Tesla Optimus Prime faces humanoid competition at Beijing Robot Conference | Wilnesh News

BEIJING — While Chinese companies last week showed off humanoid robots that play the guzheng or grab sodas, Tesla Displaying its Optimus Prime humanoid robot in a clear box, parked motionless next to the car.

Elon Musk claims Optimus Prime can fold clothesone day cooking, cleaning or teaching kids — technology he touts could bring $25 trillion in value to Tesla. Musk said Tesla plans to test humanoid robots at the factory next year. It’s unclear how well they’ll perform now.

Meanwhile, the World Robot Conference, which opened in Beijing on Wednesday, claimed to have a record 27 humanoid robots making their debut at the event. Similar to the country’s vigorous development of electric vehicles a few years ago, funds and resources are now flowing into the development of humanoid robots.

Cao Wei, a partner at Lanchi Ventures, said total investment in China’s robotics industry has exceeded 100 billion yuan ($14.01 billion) in the past decade. He said the company has assets under management of about 15 billion to 20 billion yuan.

Cao told CNBC he expects the next milestone in humanoid development to come within the next year or two: enabling commercially viable use cases in manufacturing, where robots can move around and know how to prioritize a series of tasks.

Cao noted that this is more complex than repeating a single task, such as grabbing a water bottle, which robots can already do. He noted how artificial intelligence, including models from OpenAI Alibabasignificantly improving the success rate of robots processing information to perform tasks.

Lanchi Ventures is an investor in Shanghai-based Agibot, a humanoid startup founded in February 2023 by a company. Huawei one-time recruitment. In the days leading up to the World Robot Conference, the startup released five new robots, some of which are available for an upfront deposit of 5,000 yuan.

Agibot plans to begin partial deliveries in mid-October, followed by bulk deliveries 300 robots will be put into use in November. Its ads for humanoid robots show them functioning as salespeople, gallery tour guides or factory parts pickers. Some of them are on display at conferences.

Also in attendance was Stardust Intelligence’s Astribot S1 humanoid robot, which appeared in late April folding shirts and pour wine. Some of the robots on display performed complex Chinese martial arts moves, played the guzheng and wrote Chinese brush calligraphy.

Shenzhen-based Stardust was founded in December 2022 by former members Tencent and Baidu’s Robot project. The startup says it uses artificial intelligence to power imitation learning in robots, where machines can copy movements after watching them.

Other humanoid robots from lesser-known companies Galbot and for sightseeingplace products in baskets or carry individual soda cans from a shelf to another table.

Some movements are stiff and slow. It is not always clear whether these actions are remotely controlled or completed autonomously. Demonstrations don’t reveal everything about a product’s capabilities.

Lanchi’s Cao said the number and variety of displays at the World Robot Conference had increased significantly compared with last year, noting that many students and young people also participated.

In his assessment, Tesla and other U.S. companies may be one to two years ahead of China in robotics. But Cao noted that China is self-sufficient in more than 95% of its humanoid supply chain.

As for why Tesla did not demonstrate the practical application of Optimus at the conference, Cao said that the promotional video has shown its powerful functions, and he understands whether Tesla does not want to invest resources for engineers to operate the demonstration.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Jeff Burnstein, president of the Association for the Advancement of Automation (A3), spoke at the conference through a recorded video and showed some virtual demonstrations from humanoid startups such as Agility.

“These are demos, but they and other things are now in pilot programs, and we believe some companies are actually starting to use them and not just pilots,” he said, noting that the association will hold an event in Tennessee on Oct. 17 The states hold their own humanoid meetings.

Rather than replicating entire humans at once, the Humanoid Corporation tends to focus on specific parts first and then move on to others.

One of the companies headquartered in Shenzhen The product Limx Dynamics released this year is the P1, a robot for research purposes that can balance on two legs. It can go up and down stairs and regain its balance when pushed.

Limx Dynamics was founded just over two years ago. Its recent backers include Alibaba, according to PitchBook. The startup announced earlier this month that its humanoid robot can move objects in warehouses and automatically re-plan how to complete tasks If the target moves.

Other companies at the World Robot Congress showed off a range of gears, robot hands and other parts.

Shigeki Sugano, president of the Japan Robotics Society, said during the conference on Thursday that by around 2030, a single robot may be able to perform simple housework, nursing and medical care partly independently and partly in cooperation with humans.

This includes the ability to express emotion, he said. He predicts that fully autonomous humanoid robots will not appear until after 2050.

Among the development challenges, he said that if humanoid robots were to fully support humans, the current lack of power would need to be addressed.

A humanoid robot’s battery may only last two hours before needing to be recharged.