Continuing the momentum set by the GPT-enhanced Figure 01 humanoid that captured our attention last month, UBTech from China has teamed up with Baidu to empower its latest industrial Walker S humanoid with natural speech and real-time reasoning abilities. Founded in 2012 in Shenzhen, UBTech made its debut in the humanoid market a few years later, albeit with a pint-sized toy bot. In 2016, hundreds of Alpha Bots engaged in a dance-off, while a Dobi variant entered the Guinness World Records in 2017 with over a thousand bipeds synchronized in motion. Last year, UBTech showcased its educational prowess through a crowdfunded robot build kit, enabling young scientists to construct seven bots. However, today's spotlight is on a variant of the company's full-size Walker service bot, initially demonstrated at CES 2018.[1]

Figure 1. UBTech's Walker S Humanoid: Leveraging Baidu's ERNIE Bot AI for Dynamic Conversations.

Figure 1 Shows UBTech's Walker S Humanoid: Leveraging Baidu's ERNIE Bot AI for Dynamic Conversations The new Walker S shared the stage with executives in Hong Kong late last year to celebrate the company's listing on the stock exchange. Now, it aims to rival the capabilities of Figure 01, Eve, and Phoenix by showcasing its conversational, folding, and pick-and-place skills. Thanks to Baidu's ERNIE Bot multi-modal AI platform, the Walker S possesses natural conversation capabilities. The response time between human vocal prompts and the robot's replies appears comparable, if not quicker, than Figure's GPT-enhanced demo in mid-March. The integration of ERNIE Bot and variable learning models enables the Walker S to discern tasks and execute them. While its folding technique may not match a human sales assistant's precision, it demonstrates versatility in real-time task completion. Similarly, the pick-and-place demo highlights the robot's adaptability, efficiently correcting misplaced items without fuss. Although the Walker S may currently lag behind human workers in task completion speed, its tireless, compliant, and precise operation presents a compelling proposition for manufacturers. UBTech introduced the Walker S last year for industrial applications, forging partnerships with various automakers, including NIO, to implement humanoid robots strategically in manufacturing settings. While the new bot is not yet featured on the company's website, its design resembles a fusion of Optimus and Figure 01. Sporting swirling circular visuals for the face and onboard depth sensors, vision cameras, and 3D object recognition, the Walker S navigates its environment adeptly, even boasting Snap-On human-like hands for object manipulation.[2] UBTech's collaboration with Baidu marks just the beginning of its AI-enhanced journey. It will be fascinating to compare ERNIE Bot with GPT on Figure's 01 humanoid and anticipate the advancements resulting from NVIDIA's entry into this space. Given the rapid pace of development, remarkable strides in technology and capabilities seem imminent..

Reference:

1. https://newatlas.com/robotics/ubtech-walker-s-humanoid-baidu-ernie-bot/
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MRDF2pkIRs&t=10s

Cite this article:

Gokila G (2024), Advancing Humanoids: Ubtech's Walker S Equipped with Conversational AI, Anatechmaz, pp.397