Operating a Humanoid With Your Body Is a Hot Job in China’s Hardware Capital
Operating a Humanoid With Your Body Is a Hot Job in China’s Hardware Capital
用身体操控人形机器人：中国硬件之都的热门职业
At IO-AI Tech, a startup about 45 minutes north of downtown Shenzhen, China, I glimpsed a wacky new frontier of blue-collar work. Workers wearing the company’s VR headsets, handheld controllers, and motion-tracking gear remotely control humanoid robots for workplaces like factory floors and convenience stores. The company wants the robots to do useful work, like stocking shelves and picking items out of bins, but it also wants to gather training data that could one day let the bots operate autonomously.
在中国深圳市区以北约 45 分钟车程的初创公司 IO-AI Tech，我窥见了一个蓝领工作的新奇前沿领域。工人们佩戴着该公司的 VR 头显、手持控制器和动作捕捉装备，远程操控人形机器人，使其在工厂车间和便利店等场所工作。该公司不仅希望机器人能完成诸如上架货物、从箱中拣选物品等实用工作，还希望借此收集训练数据，从而在未来实现机器人的自主运行。
To show off the tech, the company invited me to its offices, where I was allowed to control 10 humanoid robotic hands, each from a different company, using a custom motion-tracking glove. The device instantly transferred my finger movements to all 50 robotic digits.
为了展示这项技术，该公司邀请我前往其办公室。在那里，我被允许使用一只定制的动作捕捉手套，同时操控来自不同公司的 10 只人形机器手。该设备将我的手指动作瞬间同步到了全部 50 根机器手指上。
I’m a little embarrassed to say that the first thing I tried with this futuristic gear was getting all 10 hands to flip the bird. After getting this out of my system, I was impressed by how quickly my movements transferred to the robot hands, and how easily the tech went both ways—I was able to feel a ball placed in one of the electronic hands.
说来有点不好意思，我用这套未来感十足的装备做的第一件事，就是让这 10 只手同时竖起中指。在满足了这点恶作剧心理后，我被动作传输到机器手上的速度之快所震撼，同时也惊叹于该技术双向交互的便捷性——我甚至能感觉到其中一只电子手所抓握的球体。
The company also let me try a system that’s being tested by a Chinese convenience store chain. Using a VR headset and a pair of grippers, I tried picking up boxes of medication from a shelf. It was disorienting at first: I had to adjust to a slight difference between my movements and those of the robot I could see through the headset. After a little practice, however, I was stacking shelves like a robot-boss.
该公司还让我尝试了一套正在某中国连锁便利店进行测试的系统。戴上 VR 头显并握住一对抓取器，我尝试从货架上拿起药盒。起初我感到有些迷失方向：我必须适应我的动作与通过头显看到的机器人动作之间细微的差异。然而，经过一番练习后，我操作起来就像个熟练的机器人主管一样，开始在货架上堆叠商品。
Elsewhere, I watched people wearing virtual reality headsets and body-tracking sensors reminiscent of Ready Player One. In one large room, I saw workers using a range of different systems to control diminutive Unitree humanoids. One person marched around with a Unitree robot next to them, and the machine mirrored their movements within a mocked-up apartment. The human operator, wearing a headset and viewing the scene through the robot’s eye-level cameras, went through the motions needed to remove a shirt from a hanger and fold it.
在其他区域，我看到人们戴着 VR 头显和动作捕捉传感器，让人联想到《头号玩家》中的场景。在一个大房间里，我看到工人们使用各种不同的系统来操控小巧的宇树（Unitree）人形机器人。一个人在模拟公寓场景中走动，身旁的机器人同步模仿着他的动作。操作员戴着头显，通过机器人眼部高度的摄像头观察现场，完成了从衣架上取下衬衫并将其折叠的动作。
IO-AI develops technology that transfers a person’s movements to different robot forms—a useful offering because there are dozens of different humanoids and robot hands on the market in China today. The startup’s algorithms also need to combine human control with some level of autonomy because a person and a robot aren’t always going to be the same shape, size, and weight. Without some ability to move independently, the robot may lose its balance.
IO-AI 开发的技术能将人的动作传输到不同形态的机器人身上——这非常实用，因为目前中国市场上存在数十种不同的人形机器人和机器手。该初创公司的算法还需要将人类控制与一定程度的自主性相结合，因为人和机器人的形状、尺寸和重量并不总是一致的。如果缺乏独立移动的能力，机器人可能会失去平衡。
Shenzhen, which is home to thousands of manufacturers, is an ideal base for the company. Si Chin, one of IO-AI Tech’s cofounders, tells me that the location makes it easy to develop and refine new prototypes. She also notes that IO-AI Tech is working with a number of local manufacturers keen to automate tasks. One Chinese company, Jack Sewing Machines, makes clothes manufacturing equipment and is working with the startup to train two-armed robots to perform tasks like ironing shirts. These robots could fit onto an existing production line and automate work currently done by hand, an executive from the company told me.
深圳拥有数以千计的制造商，是该公司的理想基地。IO-AI Tech 的联合创始人之一 Si Chin 告诉我，这一地理位置使得开发和改进新原型机变得非常容易。她还提到，IO-AI Tech 正在与多家热衷于自动化生产的本地制造商合作。其中一家中国公司——杰克缝纫机（Jack Sewing Machines）生产服装制造设备，目前正与该初创公司合作，训练双臂机器人执行熨烫衬衫等任务。该公司的一位高管告诉我，这些机器人可以安装在现有的生产线上，实现目前由人工完成的工作自动化。
Some roboticists believe that giving AI algorithms vast amounts of tele-operation data will eventually unlock extremely capable and general models. Chin says that might be so, but she also believes it makes sense to take an incremental approach to deploying AI-powered automation.
一些机器人专家认为，为人工智能算法提供海量的远程操作数据，最终将解锁能力极强且通用的模型。Chin 表示这或许有道理，但她同时也认为，采取渐进式的方法来部署人工智能自动化更为合理。
“It is similar to self-driving cars,” she says, referencing the way that these machines have been deployed in more and more settings with increasing autonomy. “You need this training data that’s more focused on the specific thing you’re trying to address.” She says that robot teleoperation is even gaining traction in some Chinese vocational schools.
“这类似于自动驾驶汽车，”她提到这些机器是如何在越来越多的场景中部署并不断提高自主性的，“你需要针对你试图解决的具体问题，获取更具针对性的训练数据。”她表示，机器人远程操作甚至正在中国的一些职业学校中受到关注。
China’s manufacturing prowess already produces cheap, high-quality robots like Unitree’s. If IO-AI Tech is any indication, it might also help AI master the physical world.
中国的制造实力已经能够生产出像宇树（Unitree）那样廉价且高质量的机器人。如果 IO-AI Tech 的发展是一个风向标，那么它或许也将助力人工智能掌握物理世界。
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