With the in-depth development of China’s digital economy, the process of industrial digitalization is accelerating, and the proportion of big data in industrial decision-making is increasing. Tianyan Research Institute hereby launches the “Tianyan New Knowledge” column, based on Tianyan Research big data, sorts out the industrial pattern and development context, interprets the latest trends and investment and financing trends in the industrial field, and provides references for decision-making of all parties.

Robots, most people’s first “close contact” originated from science fiction movies, from the endless imagination beyond real life, robots gradually evolved from “simple tools” to “intimate partners”.

The “big model” that exploded at the beginning of the year and the humanoid robot that “went viral” again let people once again cry out that technology has changed the way of life.

In the future, with the continuous maturity of AI technology and breakthroughs in the research and development of humanoid robots, the “vision of robots entering the lives of ordinary people” is getting closer and closer to reality.

Robot: from “automation” to “intelligent” evolution

The International Federation ofRobotics (IFR) proposes that a robot is a drive mechanism that can be programmed on two or more axes, with a degree of autonomy, moving in a specific environment to perform a predetermined task.

1. Robot application scenarios are gradually moving from “simple and primary” to “complex and advanced”

The core function of the initial robot is to replace people to carry out repetitive and dangerous work, while improving efficiency and accuracy; After that, robots with the function of “serving people” came into people’s eyes, which were used to welcome guests, receive and other scenes closer to humans, and entertainment/sweeping robots entered the family on a large scale; Then its high-precision characteristics are used in logistics, medical, automatic pick-up, auxiliary care robots began to appear.

2. The robot is gradually evolving from “automation” to “intelligence”

The development of robots has experienced three generations of evolution. The first generation is programmed robot: the action instructions are input into the robot through programming or teaching, but due to the lack of external sensors, the robot can only complete the actions prescribed by the program rigorously. Once the environment changes slightly, the robot will have problems in its work. The second generation of adaptive robots: it has sensors such as vision and force perception, and can adjust the working state according to the information obtained by the sensors; the third generation of intelligent robots: it has a richer set of sensors, which can not only acquire and process external comprehensive information, but also make its own action goals according to it. Its intelligence is mainly reflected in three aspects: perceptual interaction, independent decision-making, and self-optimization.

Second, large model: multiple cities continue to make efforts to attack general artificial intelligence

In April 2023, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee pointed out that we should pay attention to the development of general artificial intelligence, create an innovation ecology, and pay attention to preventing risks. Different from the “artificial intelligence” in the previous Central Economic Work Conference and other important meetings, the Political Bureau meeting clearly emphasized “general”, that is, the general AI large model technology route led by Chat-GPT since November last year.

Take artificial intelligence industry development highland, Beijing as an example. The release of Beijing’s “Several measures” is the first special measure put forward by the local government in close contact with the industrial development of AI large model, and Beijing has fired the first shot of the local large model competition. At present, the “thousand model war” triggered by Chat-GPT is starting, and the large model may bring a new efficiency revolution and experience upgrade to all walks of life. With the action of Beijing, the first city of AI, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu and other regions have successively taken action to seize the “window period” of development.

Humanoid robots: The “unexpected encounter” between humans and machines

From the definition and purpose of use, a humanoid robot is an intelligent robot with a human-like appearance and movement. humanoid robots (humanoid robots), also translated as “humanoid robots”, literally means robots designed and manufactured to imitate the shape and behavior of humans. There is no universal definition of Humanoid Robots, but according to the book Humanoid Robots, humanoid robots should be able to “work in environments where people work and live, operate tools and equipment designed for people, and communicate with people.” Under this premise, humanoid robots should eventually have a human-like body structure, including a head, torso, and limbs, use bipedal walking, perform various operations with multi-fingered hands, and possess some degree of cognitive and decision-making intelligence.

Humanoid robots began in the late 1960s, with the most notable research results in Japan. In 1973, Professor Kato Ichiro of Waseda University in Japan developed the world’s first humanoid robot WABOT-1 WL-5 bipedal walking machine, strictly speaking, belongs to the bionic machinery, is the prototype of humanoid robots. In 1986, Japan’s Honda began research on the humanoid robot ASIMO, and successfully released the first generation model in 2000.