Who will win the Humanoid Robot Development Competition?

It's a bright spring morning in Hanover, Germany, and I'm about to meet a robot.

I was invited to see G1, a humanoid robot built by the Chinese company, Unitree, in Hannover Messe, one of the largest industrial trade exhibitions in the world.

Standing at about 4'3 “(130 cm), G1 is smaller and more accessible than other humanoid robots on the market and has such a strong liquid range of movement and dexterity that videos of it performing dance numbers and Martial arts have passed viralS

Today, G1 is controlled remotely by Pedro Zheng, Unitree Sales Manager.

He explains that customers should program each G1 for autonomous features.

Passing stops and actively try to engage with G1, which cannot be said of many other machines that appear in the cavernous conference room.

They reached to squeeze his hand, to make sudden movements to see if he reacts, we laugh when the G1 waves or bend back, apologize if they come across it. There is something in his human form, which, strangely, facilitates people.

Unitree is just one of dozens of companies around the world developing robots that have human form.

The potential is huge – for the business, it promises a workforce that does not need holidays or paying up.

This can also be the best home appliance. After all, which would not want a machine that can do laundry and arrange the dishwasher.

But technology is still some excluded. While robotic weapons and mobile robots have been common in factories and warehouses for decades, the conditions of these jobs can be controlled and workers can be saved.

The introduction of a humanoid robot in a less predictable environment, such as a restaurant or home, is a much more difficult problem.

In order for humanoid robots to be useful, they must be strong, but that also makes them potentially dangerous – just falling at the wrong time can be dangerous.

There is so much work to do on artificial intelligence to control such a machine.

“Ai has just not yet reached a breakthrough moment,” says a BBC spokesman.

“Today's AI robot finds major logic and reasoning – such as understanding and performing complex tasks in a logical way – challenge,” they said.

Currently, their G1 is available on the market in research institutions and technology companies that can use Unitree Open Software for Development.

So far, entrepreneurs are focusing their efforts on humanoid robots for warehouses and factories.

The highest profile of them is Elon Musk. His car company Tesla develops a humanoid robot called Optimus. In January he said This year, a few thousand will be built and he expects them to do “useful things” in Tesla factories.

Other car manufacturers follow a similar path. BMW Humanoid robots recently introduced to an American factory. Meanwhile the South Korean Automobile Company Hyundai has ordered tens of thousands From robots from Boston Dynamics, the robot company, which it bought in 2021.

Thomas Anderson, the founder of the StiQ research firm, tracks 49 companies developing humanoid robots – those with two hands and feet. If you extend the definition of robots with two weapons but are driven on wheels, it looks at more than 100 companies.

Anderson believes Chinese companies are likely to dominate the market.

“The supply chain and the entire robotics ecosystem are huge in China. In China, it is really easy to intersect for development and to do research and development (research and development),” he says.

Unitree emphasizes this advantage – its G1 is cheap (for a robot) with an advertised price of $ 16,000 (12,500 British pounds).

Also, according to G -n Anderson, the investment favors Asian nations.

In a recent report stiq notes The fact that almost 60% of all funding for humanoid robots has been raised in Asia, with the US attracting the bigger part of the others.

Chinese companies have an additional benefit from the support of national and local authorities.

For example, there are in Shanghai A training facility supported by the state For robots, where dozens of humanoid robots learn to perform tasks.

So how can we and European robot manufacturers compete with this?

Bristol-based Bren Pierce has founded three robotic companies, and the latest, Kinisi has just launched the KR1 robot.

While the robot is designed and developed in the UK, it will be manufactured in Asia.

“The problem you receive as a European or American company must buy all these sub -opponents from China first.

“So then it becomes foolish to buy the bikes, buy batteries, buy the resistors, move them all over the world to get together when you can just collect them together on the source that is in Asia.”

In addition to making its robots in Asia, G -N Pierce reduces costs without dealing with the full humanoid form.

Designed for warehouses and factories, KR1 has no legs.

“All these places have flat floors. Why would you like the extra cost of a very complex form factor … When you can just put it on a mobile base?” he asks.

Where possible, its KR1 is built with mass -produced components – the wheels are the same as you would find on an electric scooter.

“My philosophy is to buy as many things as possible. So all our engines, batteries, computers, cameras, all of them are available on the commercial network, massively manufactured,” he says.

Like its competitors at Unitree, G -N -Pierce says the real “secret sauce” is the software that allows the robot to work with people.

“Many companies come up with a very high -tech robots, but then you start to need a doctoral degree in robotics so you can actually install and use it.

“What we are trying to design is very simple to use a robot, where your middle warehouse or factory worker can actually learn how to use it for a few hours,” says G -N Pierce.

He says KR1 can accomplish a task after being guided by a person 20 or 30 times.

KR1 will be given to the pilot's customers to test this year.

Will robots break out of the factories in the home? Even the optimistic G -n -pierce says it's very far away.

“My long -term dream of the last 20 years is to build a robot for everything.

“I still think they will be there in the end, but I think it's at least 10 to 15 years.”