Editor: Editorial Department
The 2024 Zhongguancun Bionic Robot Competition is officially launched today! Whether it's a humanoid bionic robot, an embodied large model, a multi-legged bionic robot, or even just a bionic dexterous hand, you can sign up. The judges are academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the prize pool is as high as 2.55 million! These two players who are stroking cats and bouncing on the spot are already gearing up.
Today, the Global Digital Economy Conference (Haidian Branch) - Artificial Intelligence Forum was officially unveiled.
The event was very lively and was also broadcast live online around the world.
At the conference, Xu Xinchao, Deputy Secretary-General of the Beijing Municipal Government, and Yang Renquan, Deputy Secretary of the Haidian District Party Committee, delivered speeches first.
Subsequently, Zhou Hongyi, founder and chairman of 360 Group, Wang Xiaochuan, CEO of Baichuan Intelligence, Zhang Peng, CEO of Zhipu Huazhang, and Li Dahai, CEO of Facing Wall Intelligence, also gave wonderful speeches.
Halfway through the event, the following activity pushed the atmosphere to a climax -
The 2024 Zhongguancun Bionic Robot Competition will be officially launched from today!
The 2024 Zhongguancun Bionic Robot Competition was officially launched
Bionic robots, including humanoid robots, quadruped robots, etc., can be said to be the typical "incarnation" of embodied intelligence.
Now, Haidian District has released the "Three-Year Action Plan for Building a National Embodied Intelligence Innovation Highland (2024-2026)", focusing on embodied large models and robots.
Nearly 200 robot companies have given Haidian District an incomparable industrial advantage.
It is reported that this competition is the first bionic robot competition focusing on embodied intelligence in China, and the world's top embodied large models and bionic robot innovation subjects will be unveiled at the competition!
Bionic robots, it sounds like there are many types, how will the players classify them?
Here's the format-
According to the classification of bionic robots and technical applications, the competition has set up three main tracks:
- Humanoid bionic robots
- Multi-legged bionic robots
- Embodied large models
and an innovation track for "Other Bionic Robots", including but not limited to:
- Underwater bionic robots
- Flying bionic robots
- Crawling bionic robots
- Micro-nano bionic robots
- Soft bionic robots
- Bionic dexterous hands and more
After completing the registration, the robot will start the first round of preliminary round.
The robots that enter the semi-final stage will be scored by the judges according to the technological innovation, practicability, market prospects, etc., and the winners will be selected to enter the finals.
The finalists will undergo a more rigorous assessment, including on-site demonstration, defense and competition, practical application scenario testing, and so on.
Academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Sciences are in charge
In order to ensure the authority and fairness of the competition, the organizing committee also invited academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Sciences to sit in the town.
The following names are all very heavy.
In this competition, the organizing committee specially hired Liu Hong, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, as the chairman of the expert committee of the competition, Ding Han, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wang Yaonan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Yu Haibin, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and Zhang Jianwei, foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, academician of the German National Academy of Engineering, and academician of the Hamburg Academy of Sciences, as the co-chairmen of the expert committee.
In addition, 20 well-known experts and scholars form an expert committee of the competition, which is responsible for the formulation and evaluation of the rules of each track.
2.55 million prize pool
What's more, this tournament offers a total prize pool of up to 2.55 million!
Among them, a total of 24 awards and 9 all-round winning awards were set up in the main track, with the first prize of 150,000 yuan, the second prize of 100,000 yuan, and the third prize of 50,000 yuan; A total of 5 innovation winners will be awarded in the innovation track, with a bonus of 30,000 yuan.
At the same time, it will also be linked by the three levels of urban and town linkage, and cooperate with banking institutions to provide comprehensive preferential policies such as funds, space, talents, and finance.
Seeing this, Xiaobian has a hunch that the bionic robot competition held in Haidian District will gather the most subversive scientific and technological innovation, the most core key technologies, and the top ideas.
Moreover, the well-informed editor has already inquired that the following two players from Xingdong Era and Polytechnic Huahui are already ready to compete.
