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Although we have not yet landed in the capital market, we have truly felt this wave of capital heat. During this period, we have received several investors from the primary market, and many securities companies have also conducted online and offline research on us. "The relevant person in charge of a well-known domestic humanoid robot company admitted in an interview with a Securities Times reporter that "I have been a little busy recently."
Although busy, but the mood is happy. Musk and Lei Jun announced their layouts one after another, and related concept stocks in the secondary market continued to rise, causing the emerging track of humanoid robots to attract widespread market attention. As explorers of cutting-edge industries, humanoid robot companies are eager to join some peers, especially leading technology companies.
"Multi-functional robots, that is, humanoid robots, will be the ultimate goal." Bi Yalei, director of the Innovation and Development Division of the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Studies of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and secretary-general of the Shenzhen Robotics Association, said that humanoid robots are the earliest discussions in the robotics industry, but they are still under discussion. One of the most uncertain directions. Just as humans have evolved over hundreds of millions of years, humanoid robots also need to evolve continuously, and they are still in a relatively primary evolutionary stage.
Giants are competing for layout, concept stocks blowout
"Iron Big" is here! At Xiaomi's autumn new product launch conference on August 11, Lei Jun "cut Hu" Musk, the first to release a full-scale humanoid bionic robot CyberOne.
Although there is no mass production plan and the cost is as high as 600,000 to 700,000 yuan, Xiaomi's "human creation" plan still detonated the capital market, and many concept stocks continued to blow out. Among them, Yuanda Intelligence has daily limit for five consecutive trading days from August 16 to August 22. Wind data shows that from August 11th to August 22nd, the cumulative increase of Yuanda Intelligent reached 74.49%, and the increase of INVT and Changying Precision also reached 49.20% and 23.65% respectively. Buke, Saixiang Technology and Wenyi Technology, etc. The cumulative increase of robot concept stocks is also more than 10%.
This is not the first wave of robot concept stocks this year. More than two months ago, Musk announced that the TeslaBot "Optimus (Optimus)" prototype will be launched on September 30. It is 1.72 meters tall and weighs 57 kilograms. It is slightly smaller than CyberOne and has a lower price than CyberOne. Expected to be around $25,000, production is expected to start in 2023.
At that time, the A-share secondary market had already started a wave of robot concept stocks. Wind data shows that from June 3 to August 22, Mingzhi Electric rose as high as 250.10%, and 10 concept stocks including Jingshan Light Machinery, Zhongdadi and Hechuan Technology also rose by more than 100%.
In fact, humanoid robots are not a new concept. In the past hundred years, industry giants have been entering the game. As early as 1927, the Westinghouse Company of the United States built the world's first humanoid robot "Televox". Although it could not walk, it could lift the receiver to answer the phone. In 1973, Waseda University launched the life-size robot "WAROT-1". And it is equipped with manipulators, artificial vision and hearing devices. Boston Dynamics, which was born in 1992, continues to develop humanoid robots. In 2013, Boston Dynamics launched the first-generation humanoid robot "Atlas", which has been updated several times.
The giant effect brings new vitality to the industrial chain
In China, many companies have already tested humanoid robots.
"Youyou, I'm thirsty, please help me get a bottle of Coke." In the Ubisoft Technology Exhibition Hall in Nanshan District, Shenzhen, the staff gave instructions to its panda robot, Youyou. After receiving the instruction, the panda robot quickly walked to the freezer not far away, opened the door, took out the coke, made sure that the freezer door was closed, then walked back to the staff and handed her the coke. Youyou in front of the reporter is actually a humanoid robot who has seen the world. The panda robot Youyou is a "peace and friendship messenger" specially customized for the China Pavilion by Ubisoft Technology, which was invited by the China Pavilion of the Dubai World Expo. As a representative of Shenzhen's science and technology innovation enterprise, Youyou worked in the China Pavilion for six months.
The large-scale humanoid robot Walker independently developed by UBTECH has undergone four major iterative upgrades in five years. It can complete household tasks such as massage, twisting bottle caps, and serving tea and pouring water. It has gradually been used in film and television variety shows, science and technology exhibition halls, government and enterprise exhibition halls, It is also the world's first large-scale humanoid robot to achieve commercial application in scenarios such as scientific research and development.
As the earliest enterprise in China to deploy humanoid robots, UBTECH has a long-term layout in high-performance servo drives, motion control algorithms, computer vision, voice, navigation, and robot operating systems. But in the eyes of many people, "Ubisoft is a company that makes children's toys", the project is too cutting-edge and the public awareness is low, which once made the company distressed. Now the entry of the world's top technology companies such as Tesla may refresh this perception.
The relevant person in charge of UBTECH told reporters that the Tesla effect will bring new vitality to the domestic humanoid robot industry chain, which not only means incremental parts orders, but also means the entry of more talents and funds. It also means that the turning point of the industry is approaching. "Humanoid robot is a complex technology that requires long-term investment. It is believed that with the passage of time, various complex core technologies of humanoid robot will bring long-term commercial value beyond imaginary scenarios, and enterprises that insist on long-term technological investment will eventually become the new economy. Mainstay."
Workers are busy assembling and testing the humanoid robot in the humanoid robot production workshop of DC Robotics in Minhang, Shanghai. Zhu Zhengyan, the public affairs manager of DT Robotics, revealed to reporters that these robots have basically owned their own names. Scenes.
