Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 514 Simulation Robot

Many people's impression of robots comes from various movies, TV shows or comics. In order to look good and shock people, many robots in these cultural works are set as humanoid robots, trying to be as "human-like" as possible.

Therefore, there appeared bipedal anthropomorphic robots with mechanical appearance such as Transformers, Gundam, and Mecha Warriors. They look tall and mighty, and have the aesthetics of industrial violence and visual impact.

At the same time, there are also fully anthropomorphic and even simulated robots played by real people, such as the T800 and T1000 robots in the Terminator. This is to reflect the emotions of the robots and add more things that impact people's hearts, such as warmth or betrayal, which are human emotions... To put it bluntly, the robots are described as humans.

Although the two types of creators have different goals and paths, they both use bipedal anthropomorphic forms.

The widespread existence of these cultural works has also led people to have a preliminary understanding of the form of robots, that is, the bipedal anthropomorphic form.

This can be seen from the performance and sales of intelligent robots under Zhiyun Group.

Among them, the wheeled platform has better battery life and better stability, and is actually more practical in some application scenarios, especially in home application scenarios where there is no need to go up and down stairs. However, even so, robots with wheeled platforms only have good sales among low-end robot models. This is not because of how good it is, but purely because the battery life of low-end bipedal robots is too poor, and people have no choice but to choose robots with wheeled platforms.

In the mid-to-high-end field, the battery life of bipedal robots is slightly better, so no one wants wheeled robots.

In addition, four-legged platforms and even six-legged platforms are not easy to sell... You said that the mobility of wheeled platforms is not good enough, they cannot pass through complex terrain, and they cannot go up and down stairs. Then four-legged platforms and six-legged platforms do not have such problems. Their passability is very good. Even military robots are on four legs and stand on platforms.

Robots with four-legged/six-legged platforms have stronger performance, greater stability, better passability, and even more functions, but still no one buys them to use as home robots... People simply assume that this type of Zhiyun robot is a robot for work assistance and special operations.

People like bipedal platform robots... not because they have better performance, but because they are more like humans and more in line with people's aesthetics and definition of robots.

After a long period of tracking, analysis and investigation, the robot business department of Zhiyun Group came to this conclusion and strongly recommended that the development department develop a realistic robot.

Create an expression system, so that the robot doesn’t always have a stern face, but can smile occasionally!

In addition, the voice system can also be optimized. Don't use the unchanging electronic sound. It is not difficult to create a few real-person voices. There are not even any technical problems.

The development department attaches great importance to the suggestions received from these two marketing departments.

After all, when it comes to making robots, the engineers in the development department are professionals, but when it comes to selling robots... those in the marketing department are professionals.

As a result, these two development projects were put on the agenda last year. After development and numerous tests, they were finally applied to this year's Yun Robot S4.

Among them, the voice system is the simplest. Just find some people with different voice characteristics, such as rough, sweet, etc. to record, and then integrate the voice characteristics into the voice system. There is no technical difficulty, and many Internet companies can do it.

Of course, if Zhiyun Group wants to do this, then it will definitely push it to the limit. They try their best to make the voice system imitate real people's voices and remove electronic sounds.

Of course, the voice system also requires technical support from Yun AI.

The expression system is a little more difficult, but not too difficult. It integrates the data feedback from the artificial intelligence system and then conducts special training to allow the robot to recognize different scenes, user tones and expressions, and then make corresponding expression feedback.

For example, when a robot with a shy personality is heard making fun of a user, it will make a shy expression.

Specifically for facial expressions, this requires expression modules driven by many micro-motors on the face, and then the expression modules are covered with silicone skin to make the whole movement softer.

However, this is quite difficult, so the robot actually has very few expressions, only a few simple smiles or specific expressions such as shyness, frustration, etc.

Then use body movements to enhance the expression.

Now it looks like the real deal!
However, this cannot be taken too seriously, and you cannot stare at it every day, otherwise it will still feel fake!
After all, the facial movement module driven by micromotors is very different from the muscles and skin of the human face. It is difficult to imitate it to a high degree under the existing technical conditions. It is already not easy to imitate some fixed and not difficult expressions.

