There is a "dog" in Chengdu, named Gotha .e., in Chinese. Can walk, climb hills, sing, dance, and interact with voice. Recently, after being reported by CCTV Financial Live, it was on fire.
Of course, this dog is not the other dog.
Gotha's academic name is quadruped robot, independently developed by Chengdu's local R&D team Drew Power, which is a family companion robot dog.
What does this "fire out of the circle" robot dog look like? On December 13, the Red Star News reporter led it and slipped around in a park in The Chengdu High-tech Zone...
▲ Robot dog Gotha
See strange:
It will be priced at about 20,000 units in the future, and there are currently nearly 1,000 bookings worldwide
"Gottha Gotha, follow me."
Smooth metal waist, 36 kg weight, "just turned one year old". At the reporter's command, Gotha held his head high, his four legs clattering, and followed him with a proud step. The reporter goes straight, it goes straight; the reporter stops, it stops; the reporter turns, and it turns with it.
Can you imagine the result of going out for a walk with such a robotic dog?
On the afternoon of the 13th, when the Red Star News reporter walked around with Gotha in a park in Chengdu High-tech Zone, people kept coming around. Strange passers-by took photos of it, and there were also "technical houses" and staff to discuss the technology behind it.
▲ Prototype of the robot dog being tested
Gotha is the first generation of robot dogs in the civilian consumption field launched by Drew Dynamics, and the concept mechanism was completed in September last year. In addition to basic walking and retreating, gota will also have a lot, such as climbing, lying down, squatting, twisting, playing music, etc., the fastest movement speed can reach 3.5 meters per second.
In Drew Dynamics' research room, there are several prototype robot dogs. These robot dogs differ from The Gotha in that they weigh less (about 17 kg) and have different functions.
Under the operation of the researchers, a robot dog slowly squatted down, caught off guard, and the reporter and his party were shocked and retreated. At the end, it squatted on the ground with its front paws off the ground, and its front paws overlapped to make a "Wishing you prosperity" motion.
"It can cater to some specific scenarios, such as family companionship, but it is still far from the ideal robot dog in our hearts." Drew Dynamics CEO Li Student admitted that due to joint restrictions, its walking posture is still not natural enough, and it has a strong sense of machinery when doing some movements. But he believes that with the upgrading of technology and the iteration of versions, in the future, robot dogs will become more and more flexible.
▲ The staff is debugging the software
Such a high-end version of the robot dog for family scenarios, the first batch of global bookings of nearly 1,000 orders, "most of the users are senior technical houses, high-income groups", is scheduled to start delivery early next year.
"The future robot dog must be an AI agent with emotional communication ability, it can not only handle simple work, but also achieve real-time collaboration and communication with humans, which is also the direction of Gotha." He mentioned that with the iteration of technology, the robot dogs that are truly delivered will have more humanized functions. For example, after returning home, it will run around the owner like a real dog, and achieve the effect of only "recognizing" the owner through visual technology. "But it's smarter than a real dog." For example, it will be bound to a variety of in vitro smart devices to monitor the owner's physical health at any time and remind the owner to exercise. When the owner is not at home, it can also patrol the house, warn when it finds gas leaks, foreign body intrusion, and so on.
Li student expects that in the next 3 to 5 years, with the outbreak of market demand, the price of Drew Power's low-end robot dogs for families will drop to 20,000 to 30,000 yuan.
Talking about the future:
Expect the robot dog to truly integrate into the social scene and become a part of life
In addition to products such as Gotha in the field of civil consumption, the government and industry use are the main markets of Drew Power.
Student Li said that AI robot solutions are widely used, human repetitive work can be replaced, human beings are difficult to reach dangerous scenes, and robots can also be replaced. For example, some specific scenarios, such as fire fighting, are a greater threat to human life, and robots can replace firefighters in local areas to detect fires and reduce risks. "Of course, with the current degree of AI robot technology, it can only be partially replaced." He said.
The intelligent robot solutions provided by Drew Power have been implemented in the fields of public security fire protection, petrochemical industry, and public utilities. For example, the complete set of technical equipment for embankment hazard inspection based on bionic robot dogs cooperated with the fire rescue team realizes the automatic identification of common dangers such as leakage, pipe surge, landslide and collapse through intelligent identification technology, perception technology, adaptive regularization model prediction and control technology of embankment danger, etc., instead of traditional manual inspection of embankments, and reduces risks.
▲ Drew Power
As for why to do a four-legged robot, in addition to achieving commercial landing, "fun" is also one of the reasons why Li students do four-legged robots.
Drew Dynamics' entrepreneurial history dates back to 9 years ago, and its predecessor was chengdu Moyun Technology X Lab, which focused on robot perception intelligence and cognitive intelligence, which was established in 2013. In 2018, in response to the pain points of the industry where wheeled robots cannot work in complex local terrain, Li students proposed the idea of developing foot robots. In the same year, Drew Power integrated the previous technical accumulation such as hearing, vision, control, perception and other core technologies to a product of the robot dog, and a year later, a prototype machine was born, which is the Gotha we later saw.
Applications for family scenarios, robot dog products that focus on emotional companionship, and landing in the industry are the two key directions for Drew Power's future. In addition, Li student said that this track is too big and too difficult, and it is difficult to rely on one or two companies to excavate the application of robot business scenarios. "So we are more inclined to be an enabling platform company and integrate the industry."
Regarding the future, he said, what can be expected is that the robot dog will truly integrate into the social scene and become a part of life. For example, medical institutions have customized a number of small robot dogs to replace some of the work of medical personnel, such as checking the progress of infusion, supervising the physical condition of patients, and so on. There are also relevant departments that plan to customize a number of patrol dogs, using big data, face recognition and other technologies to cooperate with staff to conduct security patrols in the streets. They also plan to work with the Chengdu community to provide guide dog services for special groups such as the visually impaired.
"In the future, the dog that everyone hangs out on the street may be a robot dog." He said that such a scenario, with the advancement of technology, may also be realized.
Red Star News reporter Peng Xiangping photojournalist Lu Guoying
Edited by Chai Chang
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