"Many people come to ask, why do you want to produce humanoid robots? For cleaning, the current sweeping robots can also do it, why do they have to be humanoids?" Zhu Zhengyan explained to reporters, "On the one hand, compared with alien robots, humanoid robots are the largest The advantage is that it can use all the tools that humans use, and it does not need to be specially designed and built for robots, just throw it into life; on the other hand, humanoid robots are also versatile and can adapt to different application scenarios.”
A multifunctional humanoid robot that can truly accompany people in the future. To this end, Dada has put forward the slogan of building a robot nanny in 2025, "The general direction is to be a humanoid nanny, and I hope that humanoid robots will enter the family and solve the most basic household chores that people have to do, such as cleaning and cooking. Wait, or even go a step further, to help take care of the elderly.”
The primary market values cost control
Recently, a number of robotics companies announced a new round of financing. On August 8, the global logistics robot company Jizhijia announced the completion of a new round of financing of 100 million US dollars, which was jointly funded by Intel Capital, Xiangfeng Growth Fund and Qingyue Capital; on August 9, the photovoltaic intelligent cleaning robot manufacturer Hefei Ren Jie Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. announced the completion of the Pre-A round of financing, which was led by Hillhouse Ventures and followed by Kexun Lianshan Entrepreneurs Fund, with a financing amount of tens of millions of RMB.
At the 2022 World Robot Conference held recently, Xin Guobin, a member of the Party Group and Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that the investment and financing of China's robot industry continued to be active. In the first half of this year, the disclosed financing amount exceeded 5 billion yuan. Surgical robots and other fields have become a hot spot for social capital, and a pattern of joint development of industry and capital has initially formed.
Compared with the boom in investment and financing in the robotics industry, the segmented track humanoid robot appears to be somewhat calm in the primary market. Many venture capital institutions interviewed by reporters said that robots are a huge track, and the underlying core technologies are the same. The progress of humanoid robots depends on the overall further development of artificial intelligence. As far as current investment is concerned, it is more concerned about the real application scenarios in the downstream, especially for B-end enterprises, cost and return on investment are the biggest considerations.
The most intuitive proof can be obtained from investment and financing data. The recently released "China Robot Industry Development Report (2022)" shows that in 2021, there will be 238 investment and financing events in my country's robot industry. According to the statistics of the three major fields of industrial robots, service robots and special robots, industrial robots are still It is the category with the highest proportion of financing.
This point is deeply felt by Yang Shengjun, a partner of Cornerstone Capital. He told reporters that the investment logic of Cornerstone Capital in the field of robotics is mainly based on the digitalization and automation transformation of China's manufacturing industry. The certainty of machine replacement is high and the application industry is huge, and the demand is strong. Therefore, the previous investment was mainly concentrated in the industrial field, such as Eft.
He said that after industrial robots, collaborative robots, and service robots, with the development of artificial intelligence technology such as vision technology, the degree of intelligence of robotic arms has become higher and higher, and humanoid robots have emerged. The core is that it is closer to humans than traditional robotic arms. , but the underlying technology is essentially the same, and there is no cross-generational technological breakthrough, only some changes in form.
Cui Renzhi, investment director of Yida Capital, also believes that, like smartphones and smart cars, humanoid robots are also a smart terminal for the 5G era. A major feature of this round of technological revolution is that big data, artificial intelligence and other technologies are deeply integrated with knowledge data in vertical industries. Leading technology companies tend to build capabilities in multiple dimensions in the cloud, network and terminal cores. Through hardware pre-embedding and data accumulation , the way of software upgrade, to promote the continuous optimization of the user experience of the intelligent terminal.
Talking about the layout of Yida Capital in the robot track, Cui Renzhi said that he mainly focuses on companies with outstanding competitiveness, and the core is three points: first, whether the company has mastered independent core technologies; second, the company's product strength, including performance, cost, Supply chain and other aspects; finally, see whether the company can open up in overseas markets.
Commercialization is still a long way off
What is special about humanoid robots is that the industry as a whole is in the early stage of investment, and R&D investment is the most important cost, far greater than the hardware cost. A relevant person in charge of a domestic humanoid robot company also confirmed to reporters that although the price of the humanoid robots currently being sold by the company is not as expensive as that of Xiaomi, it is also several hundred thousand yuan.
The person in charge of the company told reporters that although humanoid robots have appeared for many years, they are still in infancy, and even newborns can be said, "Although the market potential is huge, commercialization still has a long way to go."
According to Zhao Jie, director of the Institute of Robotics at Harbin Institute of Technology and deputy director of the State Key Laboratory of Robotics and Systems, the premise for the rapid development of humanoid robots lies in how far they are from commercial applications. Although Musk has planned specific goals, he tends to focus too much on the actions of robots. On the contrary, for any kind of bionic robot, people pay more attention to its operation ability and consider whether it can replace human. Some service jobs. In other words, the ability of robots to replace humans to complete some service operations is the starting point for its commercialization. Based on this perspective, in Zhao Jie's view, Musk may be too optimistic about the commercialization of humanoid robots. In general, humanoid robots still have a long way to go before commercialization.
"Humanoid robots still have a long way to go before market expectations, and require technical research and breakthroughs." Zhu Zhengyan told reporters, "For example, to let humanoid robots enter the home, there must be a relatively flexible dual The feet can freely switch between static and dynamic balance like a human being.”
Biaret predicts that in the next ten years, bionic robots will enter a practical stage and combine with application scenarios to achieve certain functions required by human beings, which is in line with the objective path of current evolution.