Xiaopeng Steel Assistant debuts! Robotic arms may usher in the "iPhone moment"

Enthusiast Network reported (Text/Liang Haobin) Recently, He Xiaopeng, CEO of Xiaopeng Motors, posted a video on Weibo, showing the process of "steel assistant" operating the screen to order Xiaopeng MONA M03. In the video, the robot's hand movements are smooth, the structure is precise, and the degree of freedom is high. The process of sliding the screen and tapping is very smooth, and after sliding and accidentally triggering the selected text during the ordering process, the operation can be quickly corrected, which has a bit of "real" taste.

Source: Weibo @XP-He Xiaopeng

He Xiaopeng said that with high flexibility and tactile ability, it can handle very delicate tasks in the scene in the future, and will keep everyone updated with Xiaopeng's new progress in AI and large-scale this year. There are indeed a lot of new hardware in the field of robotic hands and robots this year. With the assistance of AI, it may be expected to usher in the "moment" of robotic hands.

Robot hardware emerges, and five-fingered dexterous hands attract attention.

Xiaopeng actually demonstrated a bipedal robot PX5 at the 1024th last year. At that time, according to the official introduction, PX5 can achieve the industry's top bipedal walking and obstacle crossing capabilities. Through self-developed high-performance joints, the robot's walking ability with high stability is achieved, and it can complete more than 2 hours of indoor and outdoor walking and obstacle crossing. In the demonstration video, PX5 demonstrated difficult projects such as playing football and riding a balance bike.

Xiaopeng humanoid dexterous hands and humanoid arms Source: Xiaopeng Motors

As part of the bipedal robot, Xiaopeng is also developing humanoid robotic hands and arms. Among them, the humanoid dexterous hand has 11 degrees of freedom in one hand, and two fingers can pick up 1KG of things. At the same time, the fingers have the ability to sense touch, and the weight is only 430g; the ultra-lightweight humanoid robotic arm has 7 degrees of freedom, the positioning accuracy can be achieved 0.05mm, the maximum load of a single arm can reach 3KG, the weight is 5KG, and the maximum terminal linear speed is 1m/s.

With the dexterous hand and the humanoid robotic arm, Xiaopeng demonstrated operations such as picking up a game controller, using an electric screwdriver, lifting a box, pinching a ballpoint pen, pouring water, drawing paper, and pinching a plastic ball, but the movements are still a little stiff.

Judging from the video effect, Xiaopeng has made obvious progress in dexterous hands this year. First of all, the movements are smoother and more natural, which may be due to the new, and the degree of freedom of the hands may also have increased. At Xiaopeng 2024 Technology Day two months later, Xiaopeng may officially showcase the new dexterous hand and announce more details.

At the 2024 World Congress (WAIC 2024) in July this year, the second-generation Opmus humanoid robot was first demonstrated in China. Tesla's second-generation Optimus first debuted in December last year, when Tesla released a video showing the capabilities of the second-generation Optimus.

Source: Tesla

Tesla said that the second-generation Optimus has lost 10kg compared to the previous generation, and the walking speed has increased by 30%. Some passive joints have been added to the feet, which makes the walking movements look relatively natural, but the actual walking speed is still very slow. The key upgrade of the second-generation Optimus is the hand.

The second-generation Optimus's robotic hand has 11 degrees of freedom. The video demonstration movement is very flexible and smooth. At the same time, all fingers have tactile sensations, which can achieve fine operations, such as pinching an egg with two fingers. In the picture above, the pressure at the end of the fingers of both hands is shown on the right.

Of course, robots cannot be put into practical applications only with hardware. In order to demonstrate the AI ​​capabilities of Optimus, Tesla also released a new video earlier, showing Optimus sorting batteries on the production line of a battery factory. Optimus uses end-to-end, through F hardware computing and visual sensors, hand tactile and force sensors, etc., to drive the machine to complete the corresponding work.

Speaking of robotic hands, the so-called "strongest" humanoid robot just released by the star startup Figure AI is even more worthy of attention. Figure was founded in 2022, and its investors include OpenAI, Microsoft, and group founder Bezos. Figure released the humanoid robot Figure02 in August. The hardware adopts an exoskeleton design and uses a new composite honeycomb compressible tissue near the knee and elbow joints. The actuators have also been upgraded. The arm joint actuator A2 has a torque of 50NM, and the corresponding maximum angle range of joint movement is 148°. The lower limb leg joints display two rotary joint actuators: the L1 model with a torque of 150NM is used in the thigh near the hip joint, and the maximum angle range of joint movement is 195°; the L4 model with a torque of 150NM is used in the knee joint, and the maximum angle range of joint movement is 135°.

The key fourth-generation robot arm has an astonishing 16 degrees of freedom and can bear a load of 25 kilograms. Each finger is driven by a unit that integrates sensors and. There are also innovations in the wrist, which provides a range of motion similar to that of a human wrist. At the same time, all power and sensor signal lines are encapsulated and directed to the hands and fingers. The team also stated that their goal is to enable the robot to grasp all objects that humans can grasp.

