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China’s robotics firm UBTech has partnered with Baidu to provide natural speech and real-time reasoning for its Walker S industrial humanoid robot.
The development comes on the heels of another firm, Figure, demonstrating how its AI robot, enabled with OpenAI’s ChatGPT-brain, helps it train at lightning speed.
Figure 01’s capabilities showed a significant shift towards humanoid robots seamlessly blending into human life. They can assist in daily tasks and contribute to industries like healthcare, manufacturing, and hospitality.
Now, using AppBuilder, the UBTech humanoid robot interfaces with Baidu’s Erine, its knowledge-enhanced large language model built on full AI stack technology.
The video shared by the firm demonstrates how Walker S can comprehend common language and carry out duties like sorting objects and folding clothes independently.
The new Walker S was one of two robots seen on stage in Hong Kong towards the end of the previous year to celebrate the company’s stock exchange listing.
Advancing bipedal robots
Based on its full-stack humanoid robot technologies, UBTech robotics has achieved large-scale implementation in a variety of industries. Since its inception in 2012, its products have catered to AI education, smart logistics, smart wellness and elderly care, and commercial services.
UBTech introduced the Walker S last year to serve industrial applications. In automaker NIO’s advanced vehicle manufacturing center, Walker S was recently brought to the assembly line as ann “intern” to help with production.
According to the firm, Walker S is the first bipedal humanoid robot to complete a specific workstation’s tasks on a mobile EV production line.
The company has not yet featured Walker S on its website; we believe it is an evolution of its service robot, Walker X.
The Walker X boasts an advanced four-eye system and dual RGBD sensors, offering unparalleled perception capabilities. Equipped with a Seven Degrees of Freedom (DoFs) robot arm and a six DoFs force-controlled human-like hand, it possesses advanced dexterity and precision in handling tasks.
According to UBTech, the humanoid’s superior object-scene recognition and sorting abilities ensure efficient operation in various environments. Moreover, Walker X can seamlessly interact with household appliances such as refrigerators, coffee machines, and vacuum cleaners, showcasing its versatility and practicality in everyday tasks.
Walker X also excels in flexibility and motion control, executing intricate movements with stability maintained through precise balance control. It can handle up to 22 pounds (10 kilograms) of weight or walk while carrying 6.6 pounds (3 kilograms) on each hand.
Walker S demonstrates advanced functionality
During demonstrations, Walker S showcased its ability to determine and execute required tasks, which Baidu’s Ernie LLM enabled.
The tasks included folding a t-shirt and handing it to the researcher. Notably, the robot even offers fashion advice. In a pick-and-place demonstration, Walker S exhibits real-time task flexibility, smoothly adjusting to changes made by a human operator.
As seen in the video, the humanoid is equipped with onboard depth sensors and vision cameras, which help it to perceive and navigate its surroundings effectively. Its advanced 3D object recognition capability enables seamless obstacle avoidance. Additionally, the inclusion of snap-on human-like hands enhances its dexterity for object manipulation tasks.
Promising advancements lie ahead with UBTech’s collaboration with Baidu and the integration of ChatGPT into humanoids like Figure 01. NVIDIA’s latest AI chips will further accelerate progress, leading to significant leaps in capabilities.
We can expect remarkable technological advancements as development continues at a rapid pace.
