Just like the development trend from desktop computers to personal computers to mobile phones, general-purpose humanoid robots will gradually become the mainstream of the industry in the future.
Text | Moving Point Technology
Author|Huang Chen Typesetting|Li Ruizi
This article is expected to be read for 7 minutes
A few months ago, NVIDIA founder Jensen Huang publicly stated that the next wave of AI will be "Embodied AI", as a vehicle for artificial intelligence to enter the physical world interaction, embodied intelligence combines artificial intelligence technology with robotic entities, is an intelligent system that can understand, reason and interact with the physical world. As an important partner and assistant to mankind, it will bring great convenience and benefits. Yesterday, at the opening ceremony of the 2023 WAIC (World Conference on Artificial Intelligence), Musk in the video once again stood for robots, believing that at some point in the future, the ratio of robots and humans may exceed 1:1, "which means that there will be more robots than humans, or even a lot more." This trend is already very clear... In a future with a large number of robots, global productivity will increase to incredible levels."
This year, with the addition of AI large models, embodied intelligence may open up new imagination space. At this year's WAIC, it is understood that more than 20 robots appeared at the same time, and some domestic enterprises and technical teams are actively exploring the research and development and application of embodied intelligent robots, in order to bring more intelligent and diversified interactive experience and life production application capabilities.
From exoskeleton robots to general-purpose humanoid robots
In 2017, Fourier Intelligent took the lead in releasing the first commercial lower limb exoskeleton robot in China, which opened the prototype exploration of humanoid robots in the form of bipedal robots. In 2019, its universal humanoid robot project was officially launched. With the successful application of rehabilitation robot technology in intelligent rehabilitation scenarios, Fourier Intelligent has gradually entered the field of general robots.
Unveiled at WAIC this time is the universal humanoid robot GR-1, which integrates Fourier Intelligence's years of self-developed technology. Its height is 1.65 meters, its weight is 55 kg, its whole body freedom is 40, the maximum joint module peak torque can reach 300NM, the walking speed can reach 5KM/h, and it can bear 50 kg.
"This robot has a highly bionic trunk configuration, anthropomorphic motion control, fast walking, agile obstacle avoidance, stable uphill and downhill, anti-impact interference and other motor functions, combined with cognitive intelligence, can complete actions in collaboration with people, and has great potential in industry, rehabilitation, home, scientific research and other application scenarios." Gu Jie, founder of Fourier Intelligence, told Motion Point.
GR-1 adopts electric drive technology, which can meet the motion needs of robots, has a high degree of accuracy and flexibility, is more cost-effective than hydraulic drive, has the advantages of commercial large-scale mass production, and also has advantages in energy saving and resource utilization. Judging from the released video, GR-1 has superior robot motion intelligence, and its motion performance has been able to adapt to different task needs and working environments.
In the process of research and development of exoskeleton robots, Fourier Intelligent has precipitated underlying technologies such as sensors, modular design, integrated actuators, and bionic mechanical structures, especially in the field of actuator joints. For robots, actuators are key to ensuring their flexible action and effective execution of tasks, which determine the strength, stability, load adaptability, and safety and reliability of the robot when performing various actions and tasks.
Gu Jie believes that only after breakthroughs in joint sensing, perception and execution can the robot complete various actions, including stability, strength and load capacity. "The core is that we have accumulated the core component capabilities of the robot on the exoskeleton line, as well as good algorithm control and motion ability design, so that it can show very good motor ability."
The last mile of AGI
As a concrete carrier of artificial intelligence, robots have received a lot of attention in the wave of AI in recent years. Reflected in the capital market, the A-share robot sector rose nearly 13% in the past quarter, and the increase in the past year exceeded 50%.
At the opening ceremony of this conference, Yao Zhizhi, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and dean of the Institute of Interdisciplinary Information Studies of Tsinghua University, mentioned that "reinforcement learning and embodied intelligence are a good technical development trend and can bring good development to intelligent robots." ”
In April, Xiaomi Group announced that it would invest 50 million yuan to set up a new robotics company to further expand its layout and development in the field of intelligent technology. It is understood that the company is served as the legal representative by Zeng Xuezhong, senior vice president of Xiaomi Group, president of the mobile phone department and vice chairman of the brand committee, and its business scope is industrial robot manufacturing and sales, service robot manufacturing and sales, intelligent robot research and development, artificial intelligence application software development, etc.
At the same time, Tencent Robotics X Lab also announced the latest robot research progress, showing for the first time the results in the field of dexterous operation, its dexterous hand TRX-Hand has the ability to operate as flexibly as a human hand, can adapt to different scenarios, flexibly plan actions, and complete operations independently. Not long ago, its self-developed multi-modal quadruped robot "Robot Dog Max" has been upgraded again, and its movements and behaviors are closer to real animals. Recently, Huawei established the "Polar Eye Machine" layout robot and intelligent manufacturing, with a registered capital of 870 million yuan, and its business scope includes electronic component manufacturing, engineering and technology research and experimental development. Previously, Huawei has obtained a new chatbot patent for "a system and method for human-machine dialogue", which shows that Huawei's chatbot program can generate replies based on topics. The establishment of Extreme Eye Machine this time is difficult not to speculate about Huawei's optimism about the robot industry. At the end of May, the relevant plan of Shenzhen mentioned accelerating the establishment of the Guangdong Humanoid Robot Manufacturing Innovation Center, while Beijing issued a plan to support the continuous exploration of new paths of general artificial intelligence such as general intelligence, embodied intelligence and brain-like intelligence, and break through the perception, cognition, and decision-making technology of robots under complex conditions such as open environments, generalized scenarios, and continuous tasks. Gu Jie said: "Robots are the last mile of general artificial intelligence. That is, it can serve as a real carrier for the next generation of artificial intelligence, especially humanoid robots. Since it will become a carrier, it may become a huge commercial future like mobile phones and electric vehicles. Whether it is Xiaomi, Tesla or NVIDIA, the giants are laying out this matter one after another, because as long as it can be generalized in the future, it will become a new terminal and platform. He explained that the launch of robot products now is not to catch up with hot spots, but to have a layout before. The various technologies previously precipitated from the rehabilitation field will continue to drive Fourier to build commercial humanoid robots with stronger athletic ability, and strive to become the setter of new platforms and new standards.
Guosheng Securities believes that intelligent robots are the largest application that can be implemented on the basis of AI large models. The combination of AI technology and robots will make up for the shortcomings of current robots in intelligence, ease of use and economy, and effectively improve the penetration rate of robots in various industries. In this regard, Gu Jie said bluntly, "Fourier Intelligent hopes to prepare the body of AI through this release." In terms of "brain", we very much hope to cooperate with more universities, teams and companies with the ability to commercialize AI large models to further debug and develop various application scenarios. ”
As the next generation of AI embodied intelligence, general-purpose humanoid robots are expected to lead AI into the "era of embodied intelligence", and will also promote the development of special-purpose robots in the direction of general-purpose robots. Gu Jie believes that just like the development trend from desktop computers to personal computers to mobile phones, general-purpose humanoid robots will gradually become the mainstream of the industry in the future. At present, the hardware foundation of general-purpose humanoid robots is basically laid, and the wave of applications driven by large models is coming. Feeling that the commercialization of general-purpose humanoid robots can be expected in the future, Fourier Intelligent has to seize the opportunity and gradually cut its development strategy into the field of trillion-level general-purpose robots.
This article is the original article of the reporter of Motion Point Technology, and shall not be reprinted without authorization, if you need to reprint or open a confession, please reply to "reprint" in the background.
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