Finally, they were combined together to form the current Yun Robot S4 robot.

In the beginning, people didn’t really feel anything. After getting off the car, these S4 robots looked exactly the same. People only knew that they were robots, and that they were covered with silicone skin, had wigs, and even wore clothes.

This is nothing new. The S series flagship version of Zhiyun Robotics has always provided a special silicone skin customization service, which can customize silicone skin according to customer needs.

Therefore, many users with plenty of money have purchased flagship robots with silicone skin, which can often be seen in various videos on the Internet.

However, today is indeed a little different.

Xu Shenxue waved and called a robot over, then said to the robot: "S456, come, say hello to everyone and smile!"

Then, the robot with a beautiful appearance and in the form of a young woman standing next to Xu Shenxue spoke.

The first thing she said was a sweet female voice: "Hi, everyone. I am Yun Robot S4 from Zhiyun Group, number S4156. Nice to meet you all!"

When this sound came out and was transmitted through the on-site sound equipment, many people who heard it couldn't believe it. It was so sweet.

And there is not even a hint of the electronic sound that is typical of robots.

Xu Shenxue said, "This year, we have added a new simulated sound system to the new S series robots, which can provide users with 36 different voices, and users can set them according to their needs."

Then he turned to S4156 and said, "Come on, show our users some of your other voices!"

Then, a very strange scene occurred. The robot spoke in several different voices in succession... and each one sounded no different from a real person.

And some people at the scene also keenly discovered that when the robot spoke, it was accompanied by certain facial expressions and movements.

At this time, Xu Shenxue also said: "I believe that some of you have discovered that our new generation of robots have facial expressions and movements when they speak!"

"And this is our new expression system. We have integrated an expression movement module on the face of the S4 robot, combined with a special silicone skin, to achieve facial expressions!"

"It will output different expressions and actions according to different usage scenarios and conversations!"

“Just like now!”

"S4156, give me a smile!"

The robot suddenly smiled, and this smile, coupled with the beautiful appearance of the robot, made people feel shocked... Is this a robot? This "beautiful girl" doesn't look like a robot!
The expression system and the new realistic voice system are the two major features of this year's S4 robot. They are also improvements and optimizations made specifically based on market feedback. Xu Shenxue attaches great importance to this and has introduced it in detail.

In addition to introducing the new expression system and voice system, Xu Shenxue also introduced many advanced functions, some of which are upgrades of advanced functions.

For example, the housekeeping model has undergone a major upgrade this year. Robots can support more types of housework. At the same time, they have been upgraded to meet the two stronger demands of cleaning and dishwashing, making cleaning smoother, more efficient and more accurate.

"If paired with smart home devices such as dishwashers and sweepers in our smart home system, our robots can complete their housework very efficiently, allowing you to keep your home clean every day!"

While speaking, Xu Shenxue also introduced Zhiyun's smart home division and the recently launched sweeping robot and dishwasher. These two new products are new products specially developed to work with robots.

Zhiyun Group has a smart home business, although it is not large, with annual revenue of only about US$10 billion.

It’s just that the smart home of Zhiyun Group is different from that of other manufacturers... Other manufacturers’ smart homes just install a chip in the appliances and add some mobile phone or voice remote control functions, which can’t be considered smart.

At most, it means 'diversified remote control methods'!
The smart home of Zhiyun Group is actually an intelligent system, not a single appliance!

Zhiyun Group's smart home requires a home host to provide computing power, and a low-end model of a home host alone costs hundreds of thousands, while a high-end model costs several million.

To put it bluntly, this home host is actually a GPU computing center. The current high-end models are even equipped with APO4600 graphics cards. At the same time, in order to make this home host work, it is also necessary to deploy sensors such as cameras and microphones in the house.

At the same time, it must be matched with various customized electrical equipment.

The smart home created in this way actually puts artificial intelligence in the home, allowing it to control various home appliances or furniture.

