A Chinese language firm claims to have developed the world’s first humanoid robotic able to operating by itself and swapping its batteries when wanted.
Robotics agency UBTech, headquartered in Shenzhen, says its humanoid bot can autonomously full battery substitute in below three minutes with out shutting down, permitting it to function repeatedly with minimal human intervention.
The agency, the primary humanoid robotic maker to listing on the Hong Kong inventory alternate, mentioned in an X video final week its Walker S2 robotic supported battery swap, making it the primary of its type on this planet.
The video exhibits the robotic strolling over to a charging station, eradicating the battery from its again, inserting it right into a charging dock, and putting in a contemporary one.
Native media experiences counsel the robotic screens its energy ranges and swaps batteries when wanted. The humanoid bot is provided with energy balancing expertise and a battery designed to plug in like a USB stick, making it simple to insert and take away.
In a put up on X, UBTech described Walker S2 as “the world’s first humanoid robotic able to autonomous battery swapping” and mentioned it was developed to help “24/7 continuous working”.
The corporate beforehand mentioned it was collaborating with electrical car producers like Nio and BYD to check and utilise their humanoid robots on manufacturing traces.
In February, an earlier model of the robotic, Walker S1, participated in AI occasion LEAP 25 in Saudi Arabia, demonstrating it may carry out multitask capabilities like dealing with and sorting parcels.
The corporate, nevertheless, has not but introduced a goal for large-scale manufacturing of Walker S2.
Shenzhen is residence to over 1,600 robotics corporations, which promote using robotics throughout China’s industries.
China has risen to 3rd on the listing of nations utilizing most robots in manufacturing, behind solely South Korea and Singapore.
Based on a 2024 report by the Worldwide Federation of Robotics, China makes use of 470 robots per 10,000 staff, far surpassing industrial powerhouses like Germany and Japan with, respectively, 429 and 419.
China has made vital strides in key robotics applied sciences reminiscent of movement management and high-performance servo drives, making a expertise ecosystem for a powerful push in direction of automation.
The nation holds over two-thirds of the world’s robot-related patents, totalling 190,000.
