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A curated sampling of video-based coverage by global media outlets of the 2024 World Robot Conference, hosted annually for the last ten years by The People’s Government of Beijing Municipality, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China (MIIT), and China Association for Science and Technology (CAST). A game-changing quantitative metric from the conference: a humanoid robot showcased at the event is operating at 20% efficiency relative to a human worker on an assembly line, with the Chinese manufacturer of the humanoid robot predicting that they will achieve 100% efficiency within one to two years.
As described on the event website, “The People’s Government of Beijing Municipality, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People’s Republic of China (MIIT), and China Association for Science and Technology (CAST) jointly held the World Robot Conference (WRC) from 2015 to 2023 for eight consecutive years, with the permission of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China. It was a prestigious international conference in global robotic industry with the largest scale, the highest standards, and the most intensified resources. The conference pooled the wisdom of experts around the world, attracted to enterprises in the world and displayed the latest scientific and technological achievements, which had guiding significance for innovation and entrepreneurship. The conference had received care and guidance from leaders of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council. President Xi Jinping sent a letter of greetings, Premier Li Keqiang made a written reply, and Vice Premier Liu Yandong and Liu He attended the opening ceremony and relevant activities.”
At the 2024 World Robot Conference in Beijing, groundbreaking AI-powered humanoid robots showcased advanced capabilities like human-like interaction, industrial efficiency, and complex skill acquisition. These innovations highlight the rapid progress in robotics, with AI-driven robots increasingly working alongside humans in manufacturing, agriculture, and even entertainment. China’s leadership in robotics and the integration of AI models are driving the global evolution of humanoid robots, promising a future where robots significantly enhance productivity and safety across various industries.
This from Beijing World Robotics Congress, China looks far ahead in the race for humanoid robots. These look straight out of sci-fi.👀 pic.twitter.com/vRPcDpw8Ut
— AshutoshShrivastava (@ai_for_success) August 25, 2024
The Astribot S1 is a humanoid assistant robot developed by Stardust Intelligence. It was first seen carrying out tasks such as folding a shirt and pouring wine into a glass in a demo video that was released by the Chinese startup in April this year. At the conference, the Astribot S1 stationed at the booth was able to demonstrate its calligraphy skills to attendees, according to a report by Global Times.
NAVIAI, a humanoid robot built by the China-based Zhejiang Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, made its debut at the Beijing conference. It was reportedly seen flaunting unique skills such as delivering a speech, making tea, and playing chess. The 60 kilogram-heavy humanoid has been designed to adopt a quasi-human nature, according to the makers of NAVIAI.
In the run up to the conference, robotics startup Agibot revealed five new robots that are capable of making deliveries. The Shanghai-based venture which was founded by a former Huawei employee hopes to have the humanoids delivering items by mid-October while manufacturing a large batch of 300 robots. Besides delivery, these bots have also been designed to act as sales people, gallery guides or pickers of factory parts, according to CNBC.
Japanese company, UniX AI’s dual-arm humanoid robot on wheels, is intended to be used as a home service bot that helps out with household chores such as doing the laundry or cooking breakfast. For instance, Wanda is equipped with stain recognition and multi-motive primitive fusion tech that helps it wash the dishes. Wanda’s cooking skills in the kitchen were reportedly on display at the conference. Performing Chinese martial arts, playing a stringed musical instrument called the Zither, and opening soda cans were some of the other activities effortlessly carried out by robots at the Beijing conference.
Meanwhile, Tesla’s flagship Optimus humanoid robot also made an appearance at the World Robot Conference. However, the model reportedly sat motionless in a glass case as attendees clicked pictures of it. Recently, Elon Musk-owned Tesla began hiring people to wear motion capture suits and virtual reality (VR) headsets in order to train the humanoid. Earlier this year, Musk announced that two Optimus robots were already working autonomously at one of Tesla’s factories. In July, he posted on X that “Tesla will have genuinely useful humanoid robots in low production for Tesla internal use next year and, hopefully, high production for other companies in 2026.”
