Humans are no longer needed. Robots have acquired a surprising ability

 

 

“The development of artificial intelligence has allowed humanoids to gain “brains” that allow them to acquire knowledge and information completely without human involvement.

Machines can now communicate with other machines to learn in this way – whether it is the rules for moving in a given area or the skills needed to perform a given task. This ability is a breakthrough in robotics, and the first applications of self-learning humanoids have been presented in China. Such intelligent machines work in factories there.

A breakthrough in the robot market. They are more efficient at work

The humanoid robot market in China is growing at a dizzying pace – according to forecasts, it will reach over 100 billion yuan (13.9 billion dollars) by 2030. For comparison, last year it was 2.76 billion yuan. Globally, as estimated by Goldman Sachs Research analysts, this market may reach as much as USD 205 billion in 2035. Today, however, China is the world leader in this technology.

Experts indicate that in this country and in the USA alone (the second largest market), the manufacturing sectors will need 1.1 and 0.6 million humanoid robots, respectively, in the next five years.

Researchers indicate that this industry is currently experiencing a transition from robots that can walk or jump to those that actually have the ability to work efficiently and, in terms of skills, can replace humans. Experience with such machines to date has not been the best.

The Walker S Lite prototype (a 135 cm tall humanoid) implemented by UBTech last year, for example, completed an internship at the Geely factory. It moved slowly, relied on QR codes for navigation, and its efficiency was only 20 percent compared to employees.

Planning routes or optimizing the speed of robots has become a challenge. Now, a breakthrough is taking place. The improved Walker S1 model is characterized not only by increased gait stability, hand dexterity, better vision systems, but also by an increased operational range by 30 percent and movement speed (increased by 25 percent). The robot has mastered tasks requiring millimeter precision, so it can work, for example, in quality control, but above all, it has learned to cooperate with other humanoids. The Chinese recently conducted a demonstration of the Walker S1, in which it synchronized actions with another robot to lift and transport crates, dynamically adjusting the route to avoid collisions. And all this based on knowledge and information acquired from the other machine.

At UBTech, they call this change "big brain - small brain". What is it about?

The Chinese have added "brains" to the robots

The "big brain" is a system powered by the Chinese open multimodal reasoning model - DeepSeek-R1. It is responsible for planning and allocating tasks.

The "small brain", on the other hand, manages movement control in real time, precisely through the so-called distributed learning.

The system – connected by a “hive mind” in the cloud – enables rapid transfer of skills. For example, a task learned by one robot can be immediately replicated across the entire fleet of machines.

Unlike humans, who require individual training, robots can – thanks to neural networks – share knowledge instantly. Geely engineers believe that such technology will allow for replacing relatively inflexible production with fully adaptive production.

The breakthrough is coming, and Walker S1 has been undergoing rigorous testing in various industries for several months.

For example, in BYD electric vehicle factories, these robots have doubled the efficiency of parts assembly, and their mass implementation is planned for the second quarter of this year. Humanoids also work at Foxconn in Shenzhen and at Audi plants in Changchun (where Walker S1 conducts air-conditioning leak tests).

Current models of humanoids are still not perfect – they require periodic charging, and are relatively expensive, which limits scalability.

UBTech claims that the answer to these challenges will be the next generation of robots.

Walker S2 is to have the ability to self-charge and greater dexterity.

 The Chinese company assures that these machines will not replace people or take their jobs. Their role is to be the function of "intelligent assistants" in the context of repetitive or dangerous tasks."

Right. Just believe it.