Wonders and troubles of the Chinese robotics industry

At the World Robot Conference in Beijing, which ended on Tuesday, the mood was a combination of optimism and caution: the enterprises showed more and more realistic humanoid robots, even when they acknowledged that technological gaps retain these machines from basic use.

Thousands appeared to watch the humanoid robots to perform many unusual feats: from the clumsy supply of popcorn and drinks, spinning shawls, sparring in the chess ring and demonstration of football skills.

But none of these feats made a technological breakthrough. While improving design, maneuverability and appearance, Androids are still fighting for processing and responding to their environment, a restriction that keeps them from most roles in real life.

So far, their commercial use is mainly limited to the guidance of visitors in the exhibition halls, shopping centers and, recently, testing at plants for repetitive tasks such as sorting materials and performing quality checks.

“If humanoid robots can do 80% of physical labor, which person can do?

“But what we will see are these individual tasks, such as processing materials, multiplying them in a much larger scale. They can be used in a completely different format, different settings,” Juan added.

Some tasks such as using a robot to make a bed are still at a “very early” stage, low success, said Juan: “But this is the right direction to push the branch forward.”

Take the PSIBOT Mahjong event at this event: it still defines the tile, often confuses the rules of the game and plays relatively slowly, according to local media reports.

The technological narrow place for large -scale humanoid integration into everyday life is due to the lack of advanced models of II and insufficient learning data, said Bob Chan, an economist in the Shanghai FG Venture. The venture firm has invested robotics in the startups, including Deep Robotics based on Hangzhou, which makes four-rigged robots that mimic four-legged creatures.

Androids rely on large grass seizures, visual, tactile and audio recordings, as well as modeling to create touch and behavioral maps needed to navigate and interactions in the real world.

“Large linguistic models have a rather narrow function: language in language. But robots require much more complex, multimodal entrances, but their exits are not words but actions and behavior,” Chen said, translating CNBC his comments in the tangerine.

Several startups in China have invested in the construction of “data factories” by hiring people to operate robots or wear to collect machine interactions for boots.

Race for adoption

Humanoid robots are becoming another front in China’s technology rival – where they could prevail with cheaper prices and faster deployment.

“China, the United States and other countries are playing quite levels,” Juan said. “Like electric car, autonomous driving, in humanoid robots, China acts extremely quickly on multiplication and consumption, while American players seem to shoot for the decision” Holy Schedule “.

In the production of Robot, Humanoid Project Optimus Tesla Optimus appears to be in the United States, and CEO Elon Musk said the company plans to produce about 5,000 units this year.

While the ambitious plans Musk can give her a foot on other American competitors who do not yet get into the mass market, Chinese companies are rushing to make their models more affordable.

It is believed that they also undermine global peers in terms of cost, due to excellent costs control. This is despite the real applications of the robots that remain uncertain.

According to WRC, Untree has deployed its third version of the R1 model at 39 900 yuan ($ 5249) on the e -commerce website JD.com, much cheaper than its other models. The H1 company model was sold for 650,000 yuan per unit and G1 robot for 99,000 yuan.

At the conference, the prices for the humanoid robot ran from tens of thousands of yuan to more than 100,000 yuan, and high -end models capable of more difficult tasks were above 500,000 yuan.