Rebirth 99 to become a car giant.

Chapter 203: The first dark horse is Honda?Don't be happy too early

Yangcheng Honda is a customer of Nanshan and the main customer of Yangcheng Huaqiang Factory.

Naturally, Cao Yang also knew something about Honda cars.

In fact, Cao Yang went to learn about the histories of the major car companies in the world.

After all, when you have dinner with clients, if you don’t know the history of their company, sometimes it’s hard to find topics to talk about.

But he really didn't pay much attention to Honda's robot.

"Mr. Cao, Honda is actually the least engaged among the international automobile giants."

"In addition to cars, Honda is the world's largest motorcycle company. It not only occupies a large market share in China, but also has a very high market share in Southeast Asia."

“Then they also make speedboats, lawn mowers, snow plows, ATVs, generators and more.”

"In 2000, we officially entered the field of humanoid robots and launched the first generation ASIMO robot."

Li Shigui was very glad that he came early to participate in the exhibition setup and get to know each exhibitor.

Otherwise, I really wouldn’t be able to answer some questions today.

"Mr. Cao, look." When a group of people crowded next to Honda's exhibition hall, Li Shigui pointed to the robot that was demonstrating its functions and said, "This is Honda's robot, called ASIMO."

"I guess this is their latest generation product."

Following Li Shigui's words, Cao Yang and others focused on the white robot on the booth.

At this time, it was naturally Mi Ying's turn to help translate the commentator's words.

"ASIMO has hip, knee and foot joints just like humans."

"Honda's engineers were very well-intentioned during the initial stages of the project."

"They spent a lot of time studying how insects, mammals, and mountain climbers move their legs."

"These studies not only help engineers better understand the basic principles of human walking, but also provide valuable reference for designing ASIMO."

Mi Ying's translation is very professional. She will use whatever tone the other person uses to translate.

It won't make people feel drowsy after listening to it.

"For example, when humans walk, they maintain balance by shifting their center of gravity and swinging their hands back and forth. These movements are also the basic principles of ASIMO walking."

"In addition, toes also play a very important role in walking, they help us maintain balance, just like ASIMO's feet."

"Furthermore, ASIMO's feet also adopt a design similar to human soft tissue, using shock-absorbing materials to absorb the impact on the joints during walking."

"It can be said that ASIMO's walking system is based on the principles of human walking, integrating the leg movement methods of insects, mammals and mountaineers, thus becoming an 'evolved version' of human walking."

Along with the explanation, the white robot on the stage was also walking and waved to greet everyone.

This immediately caused quite a reaction.

Many people even spontaneously applauded.

"Mr. Cao, it is very difficult for ASIMO to walk like a human being. It is incredible that Honda's ASIMO can now do this."

"In terms of humanoid robots, their technology should be industry-leading."

"But there is still a long way to go before we can truly walk like humans."

Li Shigui added his own opinions at the right time.

"When a robot walks, it will be affected by the inertial forces caused by the Earth's gravity and the acceleration or deceleration of travel. The sum of these forces is called the total inertial force."

Mi Ying glanced at Li Shigui and Cao Yang, and then continued to translate, "When the robot's feet touch the ground, it will be affected by the reaction force from the ground. This force is called ground reaction force."

"In order for our ASIMO to truly walk like a human being, all these forces must be balanced, and the control goal of ASIMO is to find a posture that can balance all the forces."

With the display of ASIMO, more and more people were attracted.

It seems that Honda Motor's robot has become the first dark horse at this World Robot Conference.

"Mr. Cao, humanoid robots are the most cutting-edge research project in the field of robotics, and their future development potential is also very large."

"Especially if a breakthrough can be made in artificial intelligence in the future, the application scenarios of humanoid robots will be even more worth looking forward to."

"The most important thing is that humanoid robots have unparalleled advantages in publicity and can directly attract the attention of a large number of ordinary people, thus greatly enhancing the brand power of the robots."

"I don't think the Robotics Division will officially launch a humanoid robot project in the future."

Taking this opportunity, Li Shigui proposed a new direction for the next step of development.

As the head of the Robotics Division, he naturally hopes that the business will be as broad as possible.

"Research on this type of human robot is even more difficult than industrial robots."

"Are you confident you can do it?"

Cao Yang naturally agreed with Li Shigui's proposal.

However, you can’t just agree to whatever the people below ask you immediately, right?

So he simply took this opportunity to test Li Shigui and see how he judged him.

"Compared with industrial robots, humanoid robots are indeed more difficult."

"For example, artificial intelligence algorithms, research in this area has only just begun in various countries."

"Humanoid robots need to achieve behaviors and emotions similar to humans, and they need to have complex artificial intelligence algorithms. These algorithms need to involve multiple fields such as machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing, and require very high technology and cost investment. "

"The requirements for body structure will also be much higher. After all, humanoid robots need to have a body structure similar to humans, including bones, muscles, joints, etc. This requires the intersection and integration of multiple fields such as materials science and robotics technology. .”

"In addition, humanoid robots need to be able to accurately control their body movements to achieve human-like movements. This requires the implementation of high-precision motion control algorithms and hardware systems."

"Finally, in terms of emotion and cognition, this is a more cutting-edge research direction. Humanoid robots need to be able to perceive and understand emotions, and carry out corresponding behavioral and emotional reactions. This requires psychology, neuroscience, etc. The intersection and integration of fields.”

"Although these are difficult, as long as a qualified humanoid robot product is developed, its application scenarios are also very wide."

