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flipping the pan to cook, running and climbing over, folding clothes, playing the piano and making tea... at the 2024 world robot conference which just ended in beijing, various humanoid robots interacted with the audience, and many people couldn't help but exclaim, "it feels like i've come to the next century."

humanoid robots - this type of artificial intelligence (ai) with a "body" is the protagonist in many science fiction movies. how far is it from entering our homes and becoming part of our daily lives?

a humanoid robot photographed at the 2024 world robot conference on august 21. photo by xinhua news agency reporter ren chao

application scenarios are expanding

if the robotics industry is the "future industry" in people's general perception, then humanoid robots are a "collection" of new technologies, new materials, high-end manufacturing and other technologies.

for example: the "body" is the hardware module of the robot, including limbs and related functional components; the "cerebellum" is the motion control system, which receives task instructions from the brain and controls the movement of the entire machine; the "brain" is the ai ​​big model, which is responsible for reasoning, planning, decision-making, environmental perception and communication.

the reporter learned that nearly 30 humanoid robots were unveiled at this conference, the most in history, and also unlocked more application scenarios in the real world.

for example, in home life, leju robotics' wheeled humanoid robot can adapt to a variety of indoor environments, including simulating future home scenes, making it more possible to "free your hands."

in commercial retail scenarios, the galbot g1 general humanoid robot produced by beijing galaxy general robot co., ltd. can pick up goods from shelves and deliver them accurately to customers after hearing voice commands.

at present, domestic manufacturers have put humanoid robot products into offline scenarios, and some have achieved small-scale mass production. "we plan to put galbot g1 into commercial scenarios such as unmanned pharmacies and supermarkets this year to help humans 'work' become a reality." galaxy general staff told reporters.

a wheeled, dual-arm humanoid robot exhibited at the 2024 world robot conference on august 21. photo by yan yuxin, xinhua news agency

qingbao robots, which have highly human-like expressions and movements, are currently mainly used in cultural tourism and industrial scenarios. wang lei, chairman of shanghai qingbao engine robot co., ltd., told reporters that the company has signed orders for humanoid robots worth tens of millions of yuan this year and has achieved a small profit, with sales expected to reach 50 million yuan by the end of this year.

new players continue to enter the humanoid robot market. in 2023 alone, about 20 humanoid robot companies were established, including stardust intelligence, star moving era, and zhiyuan robotics. there is also an old player, ubtech, which succeeded in becoming the first humanoid robot stock and put the humanoid robot industry on the fast track through capitalization...

according to qichacha data, if the perspective is expanded to the entire robotics industry, the number of existing robot-related companies in my country has increased from 13,300 in 2014 to 178,500 in 2023, a 13-fold increase.

it may take at least 3 to 5 years to "enter the house"

although it is regarded as one of the most cutting-edge technologies, the interviewees generally believe that humanoid robots are currently in the stage of moving out of the laboratory and towards industrialization. large-scale implementation will first be concentrated in industrial scenarios, and it may not be so fast for them to "enter the home."

for example, ubtech robotics inc.'s industrial version of the humanoid robot walker s has transformed into an automotive inspection engineer, performing tasks such as sorting and quality inspection on the automobile assembly line.

according to ubtech staff, this robot can carry 15 kg boxes, and its built-in multi-modal large model "brain" can record data in real time, allowing it to better "understand" the surrounding environment and achieve detection accuracy at the millimeter level. it is reported that walker s has been "working" in the smart factories of several automakers, including nio and zeekr, this year.

a humanoid general-purpose robot was exhibited at the 2024 world robot conference on august 21. photo by yan yuxin, xinhua news agency

in the past year, yushu technology has successively launched the humanoid general-purpose robot h1, priced at 650,000 yuan, and the mass-produced version of the humanoid robot g1, priced at 99,000 yuan. yushu staff told reporters that the orders for h1 have been scheduled until after october next year.

the fact that humanoid robots have first entered industrial scenarios and scientific research institutions is actually the result of the current technological level matching user needs. however, what people are more concerned about is when the "vision" of humanoid robots "entering homes" can be realized?

