Is this remarkably lifelike form the future of robotics?
Meet Una, a creation of Shenzhen-based, UBTech Robotics, China’s largest producer of humanoid robots.
She certainly caused a stir when she recently made her first public appearance at the LEAP tech event held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
To date, many robots have been developed for the industrial sector, and the focus has been very firmly on functionality rather than aesthetics.
However, Una is earmarked for a career in the service sector, where, according to UBTech, she can provide “emotional companionship, entertainment interaction and reception, bringing people a personalized and warm interactive experience.”
As such, one of the key criteria in Una’s development was endowing her with an appearance that people feel they can trust, given that potential use cases could be hospitality, health care or other customer-facing activities.
The most obvious difference from the industrial humanoid robots that we have become accustomed to is that Una is covered in skin – or more accurately, a silicone coating – that gives her the human look that allows users to easily form a connection.
This supports UBTech’s vision of Una not only providing services but also being able to offer emotional support – aided by her ability to understand natural language, allowing her to tell stories, answer questions and even take part in games.
UBTech has not yet revealed too much about the tech used under the skin, which makes it difficult at this stage to fully understand the full extent of Una’s capabilities, but the natural language processing is backed up by AI that allows her to constantly evolve and improve her interactions, and introduce a degree of emotional nuance.
She also features audio sensors, as well as several cameras and actuators and servo joints that allow precise movement.
Credit: UBTech Robotics
UBTech’s other exhibits at LEA, meanwhile, provided some insights into what the company is capable of.
The Walker S humanoid robot – which is already being deployed in factories by a number of Chinese automakers including Dongfeng Liuzhou, Foxconn, Geely and BYD – showed how it could handle parcel sorting. It uses semantic Visual simultaneous localization and mapping (vSLAM) technology and full-body motion control to carry boxes weighing up to 33 pounds with its dual arms.
It also demonstrated its dexterity by sorting small objects.
Another UBTech creation on display at LEAP was the Panda Robot YouYou, which served drinks.
While there was understandably much interest in Una, her immediate future is unclear, as she is not yet listed on UBTech’s website as a solution for customers to buy, although the company did reiterate its ambition “to bring humanoid robots to every home and industry, marching towards a society where human and robots coexist.”
This article first appeared in AI Business’ sister publication IoT World Today.