Another domestic robot company, Yushu, has changed its mindset to build robots. Last year, Yushu launched its first general humanoid robot H1. This robot has a relatively simple structure and no robotic arms. It is mainly used for experimental humanoid robot walking. Yushu's advantage lies in its self-developed motor capabilities. The H1 knee joint uses Yushu's self-developed M107 joint motor, which provides a peak torque of 360N·m, while the torques of the hip and ankle joints are 220N·m and 45N·m respectively, and the arm joints are 75N·m. All joint units of H1, including reducers and are independently developed and produced by Yushu. The selling price of US$99,000 at that time shocked the big names in the field of robotics at home and abroad. Later, Yushu H1 could be seen in the robot algorithm research of domestic and foreign universities.

Source: Yushu official website

In less than a year, Yushu launched the G1, which is smaller, lighter and has a higher degree of freedom. The basic version of G1 does not have a dexterous hand with 23 degrees of freedom of the whole body, while the EDU version is equipped with a dexterous hand with up to 43 degrees of freedom. Among them, the single leg has 3 degrees of freedom at the hip joint, 1 degree of freedom at the knee joint and 2 degrees of freedom at the ankle joint; the single arm has 3 degrees of freedom at the shoulder joint and 2 degrees of freedom at the elbow joint, and an additional 2 degrees of freedom wrist joint can be selected.

The G1 EDU is equipped with the Dex3-1 three-finger force-controlled dexterous hand. Unlike the five-finger bionic hand commonly seen on humanoid robots in the past, the Dex3-1 thumb has 3 degrees of freedom, the index finger has 2 degrees of freedom, the middle finger has 2 degrees of freedom, and 2 degrees of freedom can be added to the wrist. The Dex3-1 three-finger force-controlled dexterous hand uses force-position hybrid control technology to enable the G1 to have the precise operation capabilities of human hands. It can also be equipped with a multi-point tactile array to achieve multi-point touch, simulate the delicate touch of the human body, and greatly improve the ability of real-time tactile feedback.

Although the performance of G1 is amazing enough from the video demonstration, what is even more amazing is its starting price of 99,000 yuan. Of course, if it is to be used for secondary development and applications with higher performance requirements, the G1 EDU version needs to be equipped with the NVIDIA Jetson in high computing power module, and the price has not been disclosed.

What are the key components of the robot's five-fingered dexterous hand?

In order to achieve a flexible hand structure that imitates humans, the robot's dexterous hand requires a variety of precision components to drive it. For example, the motor needs to use a specific type of servo motor such as a hollow cup motor to provide the precise position and speed control required by the fingers, and the response speed depends on the motor performance.

At present, the main suppliers of hollow cup motors overseas are Faulhaber, Portescap, Allied Motion, Maxon Motor, Nidec, etc. Domestic suppliers have shown an explosive trend in recent years, including Tuobang Co., Ltd., Zhaowei Electromechanical, Dingzhi Technology, Mingzhi Electric, Weichuan, etc., all have good strength and have begun to enter the humanoid robot market.

The reducer, as a component used with the motor, is used to reduce the speed of the motor and increase the torque output, which is also one of the key components in the field of robotics. In the robot's dexterous hands, different types such as precision planetary reducers, RV reducers and harmonic reducers may be used to meet different precision and torque requirements.

In order to achieve tactile feedback of dexterous hands, a variety of sensors are needed, including torque sensors for measuring the force and torque applied to the fingers; tactile sensors for sensing the shape, hardness, texture, etc. of the contacted objects; position sensors for monitoring the position and posture of the fingers; and sensors for monitoring temperature changes in the working environment and the temperature of objects.

Taking tactile sensors as an example, the main companies in the global market are ks, Pressure Profile Systems, Sensor Products, Weiss Robotics, Syn Touch and other companies. However, the industrial chain in the field of robotics is also changing. In recent years, more players have entered the market and launched innovative products. For example, the tactile sensor Ttaxis launched by China's Pasini Perception Technology and the PX-6AX multi-dimensional tactile sensor launched by China's Pasini Perception Technology.

The sub-millimeter-level tiny deformation field on the PX-6AX flexible array can be captured instantly, and it can also provide the robot with 15 kinds of multi-dimensional information such as sliding, friction, texture, temperature, etc. The sampling frequency can be up to 1000Hz, and the minimum force that can be measured is 0.01N, providing a measurement life of more than 3 million times.

Summary:

It can be seen that since this year, humanoid robots have begun to pay more attention to the part of dexterous hands. As the most important part of the body in human work, if humanoid robots are to be used to replace humans for general work in the future, it is necessary to first realize the human on the robot hand. At this time, there may be some technical options for walking methods, such as wheeled feet. Therefore, in the future, whether the robot's dexterous hands can become the focus of the industry and be put into practical application first, we can wait and see.