It's so exciting! Li Bai and Du Fu recited poems on the spot? This year's humanoid robot is crazy

This year's World Robot Conference is definitely a big event with a lot of people!

On August 16, the 2023 World Robot Conference was grandly held in Beijing. As an annual grand event in the field of robotics, this year's event was even more star-studded, gathering nearly 160 domestic and foreign robot companies, and nearly 600 robot products "assembled into an army", shining the light of science and technology in Beijing.

“This is the exhibition with the largest number of humanoid robots. Almost all manufacturers of humanoid robots are participating in the exhibition.”

Among the many exhibits, humanoid robots will undoubtedly take the lead in "stealing the spotlight": some of them are "Li Bai" and "Du Fu" who seem to have traveled through time to recite poems and compose essays; some can sing and dance; some can write and paint; some can show off their skills by shooting hoops and doing somersaults on the spot; some can transform into "baristas" and "bakers", and become caring butlers... There are also many new products being launched, including Sequoia's seed player - Yushu Intelligent's first general-purpose humanoid robot H1 and Xiaomi's more "dog" robot, "Tiedan 2", which also made their first public appearance.

Humanoid robots, with their increasingly human-like appearance, behavior and interactive capabilities, have brought people a double visual and psychological shock, and the blue ocean potential of humanoid robots has been highlighted. Musk's statement at Tesla's 2023 shareholders meeting that "the demand for humanoid robots will far exceed that of electric vehicles in the future" has completely ignited the concept of humanoid robots. Since then, many capitals have entered the market, and giants have shown their technical strength. There are also many start-ups at this conference, which indicates that more emerging forces have entered the humanoid robot track... A new revolution in "human-computer interaction" may be coming.

01 Dozens of robots appeared on the stage, attracting a lot of attention

When science fiction reflects reality, you can't imagine how lifelike today's bionic robots are. They are gradually becoming closer to our lives and entering the homes of ordinary people.

“Have you not seen that the water of the Yellow River comes from the sky…” “The boundless fallen leaves rustle down, the endless Yangtze River rolls on…” Walking into the EX Robot booth, “Li Bai” and “Du Fu” recited poems on the same stage: “Li Bai” was dressed in white, with a gourd on his waist and a wine glass in his hand, reciting “Song of Everlasting Sorrow” in a carefree and elegant manner, showing the demeanor of an “immortal”; “Du Fu”, with white hair and thick eyebrows, sat beside him, writing at his desk. After hearing this, he exclaimed: “Brother Taibai, you have great literary talent!”

EX Robot uses technologies such as simulated skin and multi-joint motion to make the robot highly anthropomorphic in skin texture, facial expressions, and interactive responses. This dreamlike linkage of "poet + robot" makes people exclaim "I've never seen such a thing!" Putting aside the cultural spirit behind it, this type of humanoid robot can also be put into practice. It can not only undertake work such as display and explanation, service reception, etc., but also be used in education, medical treatment and other scenarios, providing humans with a more intelligent and intimate interactive experience.

In sharp contrast to the bionic humanoid robot is the humanoid robot "Tie Da" developed by Xiaomi. Compared with the simulation featured by the humanoid robot, "Tie Da" has a simple and smooth appearance, and its silver-white metal shell exudes a strong sense of technology, which is more in line with people's traditional perception of the image of robots.

"Tie Da" is 177cm tall and weighs 52kg. As the first product of Xiaomi humanoid robot, Tiedan has attracted much attention since its release, but it has always been shrouded in mystery. In August last year, "Tie Da" showed off his drum set, but the effect was disappointing. Many netizens said: there is only rhythm, no soul, and then "Tie Da" has no dynamic updates. Many people hope to see the latest research progress of "Tie Da" at this Xiaomi exhibition, but unfortunately, due to the display strategy, "Tie Da" mainly displays statically, so we have no chance to see it. I don't know if we can see "Tie Da" again at Lei Jun's annual speech next year. Please come back to see its strength.

