Editor:Ana Hu
China's exportsemi net
The development of the humanoid robot industry has always attracted much attention, and in recent years more and more companies have become involved in it. This is not unrelated to my country's policy support. Last month, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Guiding Opinions on the Innovation and Development of Humanoid Robots", which mentioned that humanoid robots are expected to become disruptive products after computers, smartphones, and new energy vehicles, with great development potential and broad application prospects. It will be a new track for future products. Sinolink Securities has also recently released the "Robot Industry Research". China Overseas Semiconductor will interpret this industry report with everyone in subsections starting from today.
In this series of articles, you will learn about the current status, application scenarios, technical barriers, and future development directions of humanoid robots at home and abroad. First, let’s take a look at Tesla’s humanoid robot.
Tesla : Optimus humanoid robot continues to iterate and is planned to be used in Tesla factories in 2024
As a global leader in electric vehicles, Tesla humanoid robots have been continuously iteratively updated.
——In August 2021, Tesla CEO Musk demonstrated the humanoid robot concept machine Tesla Bot at the first AI DAY.
——In February 2022, Tesla successfully launched a humanoid robot prototype only 6 months after proposing the concept, and used it as a development platform for in-depth research and development.
——In September of the same year, Tesla released a new version of the "Optimus" humanoid robot at the second AI DAY, which can achieve complex actions such as walking upright, carrying, and sprinkling water. Musk predicted at the time that Optimus would be mass-produced and launched in 3-5 years, with the final quantity reaching one million and the cost dropping to about US$20,000.
——In May 2023, Tesla showed the latest prototype of Optimus at the annual shareholder meeting.
Figure 1: Tesla Optimus development nodes (*Tesla AI DAY 2022, Tesla 2023 Shareholders Meeting, Congressional Securities Research Institute)
In September 2022, Tesla launched the humanoid robot "Optimus Prime" on Al Day. At the press conference, the Tesla robot demonstrated walking, waving, swinging and other actions, and also shared videos of it carrying, watering plants, and moving metal parts in the car factory. According to published data, Optimus is about 173cm tall and weighs 73kg. Musk said that the humanoid robot has a certain degree of intelligence and can replace manual labor. It is expected to be mass-produced in 3-5 years. After mass production, it will reach millions of units and its price may be less than 20,000 US dollars.
Figure 2: Optimus prototype is transporting goods; Optianus basic parameters (*Source: Tesla AI DAY 2022, Guojin Wangzhan Research Institute)
Execution system: The whole body has 40 actuators and 50 degrees of freedom. It adopts the transmission mode of reducer + motor. The reducer torque range is 20Nm-180Nm, and the motor torque range is 500N-8000N.
Torso: The torso has 28 degrees of freedom, including 6 shoulders, 2 elbows, 6 wrists, 2 waists, 6 hips, 2 knees, and 4 pedals, corresponding to 28 joint actuators. , taking into account issues such as cost and energy saving, a total of 6 structural designs (3 rotational, 3 linear) are used to cope with different load requirements. At the same time, bionic design is added to the joint structure. For example, the knee joint is divided into 4 sub-motors, which are similar to the human knee. The joint/ligament composition is similar.
Dexterous hand: The Optimus hand structure adopts a five-finger multi-joint design. Each hand has 6 actuators and 11 degrees of freedom. It is equipped with multiple sensors and has an in-hand controller that can drive the fingers and receive sensor feedback, and has adaptive The gripping angle provides the ability to use tools and accurately grasp small objects, and the load can reach 20 pounds (9 kg).
Figure 3: Optimus is very flexible, with 28 degrees of freedom for the body and 11 for the hands (*Mi source: Tesla AI DAY 2022, National Securities Research Institute)
Power system: Highly integrated, equipped with Tesla's self-developed battery technology. It is equipped with a 2.3kWh battery pack with integrated electronics and a theoretical voltage of 52V. Cooling system Tesla uses highly integrated charging management and reuses the energy management system of the car battery to achieve energy consumption of 100W while sitting and 500W of energy while walking slowly. The 2.3kWh battery pack inside the torso can meet the power demand for a whole day.
Figure 4: Optimus is equipped with a 2.3kWh battery pack inside the torso, which consumes 100w of energy while sitting still and 500w of energy while walking slowly (*Source: Tesla AI DAY 2022, National Voucher Research Institute)
Perception system: Optimus uses the same fully autonomous driving system FSD and perception computing unit as Tesla electric vehicles, including a self-developed chip integrated system as the "brain" and three Autopilot-level cameras. Tesla uses the same algorithm framework as Autopilot, and uses automatic annotation, simulation and data engines to form training data to train Optimus's neural network, so that Optimus can sense the surrounding environment, autonomously plan action paths, walk upright and maintain relative balance. and other functions.
Figure 5: Optimus visual navigation technology; planning walking routes based on environmental perception (*Source: Tesla AI DAY 2022, National Wang Burial Research Institute)
Tesla released a demonstration video of the Optimus humanoid robot at its May 23 shareholder meeting. In terms of mechanical joint control, the Tesla robot motor torque control and force control are more precise and sensitive, and can accurately control the force without breaking the egg; in terms of perception, Optimus' improved environmental perception and memory capabilities can not only see the road, but also remember road; in terms of learning, Optimus can perform end-to-end action control based on human action examples.
Figure 6: Tesla’s latest Opt imus robot at the 23rd Annual General Meeting of Shareholders; the force control is more precise and sensitive (*Source: Tesla AI DAY 2022, China National Securities Research Institute)
Tesla announced the latest progress of Optimus, Tesla’s humanoid robot has evolved again. In September 23, Tesla released the latest video of the robot: Optimus can classify objects relying solely on vision, and can even complete yoga movements.
Vision capabilities: Optimus has the ability to self-calibrate its arms and legs, accurately positioning its limbs in space using only vision and joint position encoders. After calibration, Optimus can learn various tasks more efficiently. Currently, Optimus can sort color blocks completely autonomously by color, eliminating the dynamic influence of the real world. You can continue to complete your work despite the interference of others around you.
Balance ability : Currently, Optimus can also perform multiple single-leg support sports stretching actions, and can maintain body balance while stretching.
Figure 7: Optimus is able to classify objects relying solely on vision, and can also stand on one leg (*Mi source: Tesla 2023 Shareholders Meeting, Congressional Securities Research Institute)
Tesla CEO Musk said that the goal of 0ptimus is to replace humans in repetitive labor, dangerous operations and other tasks, and to be put into production as an intelligent assistant. It will first perform industrial-level operations such as mobile handling and parts assembly at the Tesla factory, and then can be expanded to more complex environments such as homes to become a general-purpose service robot. During Tesla's second-quarter earnings call, Musk said that Tesla has now produced 10 Optimus units, which are expected to be used in Tesla factories in 2024.
In the next issue, China Overseas Semiconductor will take you to learn about Boston Dynamics’ humanoid robots , so stay tuned! You can also leave us a message (anahu@ehaitech.com) to express your opinions or questions.
Data source: Tesla
Document source: China National Securities Research Institute
"Humanoid Robot Industry Research Report" series of articles:
