Who will win the race to develop a human robot?

It is a bright spring morning in Hanover, Germany, and I am on my way to meet a robot.

I was invited to see the G1, a human robot built by a Chinese company, Unitree, at Hannover Messenger, one of the largest industrial commercial exhibitions in the world.

G1 stands at about 4’3 “(130 cm), G1 is smaller and more affordable than other human robots in the market, and it has a high range of movement and ingenuity that performs dance numbers, dance numbers and performance numbers and their performance The arts of fighting became viral.

Today the G1 is controlled by remoteness by PEDRO Zheng, UNITEE Sales Manager.

He explains that customers must program all G1 for independent jobs.

Pares stop and try to actively communicate with the G1, which cannot be said to many other machines that are displayed in the Capeat Conference Hall.

They communicate to shake her hand, make sudden movements to see if she will respond, laugh when G1 waves or bending back, and apologize if they collide with them. There is something about its human form, which is strange as it is, putting people in comfort.

UNitree is just one of dozens of companies all over the world to develop robots that have a human form.

The possibilities are huge – for business, it is prepared by the working power that does not need leave or rises.

It can also be the final local system. After all, who does not want a machine can do laundry and stretch the dishwasher.

But technology is still far. While automatic weapons and mobile robots were common in factories and warehouses for decades, conditions can be controlled in these workplaces and workers can keep safely.

Providing a human robot to a less predictable environment, such as the restaurant or home, is a more difficult problem.

In order for the useful human robots to be strong, but this also makes them dangerous – it may simply fall into the wrong time.

A lot of work should be done on artificial intelligence that will control such a device.

“AI did not simply reach the moment of penetration,” BBC told BBC.

They said: “Robot Ai finds today logic and basic thinking – such as understanding and completing complex tasks in a logical way – a challenge.”

Currently, their G1 is marketed in research institutions and technology companies, which can use the Unitree Open Source for Development.

Currently, entrepreneurs focus on their efforts on the human robots of warehouses and factories.

The highest appearance of these is Elon Musk. Its car company, Tesla, is developing a human robot called Optimus. In January he said “Several thousand” will be built this year and they are expected to do “useful things” in Tesla factories.

Other car makers follow a similar path. BMW Human robots recently presented For an American factory. Meanwhile, the South Korean auto company Hyundai I command tens of thousands Of the robots of Boston Dynamics, the robot company that I bought in 2021.

Thomas Anderson, founder of the Stiq Research Company, tracks 49 companies that develop human robots – those with weapons and legs. If you expand the definition of robots with two arms, but pushes themselves on wheels, it looks at more than 100 companies.

Mr. Anderson believes that Chinese companies are likely to dominate the market.

“The supply chain and the entire ecosystem of robots in China are really easy to repeat developments and research and development (research and development),” he says.

UNITREE confirms this feature – cheap G1 (for robot) at an announced price of $ 16,000 (12,500 pounds).

Also, Mr. Anderson notes that investment prefers Asian countries.

In a recent report StiQ notes Nearly 60 % of all financing for human robots has been collected in Asia, with the United States attracted most of the rest.

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

For example, in Shanghai there The state -backed training facility For robots, dozens of human robots learn to complete tasks.

How can we compete with the United States and European robots with that?

Bristol -based Bren Pierce founded three and the most recent robot companies, and Kennessee has just launched KR1 robot.

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

“The problem you get as a European or American company, you should buy all these sub -institutions from China in the first place.

“So, it becomes stupid to buy your engines, buy your batteries, buy your resistance, and turn them all in the middle of the road around the world to put them together when you can collect them all in the source, which is in Asia.”

In addition to making his robots in Asia, Mr. Pears maintains low costs by not going to the full human form.

Designed for warehouses and factories, KR1 has no legs.

“All these places have flat floors. Why do you want the added expenses for the very complex shape factor … when you can put them on a mobile base?” He asks.

Whereas as possible, its KR1 is designed with the components of large products – the wheels are the same that you will find on an electric scooter.

“My philosophy is to buy the largest possible number of things. So all our engines, batteries, computers, and cameras are all commercially available, and parts with large production.”

Like his competitors at Unitree, Mr. Pears says that the real “secret sauce” is the program that allows the robot to work with humans.

“Many companies come out high -tech robots, but then begin to need a PhD in robots to be able to already install and use.

“What we are trying to design is very simple to use a robot where the average warehouse or factory worker can actually learn how to use it within two hours,” says Mr. Pears.

He says that KR1 can perform a task after being directed by a person 20 or 30 times.

KR1 will be granted to experimental customers to test this year.

Will robots come out of factories to the house? Even the optimistic Mr. Pears says he is out of reach.

“A long -term dream over the past twenty years has been building a robot everything. This is what I was doing in my doctorate,” says Mr. Pears.

“I still think they will be there, but I think this is at least from 10 to 15 years.”