THEY walk like us and talk like us . . . well not quite yet. But the race to make humanoid robots is truly on.
China last year installed 300,000 robots in factories – more than the rest of the world combined – and is now aiming to bring them into our homes.
Meanwhile, in the US, Elon Musk is planning a huge factory to roll out his two-legged bot Optimus, a firm in Cornwall has built an advanced robot called Ameca, and Brett Adcock, founder of US firm Figure AI, has boasted: “We’re not building robots, we’re building a new species.”
But it’s not all plain sailing. The Russian-made AIdol fell flat on its silicone face during a demo last week, showing some country’s efforts are more Tin Man from The Wizard Of Oz than The Terminator.
David Levy, author of Love And Sex With Robots, says: “The advances in AI, such as ChatGPT, mean that having robots implanted with AI software has been a logical step.
3Developing the mechanics is more expensive but the Chinese have the resources to solve the problems.”
Here, we take a tour of the new arms (and legs) race in the age of the humanoid.
AIDOL
RUSSIA was once the leading player in the space race, but any pretence to robot domination does not stand up.
Walking on to the stage to the Rocky theme song last week, Russia’s “first anthropomorphic robot with artificial intelligence” fell down after just a few steps.
Named AIdol, its maker Idol claimed it could carry 22 pounds in weight and move at speeds of up to 3.7mph.
The epic failure went viral faster than that, with some wits suggesting the robot was powered by vodka.
More effective are the AI drones that Russia is deploying on the battlefield in Ukraine, with these machines able to lock on to targets automatically.
NEO
YOU can already pre-order the NEO home robot for £15,000 from California tech firm 1X.
With its soft, friendly face, the 5ft 6in home help, will carry shopping, use a vacuum, answer the door and crack some jokes.
But NEO is not completely autonomous and will need to be taught how to complete some tasks.
For this, a 1X expert can help its owner to guide the robot, which it is hoped will improve as it goes along.
The company’s Norwegian founder, Bernt Oyvind Bornich, said: “For robots to be truly intelligent and show nuances like being careful around your pet, holding the door open for an elderly person and generally behaving like we want robots to behave, they have to live and learn among us.”
AMECA
CORNISH robot Ameca can talk like a human, but cannot yet walk like one.
Designed by Engineered Arts, it is described as the “world’s most advanced social humanoid robot”.
Ameca has flickering eyes and can answer questions, but its body is obviously a machine.
It is currently available to rent for events, with organisations using her to talk at conferences and promote products.
When British astronaut Major Tim Peake met Ameca at he Goodwood Festival Of Speed in July, he said: “Her non-verbal responses really surprised me.”
Just don’t expect Ameca to get anywhere on its own steam, with the firm admitting: “Walking is a difficult task for a robot, and although we have done research into it, we have not created a full walking humanoid.”
UNITREE
FOR £10,000 you can buy a humanoid to “create a new era of intelligence together”, according to Chinese firm Unitree.
But its robot still needs to be programmed to carry out a task or manually operated by its owner.
Earlier this year, two Unitree robots got into a boxing ring, to see which could knock the other’s spark out.
And this week a Russian airline showed off a robot steward which also appeared to be from Unitree. The machine named Volodya joined in as a stewardess provided a safety demonstration.
But one viral video shows the 4ft 3in robot dressed in a maid’s pinny smashing into a mirror and falling into a heap in the kitchen when controlled by YouTuber Cody Detwiler.
Unitree is trying to raise around £5billion in investment and its AI system is bound to improve.
KAPEX
FRIDGE maker LG hopes that South Korea won’t be left in the cold when it launches its humanoid robot KAPEX.
The machine is supposed to have hands which are as delicate as human ones and to be able to walk by itself.
But this joint collaboration between the Korea Institute of Science and Technology and LG is unlikely to be on sale for at least four years.
South Korea’s government has set up the K-Humanoid Alliance to accelerate robotics development.
The country’s deputy prime minister, Paik Kyunghun, said last Thursday that he hopes “AI humanoids can be rapidly deployed in real industrial settings such as house-holds, logistics and manufacturing.”
ASIMO
ONE country that seems to be bursting the humanoid hype is Japan, which was once a leader in walking computers.
Honda’s ASIMO (Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility) made its debut in 2000 and became a celebrity, meeting the then Prince Charles and US President Barack Obama and walking the red carpet of 2005 movie Robots.
But it was ditched three years ago and now the company is focusing on robots that can help in specific areas rather than creating a human-like one that can do everything.
At the same time, a team from the University of Tokyo managed to attach living skin tissue to a robotic face last year.
Although, lead researcher Shoji Takeuchi did admit: “There is still a bit of that creepiness to it.”
IRON
WHEN Iron strode on to a stage this month, some onlookers claimed there was a curvy human inside the white suit.
But then its Chinese creators unzipped the outfit to reveal the Terminator-type endoskeleton underneath.
The 5ft 8in Iron has been developed by Xpeng, which also makes electric cars and is aiming for the robotaxi market.
The company’s founder, He Xiaopeng, says: “By the end of 2026, Xpeng aims to achieve large-scale mass production of high-level humanoid robots.”
China has two million industrial robots and is undoubtedly racing ahead.
Last year they added just under 300,000 new robots to their factories, while the US installed 34,000.
OPTIMUS
IF Elon Musk is going to earn a projected trillion-dollar pay packet from Tesla, his investment in robotics will have to pay off.
Earlier this month, the world’s richest man, danced alongside the 5ft 8in Optimus, which he claims could be “the biggest product of all time by far, bigger than cell phones, bigger than anything”.
Musk believes his machine could carry out open-heart surgery and offer “the finest medical care” to everyone.
And in “20 years” it might be possible to upload “an approximate snapshot of somebody’s mind” to Optimus using his Neuralink brain chip.
Tesla aims to build one million of the masked robots, starting next year.
But Musk did say in 2022 that he hoped Optimus would be in production by the following year.
ATLAS
THE British military is already using robot dogs from Boston Dynamics for bomb disposal, and now the US company is developing a humanoid called Atlas.
But their CEO, Robert Playter, is a bit more realistic about the timeline for androids in your kitchen, saying this month: “That’s honestly going to take five to ten years.”
He added: “We spent 20 years figuring out how to make walking really work, and now that’s the easy step. The hard stuff is still ahead of us.”
Artificial intelligence is speeding up developments, particularly the way the machine learns from its mistakes when picking up items.
The tricky bit is the vision, with the robot relying on current video camera tech to assess its surroundings.
XUAN
IN 1982 sci-fi movie Blade Runner, humans struggle to distinguish between themselves and “replicants.”
Now, Chinese company AheadForm is trying to make heads that appear to have skin, lips and hair.
For some reason, though, they tried to make its model Xuan look like an elf, so it was not going to fool anyone.
The company’s founder, Hu Yuhang, said: “Within ten years, we might interact with robots and feel like they are almost human.”
At the moment Xuan’s movements are very limited and it looks more like a very impressive mannequin.
