How To Make Humanoid Robots More Popular

At the 2023 World Robot Conference, discussions about humanoid robots were very lively. As an important development direction of robotics, humanoid robots have broad application prospects in the fields of medical care, education, home services, and industrial production. Human beings are ushering in the upsurge of the integration of humanoid robots and general artificial intelligence.

"Boundless fallen trees are rustling, and the endless Yangtze River is rolling in." As soon as I walked into the exposition hall of the 2023 World Robot Conference, I saw the poet "Du Fu" impassionedly reciting his famous lines through the ages.

"Good poetry!" The poet "Li Bai", who was writing brushes at his desk, stopped writing and applauded loudly.

At the EX robot booth, these two humanoid robots attracted a large number of visitors. In fact, from "Einstein" in 2021, to "Teresa Teng" last year, to this year's two great poets, humanoid robots are all "big stars" at the annual World Robot Conference.

The 2023 World Robot Conference will be held in Beijing from August 16 to 21. There were more than 200,000 visitors to the conference. Behind the high popularity, high traffic and high popularity, it revealed the booming development of the robot industry and the magnificent prospects of empowering thousands of industries. Among them, the display of humanoid robots was extremely lively, and the discussions were very lively.

Synthesizer

A white and gold-encrusted robot debuted riding a balance car, shaking hands, fetching objects, and comparing hearts skillfully and smoothly. This is the latest generation of humanoid robot WalkerX independently developed by UBTECH, the "star" who performed at the closing ceremony of the Chengdu Universiade not long ago.

According to the staff at the booth, in order for humanoid robots to be able to ride a balance bike, a wealth of human-computer interaction technology, difficult balance control technology, stable gait control technology, complex path planning technology, and multi-sensor fusion positioning are integrated. technology and many other core technologies.

At this year's World Robot Conference, more than ten humanoid robot products were unveiled, including "veteran players" like UBTECH, as well as several new entrants. For example, Beijing Xingdongjiyuan Technology Co., Ltd., which was just registered on August 4 this year, brought the humanoid robot "Little Star Max" this time. Through independent research and development of high-torque density motors, modular joints, integrated machine structures, and advanced materials such as high-strength alloys, carbon fibers, and engineering plastics, they have improved the structural strength and stability while retaining the robot's beautiful appearance.

"Humanoid robots are masters of technologies such as information manufacturing, materials, energy, and life. They have great potential for application in fields such as industrial production, people's livelihood services, and national defense security. They have become a new track for technological competition among major countries in the world." In 2023 At the "Smart Creation of the Future-Humanoid Robot Technology and Industrial Development Forum" held during the World Robot Conference, Zhang Feng, chairman of the Chinese Institute of Electronics, said that humanoid robots, as an important development direction of robot technology, are widely used in medical care, education, family services and industrial production. And other fields show broad application prospects, and will also play a greater role in various fields of life and production.

Xu Xiaolan, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, also believes that the breakthroughs in general artificial intelligence technology have provided an important drive for the innovation and development of humanoid robots.

reality thrust

In fact, humanoid robot technology has a history of 20 to 30 years, but people's interest in it is in waves. Why is it now entering a new climax?

Yushu Technology originally worked on quadruped robots, but since the end of last year, it has started a project to make general-purpose humanoid robots. It just released the first generation of products a few days ago. Its founder Wang Xingxing said: "Because I always feel that the current human technology is completely incapable of controlling such a complex robot form as a humanoid robot, but at the end of last year, especially this year, the development speed of the entire AI is obvious to all. The chasm has been crossed."

Chen Jianyu, founder of Star Action Era, also said: "In recent years, the development of hardware technology has made it possible for us to make humanoid robots with high enough performance and sufficient agility, and the cost can be reduced relatively low."

Technical capability is the premise, and actual demand is an important thrust.

Yao Qizhi, winner of the Turing Award in 2000, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and dean of the Institute of Interdisciplinary Information at Tsinghua University, said: "Our human social environment is mainly customized for human beings, such as the structure of stairs, the height of doorknobs, and the height of quilts. shape and so on, so if we want to build a general-purpose robot for a wide range of applications, the human form is the most suitable form."

"Many people will ask me why I can't use a robot with a wheeled chassis plus a body and two arms in an industrial scene. Isn't this easier to achieve? Why do you have to have two feet? When you get there, you will find that in that narrow space To create a flexible factory, bipeds may be the best solution in an ergonomic situation.” said Zhou Jian, founder of UBTECH.

"One day robots will become a member of our family. Besides accompanying us, they can also do a lot of housework." Zhou Jian said, "Whether you start a business or do something, don't think too much about the possibility of today's technology. , Look more at what we humans want in our hearts.”

Huang Xiaoqing, the founder of Data Robotics, sees the demand created by the increasingly aging population. He hopes to create a home nanny robot in 2025, which will allow the home nanny robot to enter thousands of households.

over the mountain

Of course, there are still many mountains to overcome in the development of humanoid robots.

At the "Smart Creation of the Future-Humanoid Robot Technology and Industrial Development Forum", Ren Lei, a tenured professor at the University of Manchester, a chair professor at Jilin University Tang Aoqing, and a leader in bionic health, said: "Comparing the most advanced humanoid robots with the human body, there is no difference. For example, from the perspective of the five major performances of sports agility, economy, diversity, plasticity and environmental adaptability, none of them is too far behind humans. Drive technology, sensor technology, Breakthroughs may be needed in both control technology and large models.”

Alois C. Knoll, a professor at the Technical University of Munich in Germany, reminded everyone that "you must be cautious" and "you must not raise your appetite too high, or create an atmosphere similar to speculation, or even turn it into a bubble. We should objectively recognize that This is a very difficult high-end research, and this may be one of the most difficult and complex machines we have seen so far."

For complexity, Zeng Xuezhong, senior vice president of Xiaomi Group, is deeply touched. He said, "Whether it is automated equipment, humanoid robots, or real people, it is impossible to achieve the overall optimum when dealing with these two complexities alone, so one of Xiaomi's cognitions is the 721 golden rule."

Zeng Xuezhong believes that in the future intelligent manufacturing system, automation equipment, humanoid robots, and people will be composed according to the golden rule of 7:2:1, and an efficient cooperative battle will be played. The era of man-machine integration will definitely come at an accelerated pace.”

Xiaomi is continuously developing and iterating robot products in its own manufacturing system. "Through the gradual development and continuous evolution, we understand that humanoid robots will realize the triple jump in life just like people. In the early childhood, they learn various actions and master the most basic operation ability. In the middle age, he slowly started to learn knowledge, mastered the knowledge map of a certain field, and experienced various scenes of practice in the middle age, and finally precipitated it into the wisdom of life." Zeng Xuezhong drew such a blueprint.

Perhaps, this is also a mountain that every humanoid robot has to climb.

When talking about the "deeper meaning" of studying humanoid robots, AloisC.Knoll said: "We can better understand ourselves by creating things like humans. From this perspective, humanoid robots are a perfect carrier that can make We advance the research and exploration of human nature itself."

The journey of exploring humanoid robots is also the journey of exploring human beings themselves.