According to the Securities Times app, on November 5th, UBTECH ROBOTICS (09880), in collaboration with its smart logistics subsidiary UQI Youqi, unveiled a full-stack unmanned logistics solution at CeMAT 2024, the 2024 Asia Shanghai International Logistics Exhibition, for the first time combining humanoid robots with unmanned vehicles for coordinated operations, applied in BYD factories to connect the last 10 meters of logistics, achieving true unmanned logistics.

BYD introduced humanoid robots for industrial applications for the first time heralding a new breakthrough.

Currently, the solution has been in trial operation at the Byd Company Limited Changsha Industrial Park, accelerating the connection of its products from raw materials to production logistics, achieving full-process visualization of logistics information and full-process tracking.

In the actual application at BYD's factory, UBTECH's industrial humanoid robot Walker S1 seamlessly collaborates with Wali industrial mobile robot T3000, level L4 unmanned logistics vehicle Chitu, to achieve a fully automated integrated indoor and outdoor process from sorting, handling to distribution. This is the industry's first application case of humanoid robots collaborating with unmanned logistics vehicles, industrial mobile robots, and Intelligent Manufacturing Execution System (MES), reaching a globally leading level in application innovation and implementation difficulty.

Image: The full-stack unmanned logistics solution is first applied at BYD Auto Factory.

During training, Walker S1 only needs a one-button start to autonomously operate in unstructured complex environments. Through self-developed semantic VSLAM algorithm, Walker S1 can autonomously build and update work environment maps and make real-time decisions based on map information. This method not only eliminates the interference effects caused by external environmental changes such as light, objects, and human or vehicle movements but also enables Walker S1 to autonomously avoid obstacles and select routes in an open environment while executing tasks, without the need for pre-set routes or manual resetting after encountering obstacles, ensuring the continuity of task execution.

After reaching the designated material area, Walker S1 collaborates with end-to-end imitation learning and towing robot to execute end logistics sorting tasks. It can accurately identify the bin through visual recognition and move it to the cart. If it finds that the required bin is not in the material area, or the bin is empty, Walker S1 can promptly provide feedback to the logistics system, and autonomously move to the next work position to continue the task without waiting for manual intervention and decision-making.

As a humanoid robot developed for industrial scenario applications, Walker S1 also focuses on addressing three major challenges encountered during training in the automotive factory, including visual positioning under lighting and environmental changes, motion control algorithms under dynamic high loads, and joint heat dissipation under high-load long-term conditions, to ensure stable and efficient execution of tasks in industrial application scenarios.

In industrial scenarios, UBTECH has successively collaborated with Dongfeng Liuzhou, Geely Auto, FAW-Volkswagen Qingdao Branch, Audi FAW, and other automotive companies, as well as 3C companies such as Foxconn and logistics companies like SF Express, to jointly promote the commercial application of humanoid robots. The cooperation with BYD signifies a new stage for UBTECH humanoid robots in the automotive manufacturing scene. So far, UBTECH is the only humanoid robot company that has announced collaborations with multiple automakers globally, and the Walker S series has become the humanoid robot with the most training in factories worldwide.

Humanoid Robots + Unmanned Vehicles, creating true unmanned logistics.

A typical production logistics scenario covers raw material unloading, storage, warehousing, sorting, outbound distribution to the production workshop. After processing into finished products, scenes such as finished product storage, warehousing, sorting, and shipping involve the storage, sorting, handling, and distribution of materials. How to achieve full-process unmanned operation, especially the seamless automation connection between various processes, has always been an industry pain point.

UBTECH collaborates with UQI to create a full-stack unmanned logistics solution, integrating "hardware+software+service+operation", with AI empowerment, true unmanned operation, high flexibility. Through various AI technologies such as multimodal large models, visual algorithms, and voice technology, it can flexibly schedule various devices and robots for collaborative operations, enabling humanoid robots to work together with unmanned logistics vehicles, unmanned forklifts, and intelligent manufacturing management systems to complete sorting, handling, and delivery tasks, quickly meeting the needs of layout adjustments, expansion, and upgrades in logistics scenarios, achieving a truly closed loop of unmanned logistics.

Image: At CeMAT 2024, industrial humanoid robots, industrial mobile robots, and unmanned logistics vehicles collaborate.

This solution was first showcased at CeMAT 2024. Industrial humanoid robot Walker S1 receives material transfer tasks from the UPilot mobile robot operating system, obtains positioning and semantic information from multimodal large models, picks materials from shelves and places them in transit boxes. Wali lifting mobile robot U600 transports the sorted transit box to a designated transit position, which is then moved to a pallet by another Walker S1. Subsequently, Wali heavy-duty unmanned forklift F3000 autonomously navigates to the transfer point, picks up the pallet from the ground, and loads it into the carriage of L4 unmanned logistics vehicle Chitu, seamlessly connecting indoor and outdoor logistics scenarios to achieve unmanned logistics seamlessly.

The new generation of technologies represented by AI and robots is leading a new round of industrial revolution, reshaping productivity and production methods. In the wave of intelligentization towards the new industrial era, the logistics industry is facing many challenges such as labor shortages, low operational efficiency, and low level of intelligentization. These challenges require the logistics industry to embrace technological innovation, optimize operations and improve operational efficiency through a more intelligent, flexible, and reliable "full-stack" solution. In the future, Ubix will accelerate the landing application of AI and robots in industrial manufacturing scenarios, helping to cultivate new quality productivity and empower new industrialization at a high level.