On March 18, Midea Group released its first humanoid robot, which attracted market attention.
Wei Chang, vice president and CTO of Midea Group, said in an interview that the company's Central Research Institute has established a humanoid robot innovation center, and has recently made good research progress in the core components of humanoid robots, including reducers, sensors, and controllers. He said that the research and development of humanoid robots has benefited from Kuka Group, an industrial robot manufacturing company owned by Midea Group.
"We have a lot of talents and teams in the field of (KUKA) industrial robots, which can quickly promote the development and application of humanoid robots." Wei Chang also said that it is not difficult for Midea Group to make a complete machine of humanoid robots, but the product landing needs to have an application scenario that can truly solve the pain points and difficulties of users, and there is no specific progress in this regard.
Wei Chang explained that KUKA robots and humanoid robots have a certain degree of commonality in the technical field of core components, and the R&D team can also share them. However, there are also differences between the two, for example, industrial robots have relatively single and fixed operation actions for a long time in the past, while humanoid robots focus more on the "brain" and can complete more flexible operations.
Wei Chang believes that humanoid robots or humanoid robot-like products may be applied in the industrial and commercial fields of TO B, and there is still a way to go into the home scene in an all-round way. In contrast, the robotization of home appliances that Midea is promoting "may be applied in the near future".
According to Midea Group's 2024 semi-annual report, the company's robotics and automation system business with KUKA Group as the core mainly provides products, system integration and services to customers in the automotive industry, electronics industry, consumer goods industry, logistics/e-commerce industry, healthcare and other industries. In 2023, the KUKA Group achieved record revenues and earnings, with the monetization of its business in China particularly prominent, with KUKA China's revenue contribution increasing from 15% in 2020 to 20% in 2023.