Nio testing use of humanoid robots on factory production line
Tesla bulls say that Tesla deserves premium valuation because it's an AI play. So are Nio, Xpeng and BYD. They are testing use of humanoid robots on factory production lines.
Nio is testing humanoid robots on its assembly line at one of its factories, a move that is expected to boost already high levels of automation.
Hong Kong-listed humanoid robot maker UBTech Robotics yesterday shared a video on Weibo showing its Walker S robot working on an assembly line at a Nio factory.
This is the first time Walker S has had real-world training at a new energy vehicle (NEV) factory, UBTech said. "Behind simple tasks is technology and strength," the company said on Weibo.
Founded in Mar 2012, Shenzhen-based UBTech is a humanoid and intelligent service robotics company, according to its website.
The company made its debut on the Hong Kong stock market on Dec 29, 2023, the first humanoid robot maker to list there.
On the same day as the company's IPO, local media outlet Jiemian cited supply chain sources as saying that UBTech's products may have made their way into the production lines of BYD, which is also based in Shenzhen.
When asked, UBTech CEO Zhou Jian said he couldn't confirm that, but that the company had been in contact with a number of NEV makers, according to the report.
UBTech's humanoid robots include Walker, Walker X, and the Panda, according to its website. Walker S is not on its product list.
Walker is 145 centimetres tall and weighs 77 kilograms, a description on UBTech's website shows.
The humanoid robot uses Intel i7 7500U and i5 6200U as processors and the operating system is Ubuntu + Linux RT Preempt + ROS + Android.
Walker uses lithium iron phosphate batteries as its power source, which take 2 hours to fully charge and have a battery life of 2 hours.
Nio's vehicles are produced at its F1 and F2 factories in Hefei, in eastern China's Anhui province, which were originally assets of its automotive production partner, Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group, but were acquired by the company late last year.
Both plants have highly automated production lines, and CnEVPost visited the F1 plant in Dec 2020 and the F2 plant at NeoPark in Hefei in Nov 2023.
Nio opened the F2 plant for plant tours last Oct, saying at the time that the plant's body shop was one of the most advanced in the world, with 756 robots for automated production.
Nio's factory would place a higher priority on the use of humanoid robots and will also consider using robots that can think on their own, said Ji Huaqiang, the company's vice president of manufacturing, in an interview with English-language media, including CnEVPost, at the F2 plant last Nov.
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MonkeyGee : xpeng is more of an AI play than the sum of the 3!
MonkeyGee : like I say. Asian companies don't know how to promote. I didn't even know NIO has androids
bullrider_21 OP MonkeyGee : Xpeng is 3x better in AI than Tesla - better in humanoid robots and autonomous driving.
bullrider_21 OP MonkeyGee : There must be more media coverage and timely release of news to the media.
MonkeyGee bullrider_21 OP : maybe it has been filtered
MonkeyGee bullrider_21 OP : I agree. But you can't just sit there and wait for some to tell you that you are better than Tesla. You have to go put and prove it. Race Tesla, but I think the CEO is too afraid to make waves. I definitely know NIO would be faster than Tesla
bullrider_21 OP MonkeyGee : There is no sensitive data.
bullrider_21 OP MonkeyGee : All these news are coming from Chinese media. No positive news from Western media. So they are not portraying an accurate picture.
MonkeyGee bullrider_21 OP : I was talking about US filtering
103484522 : main thing need boost sale thru cuts.else all robot just idling there
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