At IO-AI Tech, starting about 45 minutes north of the city of Shenzhen, China, I saw a new area of blue-collar work. Employees wearing the company’s VR headsets, handheld controllers, and remote control motion tracking gear. humanoid robots for workplaces such as factory floors and convenience stores. The company it wants robots to perform useful tasks, such as stocking shelves and picking things up from bins, but it also wants to collect training data that could one day allow robots to do the work. freely.
To demonstrate the technology, the company invited me to its offices, where I was allowed to control 10 humanoid robot arms, each from a different company, using a special motion-tracking glove. The device instantly transferred my finger movements to all 50 robotic digits.
I’m a little embarrassed to say that the first thing I tried with this aftermarket gear was to get all 10 arms to turn the plane. After getting this on my system, I was impressed by how quickly my movements transferred to the robotic arms, and how easily the technology went in both directions—I could feel the ball being placed in one electronic arm.
Courtesy of Will Knight
The company also allowed me to test the system that is being tested by a chain of Chinese grocery stores. Using a VR headset and a pair of grippers, I tried to pick up medicine boxes from the shelves. It was frustrating at first: I had to get used to the slight difference between my movements and that of the robot I could see through the headset. After a little practice, however, I was racking like a robot boss.
Elsewhere, I watched people wearing virtual-reality headsets and body-tracking sensors reminiscent of Already Single Player. In one large room, I saw workers using a variety of different systems to manage the cuts Unitree humanoids. A person walked around with a Unitree robot next to them, and the machine mirrored their movements in the mock-up house. The human operator, wearing a headset and watching the scene through the robot’s eye-level cameras, went through the motions required to remove the shirt from the hanger and fold it.
IO-AI is developing technology that transfers a person’s movements to different types of robots—an important issue because there are many types of humanoids and robotic arms market in China today. Actuation principles also need to combine human control with a certain degree of autonomy because the human and the robot will not always have the same shape, size and weight. Without some ability to move independently, the robot may lose its balance.
