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Bank "Lobby Manager": Can Converse, Take Numbers, Handle Transactions
In bank lobbies, automatic number dispensers, self-service terminals, and other equipment are placed. Although they are quick and convenient to use, for the elderly, they represent a "digital divide" that is difficult to cross. This is when a professional staff member needs to come and provide guidance.
A few years ago, "robot guides" were popular in business halls for a while, but the robots at that time mostly did not have two feet, were driven by chassis, and could only have simple conversations with users. They could not understand more complex semantics, let alone handle specific transactions, and were subsequently mostly shelved.
Today, as humanoid robots are "making a comeback," robots that can engage in intelligent dialogue, help take numbers, and handle transactions are "back on duty."
"Is there anything I can help you with?"
"I want to withdraw some cash."
"Then let me get a number for you." A "staff member" with a metal torso, connected to a power source, slowly bent down under the drive of the motor, used mechanical fingers to click on the automatic number dispenser nearby, and handed the number ticket to the customer. This scene is from China Construction Bank's Shanghai Pudong Branch, which is the country's first humanoid robot bank lobby manager scenario training base jointly established by China Construction Bank, Shanghai Fourier Intelligence Co., Ltd., and Beijing Runze Zhiyuan Technology Co., Ltd.
On July 23, an IT Times reporter visited the bank's business hall. On the left side, the sign "Intelligent Humanoid Robot Training Base" was very eye-catching, with two humanoid robots created by Fourier standing below. It is reported that this base will quickly improve the intelligent service capabilities of humanoid robots based on financial application scenarios and promote industrial development.
A Fourier representative told the reporter that the two GR-1 model humanoid robots named "Xiaolongnü" will provide customers with services such as queue number taking, intelligent dialogue, flow guidance, and anti-fraud publicity. At the same time, they will continuously input training data and iterate their abilities based on real situations during service.
For example, in terms of intelligent dialogue consultation, "Xiaolongnü" is equipped with a vertical large model based on the financial industry. It can not only achieve multi-round natural language dialogue but also has the ability to learn quickly, continuously train to imitate human behavior, improve its own skills, and provide financial business consultation and flow guidance services for customers.
Service robots are not new, but the "hands and feet" that humanoid robots finally possess allow them to perform more precise and complex actions, closer to human communication methods.
When a customer enters the lobby, "Xiaolongnü" will provide queue number taking services for customers according to the personalized operation guide of the smart teller machine. Through visual depth positioning, upper limb motion planning, and other technologies, it completes the actions of clicking to take a number, picking up, and handing over the number ticket.
She sometimes even becomes an anti-fraud "promoter," simulating human bipedal walking, and then combining promotional videos to imitate human upper limb activities and change expressions to convey anti-fraud financial knowledge to the audience on site.
In the future, as the cognitive ability of humanoid robots strengthens and their motor skills improve, they will also be able to provide services such as fetching water, throwing away trash, and guiding rest for workers, Fourier said.
However, the base is currently still being debugged and has not yet officially opened to users. Soon, the robot "lobby manager" will officially take up its post.
Nuclear Power "Inspector": Fearless of High Temperatures and Safer
Apart from the service sector, industry is also one of the earliest fields that robots entered.
Among the "Eighteen Arhats" exhibited at WAIC, "Qinglong," standing 185 cm tall and weighing 80 kg, is considered a "handsome guy." Besides its outstanding appearance, Qinglong has up to 43 active degrees of freedom throughout its body, a maximum key peak torque of 400 Nm, and 400 TOPs of computing power support, giving it precise recognition and grasping capabilities.
On July 22, an IT Times reporter visited the birthplace of "Qinglong" - the National and Local Joint Innovation Center for Humanoid Robots. The second floor is not only the employees' office but also a training base for humanoid robots, with the tall "Qinglong" undoubtedly being the "eye-catcher" of the entire venue.
Next to the workstations are different scenarios such as steep slopes, stairs, sandy ground, and obstacles, used to teach Qinglong how to walk quickly on different terrains. There is also a table with fruits and bread, but these are not for it to "eat," but props used to train Qinglong's precise recognition ability.
At the WAIC 2024 site, "Qinglong" demonstrated to the audience how to accurately classify fruits and bread: after hearing the command, it slowly raised its arms, gently grasped the mixed bread and fruits on the table with both hands, and classified them into left and right baskets. Even soft bread would not be deformed.
"Laboratory scenarios are still very limited. To enable humanoid robots to empower thousands of industries, not only a lot of training is needed, but also the guidance of different scenarios," Yang Zhengye, Director of Market Systems at the National and Local Center, told the IT Times reporter. ### The National and Local Center is accelerating the construction of humanoid robot training centers. The first phase will build 100 training scenarios, and by 2027, more than 1,000 general humanoid robot intelligent training dojos will be built.
Currently, humanoid robots developed by the National and Local Center are about to enter "internships" in two industrial scenarios at Shanghai Electric and Shanghai Yanfeng Automotive.
Nuclear power is an extremely important and dangerous industrial scenario, and safety inspections of nuclear power production lines are very important. The current manual inspection method has many drawbacks. On the one hand, the high temperature generated by nuclear power is difficult for humans to withstand; on the other hand, it is difficult to detect subtle leaks, pipe deformations, and other hidden dangers with the naked eye, and data monitoring may only show obvious changes after more than ten hours. But if maintenance is carried out after two or three days of cooling, it not only affects work efficiency but also fails to ensure safety.
Humanoid robot inspections will no longer fear high temperatures. Equipped with infrared devices, they only need to patrol once to detect subtle problems such as leaks and deformations through temperature differences, while transmitting data on the spot. However, because nuclear power line inspections need to face complex terrains such as inclined stairs, vertical stairs, slopes, and trenches, humanoid robots need to have high mobility and robust walking ability to adapt to complex terrains.
In the processing of large heat exchangers for nuclear power equipment, it is necessary to move and transport parts on the detection instrument, while cleaning thousands of tube plate holes. This simple but tedious work consumes a lot of manpower but can be another "internship" scenario for humanoid robots. Of course, this scenario also has high requirements for humanoid robots' ability to grasp parts, accurately locate holes, and precisely match placement positions.
"The large amount of data generated from on-site scenario training will provide a basis for the access standards of customized humanoid robots," said Yang Zhengye.
"Factory Brothers" on the Automotive Production Line: Can Tighten Screws and Perform Laser Drilling
At the "International Humanoid Robot Technology and Application Development Forum" at WAIC 2024, many humanoid robot companies, including Cape Town CEO Hu Debo, Yushu Technology Co-founder Chen Li, and Xingjingcheng Sensor Chairman Wu Hao, believed that ### the automotive manufacturing field may become a key scenario for the explosive application of humanoid robots.
With interaction, perception, decision-making, and other capabilities, and the ability to make judgments and execute tasks based on the real environment, humanoid robots have much in common with intelligent vehicles. Ding Huayu, Investment Manager of SAIC Venture Capital, once said in an interview with the media that the data accumulated by automotive intelligent driving can be used to train humanoid robot algorithms, playing an important role in the perception, decision-making, and control of robots. The hardware such as motors, electronic controls, batteries, sensors, and MCUs in automobiles can all be used in humanoid robots. More importantly, the automotive supply chain has outstanding scale-based cost reduction capabilities, and the upstream and downstream of the automotive industry itself have good scenarios, which can accelerate the commercialization of humanoid robots.
This means that automobile manufacturing can not only provide references for humanoid robot manufacturing, but its upstream and downstream production factories are also important scenarios for humanoid robot training.