Recently, there has been a boom in the field of humanoid robots, and Wang Xingxing, the founder of Unitree, has become the focus of attention in the industry.
According to He Xiaopeng, CEO of Xpeng Motors, he has recently had in-depth exchanges with a number of industry leaders, including Wang Xingxing of Unitree and Zhou Jian of UBTECH. These discussions focused on the development status and future trends of humanoid robots.
He Xiaopeng pointed out that the current development level of humanoid robots is roughly equivalent to the L2 primary stage of autonomous driving, but the industry generally expects to be able to cross to the L3 primary stage with commercial value as soon as possible. This leap not only means a tenfold increase in technology and capabilities, but also the goal of Xpeng's Iron robotics project. However, humanoid robots may need to reach a higher L4 stage for their wider application compared to autonomous driving. Only when this stage is reached can humanoid robots truly enter thousands of homes, and this process will require years or even longer of sustained efforts.
In order to more clearly depict the development path of humanoid robots, Xpeng Motors divides the capabilities of humanoid robots into five levels:
At Level 1, i.e., the non-autonomous control stage, the robot is completely dependent on the control of a human operator and lacks any independent control or decision-making ability, similar to a remote-controlled racing car.
The L2 level is the basic auxiliary intelligence plus the control supervision stage. At this stage, the robot is able to perform basic pre-programmed actions and remain autonomously stable, but still requires constant human supervision, similar to bipedal or multi-legged robots, industrial robotic arms, and robot vacuums.
The L3 level, known as the embodied intelligence plus training supervision phase. At this level, the robot is trained on a large number of scenarios and is able to operate independently in most cases, but in some specific cases it still needs to seek human supervision. At present, the mass production goals of all humanoid robot companies in the industry are focused on the early stage of L3.
The L4 level is the stage of self-growing intelligence plus slight supervision. At this stage, robots are able to perform a wide range of complex adaptive and collaborative tasks and adapt to a variety of environments with minimal human supervision.
Level 5 is the highest level of AGI/ASI full autonomy. At this stage, robots demonstrate abilities that are comparable to or even surpass humans in cognitive and physical tasks, and are able to operate autonomously within the constraints of regulations and robot laws.
As the market for humanoid robots continues to heat up, the industry is looking forward to the future of this field. Although it will take time to achieve L4 and even L5 capabilities, industry insiders believe that through continuous technological innovation and efforts, humanoid robots will eventually enter people's daily lives and bring more convenient and intelligent services to human society.