Could a humanoid robot perform household chores for you? Soon, that might be the case. Chinese robotics company UniX AI has announced the release of Panther, a humanoid service robot designed to help with common household tasks.
The robot — which weighs 176 pounds (80 kilograms) and stands 5 feet, 3 inches (1.6 meters) tall — can operate for up to 12 hours on a charge, its engineers announced in a statement. In addition to releasing a promotional video showing Panther performing chores like making the bed, cleaning countertops and toilets, and cooking breakfast, UniX AI has started commercial deliveries of the model — suggesting it’s ready to be deployed in a real-world setting.
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A stable service robot
To accomplish household chores, Panther uses two of the world’s first mass-produced 8-DoF bionic arms, which give the robot joints with 34 degrees of freedom, UniX AI representatives said.
At the end of its arms are intelligent “grippers” that adapt to different shapes and sizes of items that the robot can grab. In the promotional video, Panther is seen holding a plastic spatula when frying an egg and a toilet brush when cleaning the toilet. The robot even washes its hands in the sink at the end of the video, drying off its grippers on a bath towel.
Panther’s body can extend vertically by 31 inches (80 centimeters) to access hard-to-reach areas from tall shelves to ground level. It uses binocular vision and a webcam to see its surroundings.
Whereas other humanoid robots rely on legged locomotion and thus have a higher tendency of falling, Panther uses an omnidirectional four-wheel steering and four-wheel drive (4WS+4WD) chassis, allowing it to smoothly maneuver varying indoor environments.
It uses both lidar and ultrasonic sensors to determine its spatial position and moves around 6 feet (1.89 m) per second — roughly the speed of a brisk walk. UniX AI representatives noted in the statement that engineers focused less on building the “most human-like robot” and more on making sure the model could accomplish a variety of tasks with stability and flexibility.
Taking on multiple tasks
In early tests and demonstrations, Panther handled multiple prompts, including making tea, cleaning the kitchen, and operating a washing machine. To do this, Panther runs on UniX AI’s integrated technology stack, which includes imitation learning and long-term task planning so that it can perform tasks seamlessly one step at a time.
Engineers designed Panther for a wide range of applications in addition to housework, including assistance in retail, reception, guided tours, elderly care, companionship, research and education.
The price of this model could not be found on UniX AI’s website.
