Walker S humanoid robot receives Baidu's AI and learns to speak, reason and follow commands

The Chinese company UBTech has entered into a partnership agreement with Baidu to endow its humanoid robot with natural speech capabilities and real-time reasoning ability. UBTech successfully integrated Baidu's ERNIE Bot multimodal artificial intelligence platform into its new industrial humanoid robot, Walker S. The robot executes voice commands, comments on its actions, answers questions, and even gives advice.

UBTech was founded in Shenzhen in 2012 and introduced its first humanoid robot the size of a toy two years later. In 2016, several hundred such robots learned to perform coordinated dance routines, and in 2017, the Guinness World Records book documented a dance of over a thousand robots moving in unison to rhythmic electronic music.

UBTech first showcased its full-sized service robot, Walker, at the CES 2018 trade show. At the end of last year, the upgraded Walker S took the stage in Hong Kong alongside company executives to strike a gong, marking the company's IPO debut. Now the robot is ready to challenge its counterparts, Figure 01, Eve and Phoenix, demonstrating communication skills, logic, and coordination.

Built-in depth sensors and cameras help the robot understand and navigate the surrounding environment, avoid obstacles, and recognize three-dimensional objects. The integration of AI allows the robot to communicate in natural human language, creatively approach command execution, and even give people advice on clothing and appearance.

Last year, UBTech began shipping Walker S for industrial use, partnering with several automakers, including NIO, "to strategically plan the phased introduction of humanoid robots into manufacturing scenarios."