CyberOne, Xiaomi presents its first humanoid robot

Considered the flagship of the manufacturing sector, robotics is now everywhere and in growing development. The ultimate goal of many professionals is the creation of humanoid robots opposed to industrial ones due to their high complexity. While the latter have very specific tasks, the former represent a real challenge in terms of construction. This is because, they will need to be able to simulate perception, cognition, decision and execution of tasks in various situations. Not easy at all.
Recently, to a great surprise and anticipating the competition , Xiaomi unveiled CyberOne, its first human-like robot .

The presentation

At the event, held on August 11, the company also launched other products in addition to presenting its financial results. When Lei Jun (CEO of Xiaomi group) called the robot on stage, his entry on the scene made everyone pale. With an uncertain, slow but steady pace, remotely reminiscent of that of his "colleague" Honda Asimo, CyberOne reaches Jun handing him a flower that he holds with him.

He later introduces himself, complimenting the height of his interlocutor, and after some questionable kung fu moves, he says something technically interesting. In fact, he hears applauding, suggesting that he is equipped with a fairly sophisticated sound recognition system .

Enthusiastic, Xiaomi's CEO takes a selfie with CyberOne using the new Mix Fold2 smartphone and then leaves it, to the applause of the audience. As stated on the official event page :

CyberOne's artificial intelligence and mechanical capabilities are all developed by Xiaomi Robotics Lab . We have invested heavily in research and development in several areas, including software, hardware and algorithm innovation

Lei Jun, CEO Xiaomi group

What is CyberOne

Together with Cyberdog, the quadruped unveiled last year, the humanoid robot has become part of the Cyber ​​family of Xiaomi. It is equipped with advanced arms and legs, supports the balance of the posture in bipedal movement and reaches a maximum torque of 300 Nm.

He is able to recognize human emotions with advanced vision skills and has features that allow him to virtually reconstruct the real world in 3D.

Features

The page that invites you to discover the robot shows all its main features and measures.
177 cm tall and 52 kg in weight, it has an arm span of 168 cm and supports up to 21 degrees of freedom in movement. For each of them it achieves a real-time response speed of 0.5 ms , which allows it to fully simulate human movements.

In general, to ensure high movement performance for robots, it is necessary to intervene on the dimensions of each joint motor. In fact, to guarantee greater flexibility it is necessary to generate more kinetic energy without increasing the size of the components. Xiaomi solved the problem by developing a motor weighing 500 g with a maximum output torque of 30 Nm for the upper limb . The hip joint motor, on the other hand, is capable of delivering an instantaneous maximum torque of 300 Nm.

To elaborate a representation of the surrounding environment, the humanoid uses a proprietary Mi-Sense depth vision module. This, combined with an AI interaction algorithm, allows it to perceive 3D space by recognizing individuals, gestures and expressions.

In order for it to communicate, the designers have equipped CyberOne with a proprietary MiAI semantic recognition and identification module of vocal emotions . In this way it is able to recognize 85 types of environmental sounds and classify 45 human emotions . Finally, a curved OLED module is added to display interactive information in real time.

The reason for CyberOne

Although the presentation impressed the audience, there was no lack of harsh comments and unhappy combinations. Having seen the capabilities of Atlas from Boston Dynamics and looking forward to the launch of Tesla Optimus in September, many have been disappointed.

But Lei Jun himself pointed out that for now CyberOne is still in the initial phase of development. As a prototype, its construction would cost between 600,000 yuan and 700,000 yuan per unit (between 86,000 euros and approximately 100,000 euros). Which makes it unsuitable for large-scale production.

Ultimately, the Chinese company aims to expand its technology ecosystem with new devices. What we have seen, therefore, would represent a starting point for Xiaomi , more than a real innovation in the field of robotics.

The articleCyberOne, Xiaomi presents its first humanoid robot was written on: Tech CuE | Close-up Engineering .