BEIJING, June 30 (Xinhua) -- More than two decades ago, a student dreamed of building a robot. Now, a 1.65-meter-tall, 55-kilogram humanoid robot is striding forward with confidence. This robot, named GR-1, is slender and has a wide field of view, allowing it to easily avoid obstacles. It can wave at and greet you, and its fingers move with the dexterity of a real person. Developed independently by Fourier Intelligence, GR-1 is China's first commercialized, deliverable general-purpose humanoid robot.
The GR-1 robot can walk at a speed of up to 5 kph, carry loads of up to 50 kilograms, and adapt well to the environment. With sleek appearance, excellent motor skills, and Fourier Intelligence's high-quality mass production capabilities, the robot is attracting growing attention of worldwide industry insiders.
Over the past years, major developed countries around the world have been strengthening their network in the fields of whole-robot manufacturing, core components and AI technology for humanoid robots, and have elevated these efforts to the level of national strategy. At the same time, global industry giants have launched their own humanoid robot products, injecting strong momentum into the development of the industry. The robotics industry is ushering in an important period of opportunity.
The dream of over 20 years ago has become a reality, said Fourier Intelligence CEO Gu Jie. "Compared with today's myriad special-purpose robots, humanoid robots have stronger environmental adaptability and a wider range of application scenarios. Humanoid robots can also replace humans in specific work areas, such as patrolling nuclear power plants and power stations or greeting visitors. In these places where humans may find it dangerous or boring, humanoid robots can do a better job than humans," Gu Jie said.
The photo shows the application of a general-purpose humanoid robot in the healthcare sector. (Provided by Fourier Intelligence)
At a company conference in 2020, Gu Jie made a wish - "In the future, our humanoid robots will be the best in the world." With this passion, Fourier Intelligence has taken on the challenge in the field of general-purpose robots, which has higher technological difficulty, and gradually achieved self-research, self-production, and domestic replacement of core components, such as joint actuators, high-precision sensors, and intelligent control cards for general-purpose humanoid robots. Technological difficulties such as humanoid robot motion control, human-robot interaction, multi-robot collaboration and dexterous operation have been broken through one by one.
The photo shows the application of general-purpose humanoid robots in a scientific research and education scenario. (Provided by Fourier Intelligence)
As a carrier for AI technology to interact with the physical world, embodied intelligence combines AI with a physical robot, giving the "brain" a controllable, perceivable, interactive and mobile body. Such robots can become important partners and assistants for humans, bringing great convenience and benefits. The application scenarios of robots have gradually changed from "artificial" to "humanistic."
At present, Fourier Intelligence has begun to explore applications in the fields of healthcare and companionship, and has opened up underlying hardware and software technologies to universities, research institutions and users seeking other application scenarios for secondary development. This allows for jointly breaking through common key technologies in the humanoid robot industry and achieving constant upgrades.
In the future, humanoid robots are expected to recognize human emotions and play the role of companions for elderly people and children in family life, reducing the burden of caring for family members. Outdoors, humanoid robots can walk freely in complex terrain and show a stable working state in extreme environments. In hospitals, these robots can cooperate with humans to complete complex surgeries through precise control and high-definition three-dimensional vision systems, improving the success rate of surgeries and raising the speed of patient recovery. Humanoid robots will enter education, retail, services and other industries.
The photo shows the application of a general-purpose humanoid robot in a commercial service scenario. (Provided by Fourier Intelligence)
By the end of 2023, China had become the country with the largest number of patent applications and valid patents for humanoid robot technology, with a total of 6,618 applications. The explosive growth of patent technologies reflects the increasingly mature industrial chain of China's humanoid robot industry.
The existence of humanoid robots will enrich human life, deeply change the way humans live and work, and promote the progress of the entire society, leaving a brilliant mark in the long course of human civilization. As stated in the Bletchley Declaration released at the first AI Safety Summit, "AI presents enormous global opportunities; it has the potential to transform and enhance human well-being, peace and prosperity. AI systems are already deployed across many domains of daily life." (Wang Xiaowen)
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