Humanoid Robots current status and vendors

Humanoid Robot

You are advised to also refer to my post of: “Robot industry current status and application

Potential market

Digitimes believes that with technological breakthroughs and cost reductions in AI, sensors, materials, etc., coupled with the impact of labor shortages, the global humanoid robot industry is accelerating development, and humanoid robots will usher in explosive maturity in the next five to ten years. It is estimated that by 2035, it will create an output value of nearly US$26 billion.

Famous vendors

Unitree Robotics

Company Profile

Unitree Robotics was founded by Wang Xingxing in 2016. The founder previously worked at DJI. When it was first established, it had only 4 employees. It took it one year to develop the motor, motor drive and main control, the entire mechanical structure and a completely reconstructed control system, and released the world’s first consumer-grade quadruped robot Laikago (also known as a robot dog), with a retail price of 20,000 RMB.

Investors

At the beginning of 2024, Unitree Robotics announced the completion of a B2 round of financing of nearly 1 billion yuan. Investors included Meituan, Jinshi Investment, Source Code, and old shareholders Shenzhen Capital Group, China Internet Investment, Rongyi, Dunhong and Mida Junshi followed suit. Some analysts believe that Unitree Robotics’ valuation has exceeded RMB 10 billion.

Market share

Unitree Robotics’ sales share in the global quadruped robot market in 2023 is 69.75%, and its market size share is 40.65%.

High cost performance ratio

One of the reasons why Unitree Robotics are so popular is that they are “price-performance” ratio. The lowest price of a Unitree Robotics quadruped robot is currently RMB 9,000, which is very cost-effective compared to other humanoid robots that cost hundreds of thousands or even millions of yuan (Tesla Optimus Prime is estimated to be over US$20,000).

Generations

In 2019, the improved version of Laikago, AlienGo, was released. It was the world’s largest robot at that time in terms of size and volume, and could perform backflips. In the following years, quadruped robots such as UnitreeA1, UnitreeGo1, B1, GO2, B2, and B2-W were released one after another, targeting fields including industrial robots with main uses such as security inspection and public rescue, as well as consumer-grade robots for the general public.

In May 2024, Unitree Robotics released a new product G1. It can cook and fry eggs, crack walnuts with its bare hands, and split a Coke bottle with one palm. Its walking and running gait has been significantly upgraded. It can move freely on the streets and stone ground, and can even run sideways on slopes while maintaining balance. Netizens call it “the most powerful robot on the earth.”

The wheeled version of the B2 robot dog series. In the video, we can see that the B2-W, which can be called a “special dog”, can not only do backflips and quick 360-degree rotation jumps, but can also smoothly cross obstacles with side flips, freely shuttle through rugged woods and steep slopes, and carry an adult man up and down slopes, and can even jump from the roof of a 2.8-meter building without any damage.

According to the official introduction of Unitree Robotics, this robot dog can work continuously for more than 5 hours without any load, with a maximum speed of 20 kilometers per hour, can walk 120 kilometers when upright and with maximum load, and has a maximum cruising range of 50 kilometers when carrying a load of 40 kilograms. According to the official website, this robot dog costs about US$150,000.

Main achievements

Unitree Robotics can imitate Cristiano Ronaldo and Kobe Bryant! NVIDIA’s new model empowers greater action. The demonstration video of its robot dog product B2-W, which spins, jumps and does backflips, caused a sensation around the world, and even Tesla CEO Elon Musk retweeted the video.

Unitree Robotics’ robots will appear on China Central Television’s Spring Festival Gala in 2025, performing the Yangko dance. The flexible robotic arm waved the handkerchief, and the series of movements amazed the outside world.

Figure AI

Compaby profile

Figure AI is an American humanoid robot company founded in 2022 by Archer Aviation, Vettery, and Brett Adcock. The company’s team consists of experts from the fields of robotics, artificial intelligence, sensing, perception and navigation, integrating the experience of well-known companies such as Boston Dynamics and Tesla.

Product

In 2022, the company launched its prototype Figure 01, a bipedal robot designed for manual labor and initially targeted at the logistics and warehousing sectors.

Gorgeous investors

Notable investors in Figure AI include Jeff Bezos, Microsoft, Nvidia, Intel and the startup financing arms of Amazon and OpenAI. , Figure AI raised $675 million at a $2.6 billion valuation.

