Exploring the Future of Blue-Collar Work at IO-AI Tech
At IO-AI Tech, When I founded a startup about 45 minutes north of downtown Shenzhen, China, I glimpsed a crazy new dimension of blue-collar work. Workers wearing the company’s VR headsets, handheld controllers, and motion tracking devices remotely control humanoid robots for workplaces such as factory floors and convenience stores. The company wants the robots to perform useful tasks, such as stocking shelves and retrieving items from bins, but also wants to collect training data that could one day allow the bots to work autonomously.
The Immersive Robot Control Experience
To demonstrate the technology, the company invited me to its offices, where I was allowed to control ten humanoid robot hands, each from a different company, using a custom-made motion tracking glove. The device instantly transmitted my finger movements to all 50 robot fingers.
I’m a little embarrassed to say that the first thing I tried with this futuristic equipment was to get all ten hands to flip the bird. Once I got this out of my system, I was impressed at how quickly my movements were transferred to the robotic hands and how easily the technology worked in both directions – I could feel a ball being placed in one of the electronic hands.
Courtesy of Will Knight
Practical Applications in Retail
The company also let me try out a system being tested by a Chinese supermarket chain. Using a VR headset and a pair of grabbers, I tried to grab medicine boxes from a shelf. At first it was confusing: I had to get used to a slight difference between my movements and those of the robot, which I could see through the headset. However, after a little practice, I found myself stacking shelves like a robot boss.
Adapting to Various Robotic Forms
Elsewhere, I saw people wearing virtual reality headsets and body tracking sensors reminiscent of Ready Player One. In a large room, I saw workers using a variety of systems to control tiny Unitree humanoids. A person walked around with a Unitree robot next to them, and the machine mirrored their movements in a mock apartment. The human operator, wearing a headset and viewing the scene through the cameras at the robot’s eye level, performed the movements required to remove a shirt from a hanger and fold it.
IO-AI is developing technology that transfers a person’s movements to different robotic forms – a useful offering since there are dozens of different humanoids and robotic hands on the market in China today. The startup’s algorithms also need to combine human control with a certain level of autonomy, since a person and a robot do not always have the same shape, size, and weight. Without the ability to move independently, the robot may lose balance.
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