Technological achievements continue to emerge and application scenarios continue to expand
Humanoid robots' pace 'quickens
Humanoid robots, as the masterminds of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, high-end manufacturing, and new materials, have always been the protagonists of many science fiction movies, carrying human aspirations for the future scientific and technological world. Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Humanoid Robot Innovation and Development Guidance", putting forward a series of development goals. According to the opinion, by 2025, China's humanoid robot innovation system will be initially established, a number of key technologies such as "brain, cerebellum, limb" have made breakthroughs, and the whole machine products have reached the international advanced level and achieved mass production.
At present, humanoid robot technology has accelerated its evolution and has become a new highland of scientific and technological competition, a new track for future industries, and a new engine for economic development. In recent years, domestic humanoid robots have grown from scratch, technological achievements have emerged in endlessly, application scenarios have continued to expand, the process of localization of core components has accelerated, and gradually moved toward a more advanced and intelligent direction.
More technical achievements released
Not only "limbs" developed, but also can perceive human semantics
Humanoid robot refers to a robot designed and manufactured to imitate the shape and behavior of human beings. In the robot industry, which enjoys the reputation of "the pearl at the top of the crown of manufacturing", humanoid robots have become "the pearl of the pearl" because of their complex structural components and ultra-high technical difficulty. China started late in the field of humanoid robots, but the development speed is very rapid. At the 2023 World Robot Conference held in August this year, many domestic humanoid robots made an amazing appearance. Some people in the industry said that this is the most complete and most complete robot conference in recent years.
When it comes to domestic humanoid robots, many people can't forget the scene at the closing ceremony of this year's Universiades in Chengdu: a large humanoid robot skillfully rode a balanced bicycle and quickly entered, waving its arms along with the actors on stage to the music; Subsequently, several panda robots with "human bodies" but a "panda head" gracefully appeared, bringing wonderful performances to the audience. These robots are all independently developed by Chinese enterprises, which contain many of China's top technologies in artificial intelligence and intelligent humanoid robot industry.
In recent years, in the domestic humanoid robot circuit, there have been a number of enterprise players, located in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, the national key specialized special "little giant" enterprise - Hangzhou Yushu Technology Co., LTD. (hereinafter referred to as "Yushu Technology") is one of them. This year, the company released its first universal humanoid robot, Unitree H1. This pitch-black, 1.8-meter tall, 47kg guy walks at the pace of an adult man. But more importantly, it can run in small steps, and it is the first full-size universal humanoid robot that can run in China.
Yushu Technology itself is a four-legged robot research and development and manufacturing enterprises. At the 19th Asian Games this year, the "Asian Games Robot Dog" developed by Yushu Technology debuted on the court and successfully attracted the attention of many viewers. In the competition, it conscientiously undertook the "field affairs" work, highlighting the science and technology of the Asian Games.
From four-legged "robot dogs" to humanoid robots, behind this breakthrough is the result of Yushu Technology's many years of deep cultivation and continuous innovation in the field of robotics. In line with the idea of holding the core technology in its own hands, Yushu Technology has now realized the complete independent research and development of the core components of its quadruped robot products. According to the relevant person in charge of Yushu Technology, the humanoid robot Unitree H1 introduced in the joint motor, electronic control system, control algorithm and other important components are used or borrowed from the company's previous accumulation of technology in quadruped robots.
In addition to Yushu Technology, Millet Technology Co., LTD. (hereinafter referred to as "Millet"), which has been focusing on the research and development and production of intelligent devices, also released the first "full-size humanoid bionic robot" CyberOne last year, also known as "Iron Big". Tieda is 1.77 meters tall, has strong limbs and sensitive nerves: it can perceive 45 human semantic emotions and distinguish 85 environmental meanings. Under the hard training of the R & D personnel, "Iron Da" even learned to play the drum.
Xiaomi began to explore humanoid robots in 2020, and has built a robot research and development system of hundreds of people in the past three years. Talking about the reasons for getting involved in the field of humanoid robots, Zeng Xuezhong, senior vice president of Xiaomi Group, said that humanoid robots are the intersection of the three core capabilities of technology, manufacturing and service, and are also the commanding heights of the integration of hardware and software with artificial intelligence technology, which will have a huge role in promoting the upgrading of manufacturing and service industries in the era of Industry 4.0. A senior hardware engineer at Xiaomi's robotics lab believes that humanoid robots are the most technically challenging of all robot forms. Through its research on humanoid robots, Xiaomi could also use this technology to solve problems in other forms of robotics.
In addition to related enterprises, research institutes have launched humanoid robots in recent years: Zhejiang University's humanoid robot "Wukong", Beijing Institute of Technology's "Hui Tong" robot, the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' "pioneer" robot... Many achievements highlight China's active exploration and technological progress in the field of robotics.
More application scenarios landing
It is not only a good helper for industrial production, but also a new employee in the service industry
Wang Jin, assistant director of the Institute of Robotics at Zhejiang University, said humanoid robots were originally created to help humans complete repetitive, boring and dangerous tasks. In recent years, some humanoid robots or partially humanoid robots have gradually entered daily life from the laboratory, applied to intelligent manufacturing, commercial services and other fields.
Yongkang City of Zhejiang Province is an important cup and pot manufacturing place in China, every year about 600 million thermos cup POTS are produced here and sold around the world. Thermos cup manufacturing process, high artificial dependence, quality control is difficult, in recent years, robots are widely used in thermos cup product quality inspection, flexible production and shaped product handling and other processes, so that the industry's production efficiency and product quality has been improved.
For the thermos cup, "drip" is an important quality problem. In the past, the detection of "drip" problem relied on manual detection, but now, in the local thermos cup production workshop, the robot reached out its arm, through the palm of the suction cup on the production line can "suck" over, and the average 5 seconds can detect whether a thermos cup has a drip problem.