Here, I wish the two players a successful competition!
In addition, in addition to a large number of domestic and foreign robot companies, Xiaobian also found many financial investment institutions and technical service institutions at the scene.
It seems that everyone is here for it.
After all, the high basic technology content and wide discipline span of this robot competition make it one of the most impressive robot competitions in recent times.
Moreover, in addition to the competition of robots, Haidian District has also invited many top industry experts and scholars, and at the upcoming bionic robot industry forum, we can hear the introduction of cutting-edge research results and industrial directions in these fields.
The editor also learned another blockbuster news at the scene!
It is reported that Haidian District will pay special attention to high-quality projects that are interested in landing in Haidian, and will vigorously cooperate with the holding of investment promotion meetings. Well-known investment institutions, banking institutions, territorial towns and industrial parks will participate in the conference.
Needless to say, what the words "government support" mean.
It seems that this event full of business opportunities may give birth to many startups that will soon release their results and amaze the world.
The next wave of AI: embodied intelligent robots
It can be seen that both the event itself and the industry forum reflect the great importance that Haidian District attaches to bionic robot technology.
The reason behind this is actually quite simple – the next wave of AI is embodied intelligence.
Here, it involves not only large models, artificial intelligence and image processing, but also cutting-edge research and technology integration in many fields such as communication sensing, precision mechanisms, and automatic control.
Previously, Figure 01, Optimus Prime, Atlas, Walker S, Unitree H1 and other "star" robots will immediately cause a sensation on the whole network as soon as they appear.
Just a few days ago, the Stanford team, which had launched the popular "Fried Shrimp Robot" on the Internet, made a humanoid robot HumanPlus based on Unitree Technology's H1 that can observe anthropological boxing, play the piano, play table tennis, and even code words on the computer.
In this round of Cambrian outbreak of robots, many enterprises settled in Haidian District also play a vital role.
The world's first robot to climb the Great Wall
Founded in August 2023, Xingdong Era, incubated by Tsinghua Fork Institute, focuses on the cutting-edge application of embodied intelligence, and is committed to the direction of universal humanoid robots that adapt to a wide range of fields, multiple scenarios, and high intelligence.
In May 2024, the 1.65-meter-old full-size humanoid robot XBOT broke a record - it climbed the Great Wall, becoming the first humanoid robot in the world to climb the Great Wall.
This can be achieved thanks to the full-stack technology architecture of the embodied intelligent humanoid robot developed by Xingdong Era, whether it is the head, waist or dexterous hand, the flexibility and accuracy of XBOT have been greatly improved.
Now, XBOT can walk steadily on lawns, gravel roads, and snow, and can perform complex movements such as going up and down stairs, carrying weights, squatting, jumping, and even lifting weights!
Among them, the extremely critical high-torque density modular joint module, as well as the dexterous hand with 12 active degrees of freedom, are all self-developed by Xingdong Era. In addition, multiple rounds of iterations have been completed, and the cost is completely controllable.
Iterate the product 6 times a year
The reason why the company can make these breakthroughs in a short period of time is also inseparable from the advantages of being in Haidian District.
First of all, the company itself was incubated by Tsinghua University, and the sense of belonging in Haidian is the strongest relative to anywhere else.
Secondly, the talent advantages and policy support provided in Haidian District are very large, which will help attract relevant talents to join and quickly carry out R&D iterations.
And this also allowed Xingdong Era to successfully iterate on 6 generations of robots in one year.
In stark contrast, when overseas companies (e.g., Tesla, Figure AI) use Chinese parts, the time and cost of transportation can be high.
Another very important point is that Haidian District has a very high level of support for the company.
Whether it is providing exposure opportunities at various exhibitions, or receiving visits from domestic and foreign leaders, including some welfare policies to support the development of enterprises, the company really feels the advantages of being in Haidian District that are completely different from other places.
As a highland in the field of science and technology, Haidian has attracted great attention to the progress of scientific research and the transformation of technological achievements. As a result, enterprises can not only apply for special fund rewards, but also reduce the pressure on business operations.