The price is also expensive. A home host can cost hundreds of thousands of yuan, and other supporting smart home appliances can cost tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of yuan.

Among these smart appliances or furniture, except for the sweeping robots and smart TVs which are made by Zhiyun itself, all other smart appliances are developed in cooperation with other manufacturers.

Zhiyun Group is responsible for providing artificial intelligence interface solutions, while the partner manufacturers are responsible for the home appliance part. The partner manufacturers then launch Zhiyun customized smart home appliances.

But without exception, the customized smart home appliances developed by these partner brands based on Zhiyun's technical performance requirements are all high-end luxury models, and therefore very expensive, costing tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of yuan.

On the one hand, Zhiyun has high technical standards for its cooperative manufacturers. Zhiyun requires you to use all kinds of top technologies and create the most technologically advanced products before providing you with an artificial intelligence interface technical solution for this product.

If a cooperative manufacturer takes an ordinary home appliance and asks for a customized version, Zhiyun will ignore you...it will affect the brand reputation!
On the other hand, many partner manufacturers actually regard Zhiyun’s customized smart home appliances as a shortcut to shaping their own brand image!
No matter how good the technology is, it is difficult to make something you make ultra-high-end... Consumers will not buy it unless you go in the direction of luxury goods... But the market capacity for luxury goods in the home appliance field is very small, and it doesn’t make much sense for large companies.

There are luxury home appliances that cost hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars, but their sales are very touching and cannot support a large enterprise.

Zhiyun Group sells mobile phones for only a few thousand yuan each, but it is a world-class multinational high-tech company with a revenue of over 3 trillion yuan!

If Zhiyun Group sells mobile phones for hundreds of thousands of yuan each, it can at most be a large enterprise with a revenue of 30 billion yuan!

This has nothing to do with whether the product is good or not. The key issue is the market capacity. The market capacity for luxury goods is limited, and no matter how much you try, it will only be that way.

This is even more obvious in the field of home appliances, where ultra-high-end appliances with luxury prices are difficult to achieve.

But...if you put a logo of Zhiyun Group's customized AI home appliances, then consumers will think that the high price is justified.

Of course, it is not reliable to make it into a super high-end luxury product, but if it is made into a regular high-end product, there will be no big problem, and sales can be guaranteed.

As a result, many manufacturers piled up all kinds of costly cutting-edge technologies and produced a large number of customized high-end products.

If you equip a household with all the commonly used home appliances and furniture, even if it's just a basic, entry-level set, it would cost at least two to three million, and if you go up... it would be tens of millions!
The smart home ecosystem developed by Zhiyun Group has, as always, demonstrated the characteristics of Zhiyun Group: never cheating the poor!
Of course, ordinary families can also have access to Zhiyun Group’s smart homes. For example, Zhiyun Group also has its own smart TVs and smart sweepers… Buying a Zhiyun-branded smart TV for 20,000 or 30,000 yuan can also be considered a smart home!

Today, Zhiyun Group has integrated robots into the smart home ecosystem, and through the connection between smart robots, home hosts and various smart home devices, it can achieve a more intelligent home life.

That is why Xu Shenxue specifically mentioned the coordination between Zhiyun’s intelligent robots and home appliances today.

In addition to the housekeeping functions, Xu Shenxue also emphasized the upgraded advanced teaching and tutoring mode... The teaching mode is a major selling point of Zhiyun robots. Although this was not the original intention of Zhiyun Group to make robots, parents have found this mode to be very useful.

The teaching mode is the main motivation for many parents to buy Zhiyun robots!
This is equivalent to hiring a tutor who is knowledgeable, always patient, never angry, and has all the tutoring skills of famous teachers.

The payment rate of the advanced teaching model has long been ranked first among the three East Asian countries...Except for the free advanced housekeeping model, this advanced teaching model is the most used.

Not only in the three East Asian countries, but also in other countries, even in Europe and the United States, which are famous for their happy education, the payment rate for advanced teaching models is also very high...