02 Humanoid robots have full functions, such as riding a bike, shooting a basketball, and holding a drink.

At this World Robot Conference, humanoid robot products not only became more refined and realistic in appearance details, but also achieved a qualitative leap in functionality, fully demonstrating their environmental perception and motion control capabilities. UBTECH's humanoid robot Walker X, which just debuted at the closing ceremony of the Universiade, once again showed off its strength. Waller X made a "shining debut" riding a balance bike with a windmill in his hand, showing off his balance, while perfectly controlling the balance of the vehicle, performing "difficult" movements such as waving and spinning.

"It's so hot, I'm thirsty", as soon as the on-site staff finished speaking, the panda robot "Youyou" immediately walked to the refrigerator according to the voice command, took out a drink and gave it to the staff. Its ability to understand semantics has been greatly enhanced, and it can also independently identify objects, and has strong control and motor abilities.

Dahua Robotics, which has received over 1 billion in financing and may go for an IPO this year, used a combination of "human wave tactics" to show everyone. It brought dozens of humanoid robots to the exhibition and formed a powerful "robot team" to carry out basketball shooting competitions. Some robots also took on important tasks such as business streets and dancing to liven up the atmosphere, demonstrating to the audience Dahua's technical strength in robot motion control and collaborative execution.

In addition to these two manufacturers, other companies also exhibited robots with novel functions: for example, the humanoid robot of Dreame Technology attracted customers on site, transformed into a barista, and made coffee for visitors at the booth; Zhejiang University's "Wukong" has a moving speed of 6 kilometers per hour, can plan its path autonomously, and can adapt to a variety of complex outdoor environments. It can be seen that humanoid robot products are evolving towards richer interactive experiences and more flexible and stable movement capabilities. With the continuous breakthroughs in core technologies, humanoid robot products are expected to play a role in more practical scenarios in the future and show their charm.

03Not only "people", but also "dogs"

In addition to humanoid robots, pet robots are another visual focus at this year's World Robot Conference. Various manufacturers have "rolled inward", either to achieve extreme realism in appearance, or to make robots start "acrobatics". Take the bionic quadruped robot dog of Yushu Technology as an example. It is a "veteran" among quadruped consumer robots. Yushu has brought a new product with higher perception, high-strength interaction and higher cost-effectiveness. In the live performance, Yushu GO2 robot dog completed multiple difficult movements such as handstand, climbing stairs and long jump, which can be said to be a frequent display of "unique skills".

Xiaomi's latest CyberDog 2 (Iron Egg 2) four-legged robot dog also made its debut, making up for the regret of not having a real machine demonstration at the previous press conference. From the appearance, the Iron Egg 2 is indeed more "dog-like". It adopts a realistic design and is closer to a Doberman in appearance, which greatly weakens the mechanical sense of the robot dog and makes it easier for people to feel close to it. The multi-degree-of-freedom mechanical structure makes its movements more flexible and coordinated. Based on the core components and AI algorithms independently developed by Xiaomi, the Iron Egg 2 demonstrated realistic movements such as pulling, shaking hands, and running on site.

04Big model empowers, beautiful blueprint gradually becomes reality

At present, the language interaction ability of humanoid robots has been greatly improved, which is mainly due to the rapid development of AI technology based on large language models.

ChatGPT is like a depth charge, reshaping the ecology of the technology circle, indicating that artificial intelligence has entered a new stage of development. Against this background, the robotics industry will usher in new development opportunities. With the powerful empowerment of AI, robots can perform more sophisticated and complex tasks, and humanoid robots with autonomous learning and decision-making capabilities will become a new outlet.

The humanoid robot products at this exhibition also enhance the multimodal human-computer interaction mode. They can not only recognize voice commands, but also understand non-verbal information such as gestures and touch, and communicate with humans more naturally and smoothly. For example, UBTECH's panda robot "Youyou" integrates multiple perception methods such as voice and vision. When the user says "I'm thirsty", it can not only understand the semantics, but also see the user's gesture of drinking water, so "Youyou" will take the initiative to get water for the user. This multimodal interaction form is closer to the interaction between people. In addition, the "eye" and "ear" sensing capabilities of humanoid robots are also improving: Pasini Perception Technology uses its independently developed multi-dimensional tactile sensors to build robot skin to achieve accurate perception of touch and approach.