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In early July, Geely Holding Group's Zeekr 5G Smart Factory welcomed its first humanoid robot "employee". Director Li of the Production Management and Logistics Department put on a work badge for UBTECH's industrial version of the humanoid robot Walker S Lite. Walker S Lite is a new lightweight and fast-deployable product launched by UBTECH for the fields of smart manufacturing and smart logistics. So far, Walker S Lite has been "trained" in the Zeekr 5G Smart Factory for 21 consecutive days, collaborating with employees to perform handling tasks at the CTU warehousing and loading station. This is not only the first humanoid robot in China to perform and display the task of handling material boxes throughout the entire process, but its operation completion and execution difficulty are also among the best in the industry.

It is not new for humanoid robots to work in new energy vehicle factories. The automobile production process covers a large number of subdivided scenes such as assembly, handling, and quality inspection, providing an ideal "test field" for humanoid robots. In early 2024, Figure 01, a US start-up humanoid robot company, entered the BMW factory for standardized task training and execution. Walker S under UBTECH has also entered the automobile smart factories of BYD, NIO, and Dongfeng Liuzhou Motor. Zhiyuan Robotics' Yuanzheng A1 also completes chassis assembly, wiring harness arrangement, and appearance quality inspection in automobile factories. It can be seen that the pace of humanoid robot training in automobile companies has significantly accelerated.

Help forge new quality productivity and promote the large-scale application of humanoid robots

With the strategic cooperation between UBTECH, Geely and Tianqi, another innovative demonstration application of humanoid robots in the field of intelligent manufacturing of automobiles and parts has emerged. During the three-week "practical training", Walker S Lite combined semantic VSLAM navigation, end-to-end imitation learning, visual precision recognition, whole-body fine motion control and other technologies to autonomously navigate and walk with loads on different pallets and assembly lines, and work in collaboration with AGV to complete tasks. Loading and unloading work can be seen everywhere in intelligent manufacturing and smart logistics. Walker S Lite operates stably and reliably, and can perform tasks such as object handling, quality inspection, SPS sorting, chemical processing and assembly.

Behind this is UBTECH's response to application needs in areas such as smart manufacturing and smart logistics. It has developed a new humanoid arm that integrates topology optimization, size optimization and other structural lightweight technologies. Equipped with high-performance servo drives and six-dimensional force sensors, the Walker S Lite can walk steadily while carrying 15 kg boxes and is widely used in transportation tasks in the industrial and logistics fields.

Since the beginning of this year, UBTECH has continuously improved the tool operation and task execution capabilities of humanoid robots, and has taken the lead in cooperating with many car companies in the world. At the beginning of 2024, UBTECH's industrial version of the humanoid robot Walker S entered the assembly workshop of NIO's second advanced manufacturing base for on-site "training". Subsequently, Dongfeng Liuzhou Motor, FAW-Volkswagen Qingdao Company, Geely Automobile and other companies also reached cooperation with UBTECH to jointly build a humanoid robot demonstration production line and factory, and realize large-scale and in-depth application in typical manufacturing scenarios.

Xu Jun, head of the Innovation Technology Department of Geely Auto ME Center, said that the core pursuit of advanced manufacturing is to improve product quality, reduce production costs and enhance efficiency. In order to meet the growing personalized needs, the manufacturing industry is gradually transforming from highly automated to fully intelligent. Humanoid robots powered by AI have multimodal perception and autonomous decision-making capabilities, which will be more advantageous in the face of complex and changing working environments. They have great potential and broad prospects in the field of intelligent manufacturing.

Guo Dahong, director of Tianqi National Technology Center, said that Tianqi has been committed to serving the automotive production line intelligent equipment industry for many years and has advanced production line technologies from high-end intelligence to efficient human-machine collaboration. The three parties have joined forces to implement the collaborative interaction capabilities of humanoid robots and equipment, personnel, and environment in the production and manufacturing links of discrete manufacturing plants. The overall solution of intelligent technology that supports flexible and customized production lines explores a wide range of application scenarios for the integration of automotive production lines, humanoid robots, and people.

The alliance between UBTECH, Geely and Tianqi not only marks the three parties' in-depth exploration and application in cutting-edge technology, but also reflects that humanoid robots are accelerating towards real intelligent manufacturing application scenarios, providing new momentum for forging new quality productivity and promoting my country's new industrialization. In the future, the three parties will work together to promote the large-scale application of humanoid robots for intelligent manufacturing scenarios of automobiles and parts.

The application scenarios of humanoid robots are enriched, and favorable policies are released to accelerate their development

my country is the country with the most complete industrial system in the world. It has the world's largest and most comprehensive production and manufacturing system, and is also the world's largest application market for robots. According to the "Humanoid Robot Industry Research Report", the Chinese humanoid robot market size will be about 2.76 billion yuan in 2024 and will reach 75 billion yuan by 2029. Humanoid robots have become a new high ground for technological competition. Recently, the competent department of industry and information technology held a symposium and proposed to accelerate the cultivation of new pillars and new tracks, seize the opportunities of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, focus on humanoid robots and other fields, and accelerate the development of new quality productivity.

Shanghai, Beijing, Wuhan and other places have also introduced relevant support policies to increase the development of the humanoid robot industry. In the "Shanghai Action Plan to Promote Industrial Services to Empower Industrial Upgrading (2024-2027)", it is clearly mentioned to promote the deep integration of artificial intelligence and manufacturing, establish a national humanoid robot manufacturing innovation center, and create a number of humanoid robot empowerment manufacturing application scenarios in the fields of automobile, electrical equipment production and parts processing, and form robot production solutions.

Under the catalysis of multiple factors such as policies and capital, the humanoid robot industry is expected to usher in explosive growth. The practical training of humanoid robots in car companies will accelerate the industrialization process of humanoid robot technology, and at the same time promote the development of intelligent manufacturing to a higher level and a wider field. Jiao Jichao, vice president of UBTECH and executive director of the research institute, believes that the deployment and application of humanoid robots in a real car manufacturing environment can continuously accumulate all-factor production data, use AI technology to perceive, learn, and iterate, and realize an intelligent management closed loop. Based on the autonomous learning ability of humanoid robots' embodied intelligence, they can quickly adapt to new task requirements, provide agile deployment in manufacturing scenarios, and help achieve high-quality and agile delivery of complete vehicle products.

Huaan Securities recently pointed out in a research report that the current labor shortage is accelerating the industrialization of robots. Humanoid robots have a wide range of downstream application scenarios. In industrial scenarios, humanoid robots are mainly used in the field of intelligent manufacturing. For example, IBM combines the power of AI, remote sensing and edge computing to create a new generation of security inspection robots, and Amazon uses AI technology to drive robots for automated warehouse operations and logistics processing. The widening labor shortage has led to rising labor costs, and the demand for factory machines to replace people has gradually increased, which is expected to further accelerate the industrialization of robots.