With such a good opportunity to draw a big pie for his boss, Li Shigui naturally used his best efforts to organize and explain all the knowledge he had learned in his head and the knowledge he had learned from recent research on various cutting-edge papers.

The way Cao Yang listened patiently also made Li Shigui realize what a right choice he made by joining Nanshan.

"In which fields do you think humanoid robots will have great application prospects in the future?"

Now that the assessment has begun, it is natural to ask more questions.

Cao Yang is the one who knows the answer. Now look at Li Shigui's statement and see how different it is from the answer he knows.

"I think the application of humanoid robots still has a very broad future, and it can find its stage in all walks of life."

"For example, in the service field, humanoid robots can provide customer service, entertainment, nursing and other services in hotels, restaurants, hospitals, banks and other places to improve user experience and service quality."

"Opportunities can also be found in the education field, such as in education and teaching, science popularization and other fields, to provide students with a vivid and intuitive learning experience."

"In addition, it also has uses in the entertainment and medical fields. For example, it can be used as a performer, host, robot singer, etc. in entertainment venues to provide interactive entertainment experience for the audience; or it can be used for patient care and psychological counseling. , surgical simulation and other aspects to provide support and assistance to medical staff.”

Li Shigui gave a lot of reasons at once.

It seems that he has really thought about this issue.

"Since you feel that humanoid robots have a very bright future, let's work hard on it."

Cao Yang directly agreed to Li Shigui's plan without asking any more questions.

Next, ASIMO's performance at Honda's booth was almost over, and Cao Yang continued to look at other exhibitors.

Fujitsu's Flex series robots.

Panasonic's Vision series of robots.

American Rockwell Automation's repetitive task robot.

Warehousing and logistics robots from Eastern Automation in the United States.

Various robots from Eaton Industrial in the United States

……

Taking advantage of the World Robot Conference, everyone came up with their own flagship products.

It also made Cao Yang realize that there were actually many competitors in Nanshan.

It’s just that in China, the Japanese companies plus KUKA and ABB are familiar to everyone.

In fact, there are far more companies researching robot products in the world. Even in some relatively niche fields, the advanced level of robots in the United States is no worse than that of Japan.

If Nanshan Robot wants to completely become the industry leader, it seems that it still needs to continue to work hard.

Now it is only the welding robot and other robots adapted around this product that have made a name for themselves in the industry.

However, this afternoon, Nanshan's NS-Roboter200 launch conference is expected to further attract everyone's attention and make everyone realize that there is actually such a strong robot company in China.

And when Cao Yang was looking at other people's flagship products in various exhibition halls, people from other manufacturers were doing similar things.

"General Tanaka, the attention of the media and the audience was attracted to Honda's stage this morning."

"Although their ASIMO robot technology is not necessarily much better than ours from Kawasaki Heavy Industries, it is presented in the form of a humanoid robot, and the impact it brings to everyone is very different."

"Especially during one of the sessions, he brought a cup of coffee to the audience."

"Now there are reports about their ASIMO on the homepage of Yahoo! Japan."

"On the contrary, our robots basically don't attract much attention. This situation is very different from what everyone expected."

Ishikawa Yutake stood in the Kawasaki Heavy Industries robot exhibition hall, looking at the small flow of people and feeling a little depressed.

"No matter how high Honda's ASIMO robot is and how much attention it attracts, we don't have to worry too much."

"It is just a conceptual product and has not yet been launched on the market."

"Also, ASIMO is not designed for factory production floors."

"Honda is not our competitor at all in this case, they have always been our customer."

"Today they have attracted so much attention, and no manufacturer has jumped out to express dissatisfaction."

"That's because no one regards it as their competition."

Although Tanaka Tadashi is engaged in research and development, he does not see the problem very clearly.

No matter how powerful ASIMO's technology is, no one needs to worry, envy, or be jealous.

Just like at a car show, no matter how much media and audience attention Ferrari and Rolls-Royce attract, Chery and Geely will not care.

We are not competitors in the same region at all.

Would you envy pigs that they can eat and sleep, and eat while they sleep?

"That's true. Fortunately, Honda's ASIMO is just a concept robot."

"However, if you want to attract everyone's attention, you still need a conceptual robot like this."

"I think the company can launch a similar concept robot next year to attract everyone's attention."

"Maybe when promoting our industrial robots, it can have unexpected effects."

Ishikawa Yuwu drew inferences from one example and felt that Kawasaki could learn from other people’s practices tomorrow and attract a wave of traffic.

"Didn't you say that China's Nanshan robot might be today's dark horse?"

"I just passed by their booth, and only various extensions of the NS-Roboter100 series were on display."

"Although the parameters of their robot are very good, even better than our latest welding robot, I don't think there is anything to worry about."

"With only one product, there is no way it can pose a big threat to us."

Tanaka actually still looks down on Chinese companies deep down.

I feel that the other party’s products cannot truly surpass Kawasaki Heavy Industries.

Even if some data is already in front of you, everyone will selectively ignore it.

Especially this morning's visit confirmed his guess.

Nanshan is not as powerful as the people from FANUC and Kawasaki Huaxia Branch said.

"But I heard that the robotics exhibition they reported to the organizer is in the afternoon."

"Is it possible that they will launch new products by then?"

When Yui Ishikawa said this, Tanaka was stunned for a moment.

Are there any new products in Nanshan that have not been displayed?

This possibility really exists.

However, Nanshan’s foundation in the field of robotics is so weak. Even if they have any new products, they should be like that, right?

Right?