There’s a new “intern” on the assembly line, and it won’t be pausing every hour to take a bathroom break.
The Chinese consumer electronic giant Xiaomi recently announced a trial run for a couple of humanoid robot workers at its electric vehicle factory in Beijing. In an interview with CNBC, Xiaomi president Lu Weibing said the company’s bots successfully completed 90.2 percent of the work over a three hour period.
A PR video shared by the company shows the two bots, straddling opposite ends of the assembly line, gingerly applying lugnuts to a vehicle chassis.
Xiaomi Shows Humanoid Robots Working Autonomously on Production Lines with 90.2% Success Rate
by u/Advanced-Bug-1962 in RoboIndia
At a cycle time of 76 seconds, it appears to be pretty slow going — a pair of humans could undoubtedly perform the task faster — but is nonetheless one of the first looks at humanoid robots successfully integrating into an industrial production setting. According to Lu, the robots are fast enough to keep up with the pace of the rest of the factory.
“To integrate robots into our production lines, the biggest challenge is for them to keep up with the pace,” Lu told CNBC. “In Xiaomi’s car factory, every 76 seconds, a new car gets off the assembly line. The two humanoid robots are able to keep up our pace.”
Despite the successful trial, Lu keeps his expectations tempered.
“The robots in our production lines weren’t doing an official job, more like the interns,” he told the broadcaster.
Source: Futurism