For the Zhongguancun Bionic Robot Competition held this time, Xingdong Era believes that it is also of great significance.
First of all, it can promote the cooperation and exchange of technology, and on the other hand, it can also promote some reuse of customers and scenarios.
Peers in the field of robotics can take this opportunity to learn from each other's strengths and weaknesses in technology, scenarios, and customers, and jointly promote the development of the industry.
The core components are independent and controllable, breaking the monopoly
Another player we saw at the beginning came from the company incubated by the bionic robot team of Beijing Institute of Technology - Polytechnic Huahui.
A live demonstration of "walking backwards" immediately aroused bursts of applause from the onlookers. (not upside down)
Since the first generation launched in 2002, the first five generations have focused on the balance control of the speed of movement, and the sixth and seventh generations have focused on multi-modal movements that adapt to the environment, realizing the multi-modal movement of "walking, running, jumping, falling, rolling and climbing".
In addition to the legged robot, the wheel-leg composite humanoid robot of Polytechnic Huahui can complete the express transportation of up to 20 kg of heavy objects.
Of course, the most noteworthy thing is that the blockbuster product of Polytechnic Huahui - motor joints.
Self-developed servo motor
In terms of motor joints, the mainland has been in a state of "stuck" in the past.
According to Polytechnic Huahui, although the motor joint is only one of the core components, the entire cost accounts for 30% or even 40% of the humanoid robot.
Moreover, the ability of the core components directly determines the final ability of the humanoid robot, including how high and fast it can jump, as well as its operation ability and accuracy.
Until 15 years ago, the domestic use was only imported from Germany and Japan.
After investing tens of millions of funds and uniting well-known research institutes in China, Polytechnic Huahui finally used its self-developed motor joints in its own robots in 2018.
Compared with the international advanced motor, the self-developed motor of Polytechnic Huahui has directly improved by 30% in some key indicators.
As we all know, in order to make humanoid robots really land, in addition to the cerebellum that controls proprioceptive movements, it also needs a large model brain that can understand various tasks and natural language.
At the same time, Haidian has a large number of companies that make large models, as well as related talents.
On the one hand, it is more convenient for teachers at Beijing Institute of Technology to provide support and help achieve the transformation of results.
On the other hand, the students who graduate every year of the school will also continue to provide talent resources for the company.
For the upcoming bionic robot competition, Polytechnic Huahui also expressed great excitement.
What Huahui has focused on for many years is the movement ability of robots. It has also been working on core components and motion control algorithms for more than 20 years to reach where it is today.
Through the competition, they can understand where their strengths are, where the gap is with other companies, and at the same time promote more cooperation.
The highland of AI development in China
I believe everyone has seen that Haidian District is playing a "big game of chess".
Rather than more commercial exhibitions, Haidian District is more concerned about how to help enterprises, investment institutions, and universities establish cooperation between universities.
In this way, all parties will be integrated to jointly promote the progress of scientific research and the transformation of achievements, and further promote the development of the entire industry.
Previously, at the "Artificial Intelligence Theme Day", the first theme day event since the Zhongguancun Forum was held, 161 guests gathered in Haidian District.
Among them, nearly half are foreign AI leaders and practitioners, directly in line with the world's top level. In addition to the Nobel Prize and Turing Award winners, there were also more than 30 academicians at home and abroad, presidents and vice presidents of Qingbei Port University of Science and Technology and other well-known universities.
On the theme day, enterprises and universities have sufficient time to display and exchange the latest achievements.
For example, "Vidu" jointly developed by Biodigital Technology and Tsinghua University, the world's first low-carbon, high-performance, low-illusion multilingual large model Tele-FLM, and Nature's optoelectronic intelligent computing, etc.
At the Global Digital Economy Conference, Haidian District also laid out four directions: data infrastructure, digital global governance, cloud computing empowering artificial intelligence and artificial intelligence industry interconnection.
As the region with the best innovation foundation, the most concentrated human resources, the strongest R&D and innovation capabilities, and the most active product iteration in the field of artificial intelligence in China.