"it is roughly estimated to be 3 to 5 years." wang lei said frankly. "first of all, the cost issue is that humanoid robots are currently expensive, most of which cost between hundreds of thousands and millions of yuan, which is unaffordable for ordinary families; secondly, the stability and safety of the technology. humanoid robots need to perform tasks accurately in various complex environments without any failures or errors; thirdly, the robot's 'brain', that is, the intelligence aspect, still needs to be improved."

a humanoid robot exhibited at the 2024 world robot conference on august 21. photo by yan yuxin, xinhua news agency

the reporter noticed that humanoid robots still have "awkward moments". take the humanoid robots exhibited at the world robot conference as an example. most of them need to be suspended on steel frames with ropes because the robots' lower limbs are difficult to stand steadily. some robots often stop to "slow down". the lack of battery life and output power makes them slightly "stuttered". some robots have their interactive systems turned off. the noisy environment will cause them to crash due to confusion in command recognition...

it is conceivable that in order to bring humanoid robots into homes, comprehensive technological breakthroughs are still needed, and every link requires sufficient investment and patience.

some industry insiders believe that the entire industry is still looking for a family scenario that can trigger widespread demand to activate the huge market potential. "with the trend of an aging population, the application of robots in the elderly care field may become the next hot spot," said wang lei.

the road to growth is getting wider

even though there are many difficulties to overcome, robots, as an emerging technology that integrates artificial intelligence and mechanical engineering, are seen as the development direction of the future industry.

in november 2023, the ministry of industry and information technology issued the "guiding opinions on the innovation and development of humanoid robots", proposing the following development goals: by 2025, the humanoid robot innovation system will be initially established, the complete machine products will reach the international advanced level, and by 2027, the humanoid robot technology innovation capabilities will be significantly improved and become an important new engine of economic growth. at the local level, beijing, shanghai and other places have also issued industrial support policies.

according to the international federation of robotics, the global humanoid robot market will have a compound annual growth rate of 71% from 2021 to 2030. according to data from the china electronics society, by 2030, the humanoid robot market in my country is expected to reach about 870 billion yuan.

a humanoid robot exhibited at the 2024 world robot conference on august 21. photo by yan yuxin, xinhua news agency

at present, domestic production technologies for core components of humanoid robots, such as sensors and precision reducers, as well as ai large model technologies are accelerating iteration and updating.

it is understood that my country's robot industry has reached a relatively leading level in some areas. for example, the world's first universal humanoid robot open source public version "qinglong" has up to 43 motion "joints" that can be actively controlled by its own power source. the "joint" module is equipped with 10 types of 31 joints, which means that the robot can make movements closer to humans.

xu xiaolan, president of the china electronics society, said at the press conference of the 2024 world robot conference held on august 13 that at present, key core components such as precision reducers in my country's industrial robots have formed a rich product spectrum, and the technical level and industrialization capabilities have been greatly improved.

the "brain power" of the robotics industry is also advancing by leaps and bounds. the reporter learned from iflytek staff that the company's "robot brain" based on a large model can realize multi-language recognition and multi-person multi-modal scene interaction.

"this set of modules integrates multiple modalities such as vision and sound, and can separate which people are talking to the robot in a noisy environment and give responses," said the above staff member.

in fact, in addition to "human-like" robots, various types of robot industries in my country are maturing. for example, domestic companies have also rushed to seize the robot track such as dexterous hands, mechanical arms, and four-legged robot dogs, and have demonstrated certain commercial and social values ​​in many fields such as fire emergency response and health care.

yushu technology's consumer-grade quadruped robot go2 was exhibited at the 2024 world robot conference on august 21. photo by yan yuxin, xinhua news agency

take yushu technology’s four-legged robot dog as an example. after 8 years of technological iteration, it can complete tasks such as flexible jumping and climbing stairs with weights.

the industry generally believes that the integration of ai technology represented by large models and robot hardware technology will produce more "collateral effects". a complete industrial chain is being formed at an accelerated pace, and the growth path of robots will become wider and wider.

source: xinhuanet

author: yan yuxin

process editor: u072