to produce collaborative robots for tasks like assembling electronic devices and packing cosmetics in boxes.

Usually, robots need to be separated from human workers to prevent from potential injuries brought by collisions. However, Kawasaki Heavy's industrial robots feature a technology that automatically stops motion or movement when sensors detect imminent contact with people.

With the new plant and human-friendly robots, Kawasaki Heavy will become the first Japanese firm to create such human-friendly robots in China.

The plant will initially have an annual capacity of 1,000 units in the first year, and this will eventually increase to 5,000.

Essential parts such as bearings and motors will be coming from Japan, while the rest will be procured in China. Each robot is expected to be worth between $27,000 and $29,000.

Kawasaki Heavy manufactures at least 2,500 collaborative robots annually at its factory in Hyogo Prefecture and delivers them across the world. The new factory in China will soon allow Kawasaki Heavy to make robots locally to cater the Chinese market.

China is reportedly facing shortage of factory workers. As a result, minimum wages doubled over the past five years and demand for industrial robots increased.

Meanwhile, Apple's main assembly supplier, Foxconn has also by far installed 40,000 production robots in China. Its robots called Foxbot are said to be operating an industrial base in Zhengzhou, a table plant in Chengdu, and computer products and peripheral plants in Kunshan and Jiashan.

Foxconn introduced its robots to free employees from performing repetitive tasks and shift their focus on higher cognitive jobs.

TagsKawasaki Heavy, Kawasaki Heavy China, Kawasaki Heavy robots, industrial robots, Robots, china, automation, Workforce