European and American countries are also very competitive. Happy education is for the lower class and has nothing to do with middle- and high-income families... and the families that can afford Zhiyun robots are basically middle- and high-income families. Their children are also very competitive and invest a lot in education.

In response to this market situation, the robot R&D team in Zhiyun Group has been very active in upgrading the teaching model. Not only has it collected a large amount of various teaching content, but it has also specially hired some top teachers from various countries to give lectures, and then recorded the data for use in robot teaching model training.

In addition to the conventional advanced modes, Xu Shenxue naturally did not forget to introduce the newly launched driving vehicle mode.

However, considering the legal restrictions of this advanced function, Xu Shenxue also mentioned at the press conference: "Although our robot has launched a driving mode, we hope that our users will abide by the traffic laws and regulations in their area."

"So we have made certain restrictions on the driving mode. Unless you obtain local judicial permission, it is prohibited to drive on public roads... Even if the user requests it, the robot will refuse."

What Xu Shenxue didn’t say was that in order to prevent various legal issues, the activation of this driving mode requires users to sign a lot of legal documents to disclaim liability. Zhiyun Group will not be responsible for any accidents that occur after the robot drives...

Zhiyun Group's large legal team will launch various types of exemption legal documents based on the legal situation of each country. Users can only pay and activate the service after signing them, otherwise it will not be activated.

At present, basically all countries in the world have legal loopholes regarding robot driving... Not to mention robot driving, even autonomous driving of vehicles now has similar problems.

Countries around the world have either banned it outright, have left legal gaps, or are in the process of conducting various assessments.

Therefore, Hailan Automobile's autonomous driving, even though it already has the high-end L4 level autonomous driving technology, has always provided services under the name of assisted driving, and requires the driver not to leave the driving seat and to be able to take over the vehicle at any time...

In order to solve this problem, Hailan Automobile is still conducting various tests of autonomous driving in some countries to prove the safety of autonomous driving and strive to obtain legal permission for autonomous driving. However, this is not easy and it is estimated that it will take many years.

This is also the case in China. HaiLian Automobile has been conducting autonomous driving tests in China for several years, and all the tests have gone smoothly without any serious safety accidents. However, it is still under testing, and obtaining legal permission is still a long way off.

Safety is one thing, and liability is another.

This robot driving also faces the same problem!
But is robot driving useless? Impossible, at least it is fun to play with... Users can drive to the wilderness and let the robot drive, for example, let the robot drive an off-road vehicle to go off-road, which is very suitable!
Rich people love to do this kind of thing!

Therefore, the robot's driving function is actually an entertainment function.

After introducing the various new features of the robot, we finally come to the key point: solid-state batteries!
This is also the main purpose for many people to attend this joint press conference today.

Xu Shenxue also knows this!
"For robots or electric vehicles, batteries are an indispensable core element, and the quality of battery performance is directly related to battery life!"

"Our Hailan electric car originally used lithium iron phosphate batteries, and later developed semi-solid batteries, which greatly improved the battery life of electric vehicles!"

"It is efficient and safe, with a faster charging speed and an energy density of 350 watt-hours per kilogram, which enables our Hailan car to have a pure electric range of more than 700 kilometers!"

"It also allows our robot to have a comprehensive endurance of more than six hours. In the normal motion mode, it has an endurance of two and a half hours, and in the extreme power output mode, it can still get an endurance of 20 minutes!"

"But this is not enough, not enough!"

"We need batteries that are more energy dense, safer, and charge faster!"

"To this end, our team of engineers worked day and night for many years and finally made a better battery!"

"Now, please allow me to introduce our new generation of batteries to you. It is also the energy heart of the new generation of Hailan smart electric vehicles, Zhiyun robots, future Zhiyun mobile phones and other portable devices: the Poseidon battery system!"

"A new technology route for hybrid oxide polymer solid-state batteries!"

"With it, the battery life is doubled!"

"With it, safety is improved by 99 percent."

“With this, we will change the world!”

(End of this chapter)