According to the manufacturer of the robot, "If there is a small damage to the thermos cup, it is difficult to detect it by hand alone, because it is impossible for workers to pour water into every thermos cup to detect it." Finally, we came up with the idea of detecting drips by detecting air pressure, and designed a robot with a 'sucker hand'. If the thermos cup is broken, the robot palm cannot reach the set air pressure when absorbing the product, and it cannot absorb successfully. At the same time, the 'suction cup hand' also simulates the human body with a flexible design to avoid the metal material 'scratching' the cup body."
In addition to industrial applications, the application of humanoid robots in the service field is also gradually increasing. A humanoid robot named Xiao Luo is popular at the Xiaoshan Robot Exhibition Center in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. As the star receptionist here, it has an anthropomorphic design and body language, equipped with voice recognition technology and emotion recognition technology, can smoothly converse with visitors and provide personalized advice based on visitors' questions. In addition to serving as a showroom receptionist, the versatile "Xiao Luo" can also "serve" in ceremonies, large-scale exhibitions, weddings and other occasions, hosting or performing programs for everyone.
It is said that human beings are the most exquisite works of nature, just as people can be competent for many different kinds of work and carry out a variety of complex movements, in fact, compared with traditional robot equipment such as four-legged robots and robotic arms, humanoid robots have stronger versatility. A humanoid robot can replace a variety of single-function equipment, and can also be applied to a variety of production and life scenarios.
During the 19th Asian Games held this year, a humanoid bionic robot "Xiao Le" played the official theme song of the Hangzhou Asian Games, "With Love," on the piano. According to the research and development team of "Xiao Le", the development of "Xiao Le" piano is not to enter the field of music, but to develop a high-performance dual-arm robot system that can simulate human speed, strength and emotion to play, and this technology will drive the development of related industries. At present, a number of enterprises and restaurants have purchased and leased "Xiao Le" to develop "Xiao Le" new professional skills.
Experts said that with the progress of artificial intelligence technology promoted by large language models, coupled with the increasing technical reserves of robot operation control algorithms driven by big data and high computing power, humanoid robots are expected to rapidly advance to the application stage. The "Humanoid Robot Innovation and Development Guidelines" released this year also put forward opinions and measures from the three directions of special fields, typical scenes of manufacturing, people's livelihood and key industries: First, accelerate the application of humanoid robots in special environments; The second is to focus on 3C, automotive and other key areas of manufacturing to build humanoid robot demonstration production lines and factories; The third is to expand the application of humanoid robots in medical care, housekeeping and other areas of people's livelihood.
More innovative enterprises have emerged
From being controlled by others to breaking up foreign monopolies
Earlier this month, Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center Co., Ltd. was officially registered in the Robot Innovation Industrial Park of Beijing Economic Development District, marking the establishment of the first provincial humanoid robot innovation center in China. Relevant information shows that the innovation center will carry out five key tasks, such as the general humanoid robot prototype and the general large model of the humanoid robot.
As an international center of science and technology innovation, Beijing has occupied a full chain advantage in the field of humanoid robots, from theoretical technology to product research and development, and then to landing applications. In July this year, the Beijing Municipal government issued the "Beijing Robot Industry Innovation and Development Action Plan (2023-2025)", proposing that by 2025, the city's robot industry innovation ability will be greatly improved, cultivating 100 kinds of high-tech and high value-added robot products, 100 kinds of application scenarios with national promotion value. The number of 10,000 robots has reached the world's leading level.
The achievements and application scenarios of humanoid robots in China are increasingly rich, which is inseparable from the rapid development of the domestic robot industry. In recent years, domestic robot-related research and development institutions, enterprises and industrial parks continue to emerge, according to incomplete statistics, 10 years ago, China's local enterprises in the domestic robot market share of less than 5%, the number of enterprises but hundreds. However, in the past 10 years, the number of registered domestic robot-related enterprises has increased year by year, and the robot industry has basically formed the whole industrial chain system from parts and components to integrated applications.
It is worth mentioning that on the humanoid robot circuit, core components play a crucial role. In the past, China has long relied on foreign imports in the core parts of robots, and is subject to people everywhere. But now, there are many domestic enterprises to break through the technical restrictions, break the monopoly of foreign brands in this field, China is gradually realizing localization in the core parts of robots.
The reducer is known as "one of the three core parts of the robot", its function is similar to human joints, is an important support for the robot to make various actions, and is in the upstream of the robot industry chain. In Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, there is an innovative enterprise in the field of reducer - Suzhou Green Harmonic Drive Technology Co., LTD. (hereinafter referred to as "Green Harmonic"). The company was founded in 2011, with continuous research and development investment and technical research, the first in the country to achieve the technical breakthrough of precision harmonic reducer, so that this precision parts have a domestic replacement, at present, the company in the field of related technology has reached the international leading level, product sales ranked second in the world.
From "follow" to "lead", this is the development trajectory of Green Harmonics in the field of harmonic reducer, and it is also the development and change trajectory of the domestic robot industry. Chu Jianhua, chief technology officer of Green Harmonics, said: "In the past few years, we mainly pursued foreign ones, at least we did not lose to others. However, in recent years, we will surpass foreign countries and play a leading role in the industry.
Not only green harmonics, in recent years, more and more core parts enterprises have emerged in China's robot industry, many of which are state-level specialized special small and medium-sized enterprises and "small giant" enterprises. "China Robotics Technology and Industry Development Report (2023)" shows that at present, the overall development level of China's robot industry has steadily improved, application scenarios have significantly expanded, the process of localization of core components has accelerated, the advantages of collaborative robots, logistics robots, special robots and other products have been continuously enhanced, and a large number of innovative enterprises have emerged.