Outlook and vision

Brett Adcock, founder of Figure AI, once said:

  • Robots will be in every home within 3 years.
  • The founders predict that there will be as many as 10 billion humanoid robots on the market by 2040.

Famous customers

Figure announces deal with BMW! Humanoid robots will be used in U.S. factories to make coffee on their own. In August 2024, BMW said that Figure 02 was in trial operation at its Spartanburg plant in the United States.

Optimus

Tesla Bot (Optimus)

Brett Adcock, founder of the Figure AI, also mentioned the Optimus humanoid robot and expressed that he was very excited about Musk’s achievements in the past two or three decades. He also believed that Musk will become Figure AI’s real competitor in the field of robotics.

Optimus in my book

In sections 5-8 of my book “The Rules of 10 Baggers“, I introduce Tesla-related companies in great detail, among which Tesla’s Tesla Bot (Optimus) humanoid robot is a major focus. In order to avoid duplication of content, the content mentioned in the book will not be repeated here.

Boston Dynamics

Company Profile

Boston Dynamics is an American engineering and robotics design company that became independent from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992.

ownership changed hands again and again

In December 2013, Boston Dynamics was acquired by Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet. In June 2017, SoftBank acquired Boston Dynamics from Alphabet’s Google. In June 2021, Hyundai announced that it would officially acquire a controlling stake in Boston Dynamics from SoftBank.

Most famous product

The company’s famous products include the Boston Mechanical Dog, a four-legged robot developed for the U.S. military with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Agility Robotics

Digit Robot

The flagship product of Agility Robotics is the “Digit” (meaning digital) robot. Its ordinary body is 175 centimeters tall, but it has a pair of animal-like hind legs. This allows it to squat, pick up items from the floor, and lift them to a height of nearly 180 centimeters.

Goal

Agility Robotics has great confidence in “Digit”. They are also expanding their robot production plant and have the ability to produce more than 10,000 robots per year.

Customers

As early as 2019, it was trialled in cooperation with the Ford Group to deliver packages to homes.

In 2023, “Diget” will launch an experimental business in the warehouse where the women’s clothing brand Spanx handles orders. The robot recognizes the QR code to determine where to move the boxes and where to put them down.

As part of Amazon’s automated warehousing plan, in March 2024, Amazon adopted Agility Robotics ‘ Digit robot, which can move boxes with its hands and walk on its feet. It is very similar to scenes in science fiction movies. Digit can lift 16 KG weight package can be driven in almost all directions, including up and down stairs and uneven terrain.

Nvidia

Company view on humanoid robots

Jen-Hsun Huang recently said in an interview that robotics technology will make major breakthroughs in the next 2-3 years, predicting that humanoid robots will become as common as today’s cars. He said that humanoid robots will be ubiquitous in 100 years and may become the most prolific machine system in human history.

Nvidia’s efforts on humanoid robots

At the GTC conference in March 2024, Huang Renxun demonstrated a variety of humanoid robots and announced the Project GR00T plan, which combines the latest architecture of the AI ​​chip Blackwell through the new computing platform Jetson Thor, and the AI ​​chip specially designed for The basic model of robotic arm design, Isaac Manipulator, and the AI ​​visual recognition Isaac Perceptor for autonomous mobile robots (AMR) improve the robot’s cognitive ability of human behavior to perform complex tasks. And enhance the naturalness of human-machine interaction.

Humanoid robot

Robots are a combination of AI, sensors, and actuators. Nvidia has established a research department, GEAR, dedicated to realizing intelligent applications across multiple modalities and multiple scenarios. It will accelerate research and development that can adapt to various environments, possess a wide range of skills, and be able to operate in virtual environments. and intelligent agents that operate effectively in the real world, promoting the continued progress and development of the entire artificial intelligence and robotics industry.

The company is delving deeper into the robot game, launching a new base model of its humanoid robot called Project GR00T. The basic model is an artificial intelligence system trained with a large amount of data and can be used for various tasks from generating sentences to videos and images. According to Nvidia, the GR00T project will help humanoid robots understand natural language and imitate movements by observing human behavior – quickly learning coordination, flexibility and other skills in order to navigate, adapt to and interact with the real world.

Artificial intelligence

All robots, without exception, require the integration of artificial intelligence to varying degrees to enhance the robot’s capabilities. It is not an exaggeration to say that the degree of integration of artificial intelligence determines the capabilities of a robot.

Humanoid Robot
credit: Ideogram

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