XPeng’s next-generation “Iron” humanoid robot turned heads and floored jaws when it was seen walking very much like a human last week.
The Chinese company, better known for electric vehicles than humanoid robots, even had to tear off part of Iron’s padding to prove that there wasn’t a human inside it.
A new video (below) from XPeng has taken things a step further by removing Iron’s entire outer shell to give us a closer look at its metal interior and core workings.
As you can see, the footage begins with Iron performing a dance, which the narrator, XPeng CEO He Xiaopeng, says is a great way to demonstrate a robot’s overall flexibility and coordination.
Xiaopeng said his team of engineers trained Iron using imitation learning combined with a large AI model, enabling their humanoid robot to replicate the movements provided via input human dance data.
“It mastered the dancing in just two hours,” Xiaopeng said, adding that using the alternative method of reinforcement learning took two weeks to get the robot to the same level of skill.
Addressing the audience response at last week’s event when people were wowed — and likely a little creeped out — by Iron’s remarkable ability to walk in a human-like way, the CEO said it used the same AI-based training approach that it used for the dancing.
The natural walking motion is partly down to the robot’s unique spine design, which is based on that of a human. Xiaopeng explained that this adds integrated flexibility to the waist to create a natural-looking hip-swaying motion.
XPeng is one of a growing number of companies keen to develop and deploy humanoid robots in the workplace and even in the home. Though the technology isn’t quite there, recent advancements in AI technologies have given the sector a boost as engineers work to perfect their designs.
The latest company to throw their hat in the ring is Samsung, which last week promised it would unveil its first humanoid robot “soon.”