For an upcoming stateside gathering of the humanoid robotics innovation community, see Automate.org | Humanoid Robot Forum 2024: “Join us for an immersive exploration into the future of manufacturing with our groundbreaking Humanoid Robot Forum. Delve into the latest advancements, strategies, and applications of humanoid robotics, machine vision, and AI that are revolutionizing the industrial landscape.” Also see Autonomous Mobile Robots & Logistics Conference 2024: “Discover the latest advances in Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) technology and logistics automation at the AMR & Logistics Conference, sponsored by FedEx. Explore how these technologies can enhance efficiencies and competitiveness in your operations by engaging with industry leaders and top suppliers.”
Featured Image Source: Lonsdale Avenue
AUTOMATE 2024: OODA Loop was on the road this Spring, doing Field Research at Several Notable Spring 2024 Conferences – including Automate 2024 – North America’s largest robotics and automation event held in
Chicago, IL, in early May. The OODA Loop research team’s high-level takeaways can be found here.
Insights and Takeaways from Spring 2024 Conferences and Field Research Efforts: At the May 2024 OODA Network Member Meeting – held on Friday, May 17, 2024 – the network discussed their insights and takeaways from recent attendance of and field research at several notable spring 2024 conferences.
OODA Loop on the Road: Field Research at Several Notable Spring 2024 Conferences: The OODA Loop Team has been on the road this week, as we were invited by a few “communities of practice” to attend their annual conferences. Some are industry sectors, while most cut across all industry sectors and point to the future of exponential technology convergences of many sorts. We endeavored to get out into the field and get some direct feedback loops in areas not necessarily our core competencies or subject matter expertise. Add the following communities to your filtering and tracking efforts – and be on the lookout for the fruits of our field research efforts in OODA Loop research posts in the weeks ahead.
The Future of Automation In All Its Forms: In a series of posts entitled Autonomous Everything, we explored automation in all its technological forms, including legacy working assumptions about the term itself. Autonomy is not just for the future of the car and personal mobility but includes powerful platforms in a broad autonomous future. We began the series in June at the bleeding edge of autonomous vehicles, with a description of the first autonomous ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
Automation, as a subject for OODA Loop research and analysis, cuts a broad swath across many industry verticals. Specific areas of interest emerged that we thought would be of interest to the OODA Loop membership:
Security Automation: Specifically, automation is used for repetitive and time-consuming tasks related to external cyber threats and internal information technology security. What are the safety and risk variables of this type of IT-based automation?
Automation and the Workforce: How is this implemented, and what are the objectives? Efficiencies? Collaboration? Scalability? Cost-cutting? Innovation in operations? Does this type of automation always map back to a reduction in the workforce?
Automation—or Augmentation—of the workforce: The perennial debate surrounding robotics automation of the workforce is whether jobs will be 100% automated (with large-scale job elimination and job loss). Or will there always be a need for a human factor in certain industry verticals, translating into machine augmentation of certain tasks and operations, which a human operator would integrate into the robotics design?
Autonomous Vehicles as Automation: This one is a bit tricky, but think of an autonomous fleet of trucking vehicles, for example, as one automated system in a larger production and distribution ecosystem or supply chain. Where is the innovation at this economy of scale? How do the business issues differ, if at all, at this scale of operations?
Automation of AI/Machine Learning Training Models: Can and should machine learning models retrain automatically? Should there be a human touchpoint integrated into this retraining process, to guard against biases becoming embedded into an AI system and/or the risk of AI Accidents when retraining is left unsupervised prematurely?
Automation Case Studies: Where are the best-in-class examples of automation, in the federal space and the private sector, worth researching and analyzing for strategic insights?
Industry Standardization: Like TCP/IP (or any of the IEEE ISO standards), what are the emergent industry standards that will allow for seamless interoperability and widespread commercial scalability? Are some commercial releases operating in a ‘closed garden” architecture? If so, is there a clear competitive advantage to such an approach?
About the Author
Daniel Pereira is research director at OODA. He is a foresight strategist, creative technologist, and an information communication technology (ICT) and digital media researcher with 20+ years of experience directing public/private partnerships and strategic innovation initiatives.
Informing your decisions with actionable intelligence
Informing your decisions with actionable intelligence