Robots move towards 'human'

In just a few decades of development, robots have adapted to and can execute complex and diverse instructions. Now, empowered by AI, they are developing towards more advanced humanoid robot forms, perhaps in the near future. , will also be responsible for the continuation of carbon-based life.

文 | Ji Sheng

Source | "Manager" Magazine

On August 16, 2023, Beijing successfully hosted the World Robot Conference. There are more than 140 companies participating in this exhibition, and nearly 600 robot products are on display. Among them, there are more than 10 humanoid robot companies participating in the exhibition. Compared with only one company in previous years, the growth rate can be described as geometric

In addition, just before the exhibition, Beijing issued the "Several Measures to Promote the Innovation and Development of the Robot Industry" policy, including the establishment of a 10 billion yuan robot industry fund, and also mentioned the establishment of a humanoid robot innovation center. Does this mean that humanoid robots will soon What about ushering in the moment of development when "a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend"?

In the production activities of human society, repetitive labor or dangerous jobs often occur, such as assembly lines in factories, daily transportation, security monitoring and patrols, dangerous goods production and inspection, etc. So is there a tool that can How about helping people get rid of these repetitive, mechanical, tedious and dangerous jobs, and thereby liberate productivity? In this context, robots that replace humans in completing some daily instructions emerged at the historic moment, and have developed rapidly under the stimulation of huge social needs.

Since the creation and use of the first industrial robot in the 1960s, the development history of the robot industry has been less than a hundred years, which is insignificant compared with the thousands of years of human civilization. However, in these short decades, robots have The industry has undergone earth-shaking changes, and there are countless types of corresponding robots. For example, industrial robots that meet the needs of manufacturing, service robots that serve daily life, special robots that deal with special scenes, and bionic robots that draw on perfect life systems...

From an economic point of view, demand can be created. Robots serve as a “jack-of-all-trades” tool that can help meet demand faster, and the size of the robotics market is difficult to estimate. In addition, humanoid robots, as a special type of bionic robot, will push various types of robots to eventually return to the humanoid foundation in today's social environment where humans are the basic unit, which will lay the core trend for the future development of robots

At this stage, there is no official unified definition and relevant standards for the description of humanoid robots on the market. In the author's opinion, the key to humanoid robots is "people". To become the incarnation of human beings, in addition to completing tasks that humans can basically complete In addition, it must do things that humans cannot currently do. To fulfill the above requirements, humanoid robots must have a sufficiently intelligent and flexible "brain body" so that they can better match the execution of "humans" standard.

The control core of the humanoid robot is called the "brain", which is responsible for processing signals such as the robot's perception, motion control, scheduling and coordination. This is the core criterion for measuring the intelligence of humanoid robots. In the trend of rapid development of artificial intelligence in 2023, more and more companies are applying large AI models to humanoid robots, making it an important technology transformation scenario for embodied intelligence. Although this technology is currently being questioned, it plays an important role in solving the logical understanding, visual perception and movement coordination abilities of humanoid robots. With the strengthening of basic AI large model simulation training, humanoid robots will be able to achieve more advanced high-dimensional perception of movement in 3D space, and are not limited to basic walking and simple task execution functions

With the support of a human-like "brain", the rapid implementation of humanoid robots also requires a strong "body", that is, the hardware level of humanoid robots must also be solved. The first is to solve the dynamic balance, which will put forward higher requirements for the motion control system of humanoid robots to realize the perception and detection of the surrounding environment, whole-body motion planning, joint motion control, overall coordination and scheduling, etc. At this stage, the motion control system mainly consists of motion controllers, servo systems (drivers and motors), feedback sensors, and numerous actuators. The initially developed industrial robots have a strong dependence on the use of this system, so that in this system The technical foundation in the field is relatively sufficient, and the subsequent development trend is gradually turning to the integration of drive and control, achieving higher efficiency by increasing flexibility, which also makes the development of humanoid robots take fewer detours

Secondly, with the support of the brain and flexible mobility, efforts are made to create the five senses of humanoid robots. Currently, one of the five senses of humanoid robots, vision, mainly uses 3D vision sensors, lidar, etc. The technology in this area is not yet mature, and it is not yet mature. Continuous iterative upgrades are required; the haptic mainly uses force sensor solutions. According to data released by Blue Point Touch, the six-dimensional force sensor at the end of the humanoid robot has a range of 1000N, and the force measurement accuracy is within five thousandths (5N deviation), that is, It is within an acceptable range, but further research and development is still needed; in terms of taste and smell, it is revealed that Samsung’s “Semicon humanoid robot” plan will allow robots to have human-like smell and taste capabilities; as for hearing, current technology has basically achieved it its needs. In addition, the sixth sense in addition to the five basic senses requires continuous upgrading and iteration of the "brain and body" in order to have a chance to be realized.

The underlying technical logic of humanoid robots is constantly being overcome. Stimulated by the vast blue ocean market, companies have also begun to rush to lay out the humanoid robot track. At the 2023 Beijing World Robot Exhibition, participating in the exhibition of humanoid robot products There are more than 10 companies, and the summary of humanoid machine product parameters released by three companies is shown in Figure 1. It can be found that the "brain" of the humanoid robot at the software level and the "body" at the hardware level have achieved breakthroughs from 1 to N. Among them, more and more companies are beginning to shift their focus from motion planning to motion decision-making, that is, they are more inclined to develop the "brain" of humanoid robots. For example, Zhiyuan Robot's EI-Brain architecture combines the robot's The thinking system is divided into cloud super brain, terminal brain, cerebellum and brainstem, which implement different levels of instructions respectively, and continuously strengthen self-learning capabilities during the execution of instructions.

Since the creation of robots, people have never stopped imagining and developing humanoid robots. In the early stages of development, humanoid robots could only achieve walking functions and lacked more flexibility and intelligence. It could be said to be a body without a "soul". However, driven by the rapid development of technology, it is necessary to solve the shortcomings of humanoid robots. There are endless means, and the original impossibility gradually becomes possible. Nowadays, the basic development elements of humanoid robots have been gathered together, and the "robot revolution" that was once out of reach may be quietly coming!

This article is for knowledge sharing only and does not constitute the provision or reliance on investment, accounting, legal or tax advice. Any investment decisions based on this information are at your own risk.

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