Xiaomi tested humanoid robots for electric vehicle assembly
Kyiv • UNN
At the factory in Beijing, Xiaomi robots completed 90.2% of tasks in three hours. Humanoids successfully tighten nuts on the chassis, keeping pace with the production line.
Chinese consumer electronics giant Xiaomi is now using humanoid robots to assemble electric vehicles, Futurism reports, writes UNN.
Details
Xiaomi recently announced a trial run of a pair of humanoid robots at its electric vehicle factory in Beijing. In an interview with CNBC, Xiaomi President Lu Weibing stated that the company's robots successfully completed 90.2% of the work in three hours.
A promotional video released by the company shows two robots, positioned at opposite ends of the assembly line, neatly tightening nuts on a car chassis.
At a cycle time of 76 seconds, this seems like a rather slow process – a couple of humans could undoubtedly complete this task faster – however, this is one of the first examples of successful integration of humanoid robots into industrial production. According to Lu, the robots are fast enough to keep up with the pace of the rest of the factory.
"The biggest challenge in integrating robots into our production lines is ensuring they keep pace," Lu told CNBC. "At Xiaomi's car factory, a new car rolls off the assembly line every 76 seconds. Two humanoid robots are able to maintain our pace."
Despite the successful trials, Lu is not rushing to conclusions.
"The robots on our production lines were not doing official work, but rather acting as interns," he told the channel.
Nevertheless, this is a remarkable achievement for Xiaomi and China, which has already deployed more industrial robots than any other country in human history, the publication notes.
Addition
While Xiaomi may be the latest company to deploy bipedal robots on the line, it is not the first. In February, British company Humanoid completed a similar pilot project, showing, according to Humanoids Daily, over 90% success in a container stacking task.