Today, not only robots, but also the deployment of the whole industry chain based on chips, frameworks, large models, data technology and processing services have also been basically formed, and enterprises account for 70% of the city.
In the future, the artificial intelligence industry highland built with Haidian as the core will undoubtedly have a global influence.
So, what are the advantages of Haidian to build these high-tech modern industries?
This has to mention the human resources and ecological resources of Haidian District.
Human resources
In Haidian, it brings together a high density of talents and ecological soil.
If you want to talk about the concentration of AI talents in Haidian District, it should not be too much to say that it is TOP 1 in the country.
Here, there are 12,300 artificial intelligence scholars (accounting for 80%+ of the city) and 89 AI 2000 global top scholars (accounting for 70%+ of the city).
The national AI talents look at Beijing, and the Beijing AI talents look at Haidian.
The talents who have "left the factory" are densely distributed in nearly 1,000 enterprises in Haidian. Haidian's AI companies directly account for 2/3 of the whole Beijing and 1/5 of the country.
The talents who are still in school are also being cultivated intensively. Among the 37 colleges and universities in Haidian, there are as many as 21 universities that have set up AI majors.
In line with the concept of the world's first artificial intelligence district, Haidian District has 37 top universities such as Tsinghua University and Peking University, 10 new R&D institutions, 52 national key laboratories, 106 national scientific research institutions, and 1,300 artificial intelligence enterprises.
It can be said that in terms of talent layout, Haidian District already has the great advantage of being the source of AI construction innovation and the industrial highland.
Ecological resources
In terms of industry, Haidian District has gathered nearly 1,000 enterprises, accounting for 2/3 of the city and 1/6 of the country.
The 10 billion Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Fund has been implemented here.
Zhongguancun, Zhichun Road, Xueyuan Road, these familiar place names, have taken the lead in building a national AI large model industry agglomeration area around them.
With its superior innovation ecology and business environment, Haidian District has created good development opportunities for enterprises rooted here.
This has also become the voice of many enterprises to land in Haidian.
Not only that, Haidian has also introduced a lot of policies to support enterprises to innovate, especially for the research and development and application of those robot enterprises.
In terms of innovation and entrepreneurship policies, Haidian District has introduced "15 measures for innovation platforms" that support the provision of proof-of-concept and future industry incubation, to further solve the problems of factors and costs that hinder the growth of enterprises.
At present, Haidian has 108 national maker spaces, 24 national science and technology business incubators, and a total of 179 business incubators. Nine of these incubators were rated as the first batch of benchmark examples in the Arctic.
For the industry, Haidian has also launched a series of policies.
For example, the "Several Measures to Accelerate the Innovation and Development of Artificial Intelligence Large Models in Zhongguancun Science City" and the plan provide precise guidance and support from AI technology, computing power supply, application scenarios, etc.
Among them, the 3500P computing power of the Beijing AI computing platform has been deployed in place, and it is planned to deploy 10000P computing power by the end of the year.
In addition, Haidian is also promoting the construction of an artificial intelligence model corpus center in Beijing, and 1,100TB of high-quality datasets have been provided to embodied large model companies.
In the field of more detailed embodied intelligence, Haidian also released the "Three-year Action Plan for Building a National Embodied Intelligence Innovation Highland", focusing on embodied large models and robot technology.
In terms of finance, Haidian focuses on five major subdivisions, including artificial intelligence and big data, medicine and health, integrated circuit design, new generation information technology, and intelligent manufacturing, and provides multi-dimensional and professional service support for science and technology enterprises through industrial investment, industrial services and business incubation.
By the end of 2023, 39 direct investment projects involve artificial intelligence, 16 are medical and health, and 15 are integrated circuits.
It can be seen that Haidian is building an "ecological rainforest" to support the healthy development of the industry step by step.
In this hot land where many universities, scientific research institutions, and enterprises are gathered, let the trendsetters continue to explore and move forward in practice, so as to expand human cognition of the future of AI.