How Can Humanoid Robots Fill the Labor Gap?

CGTN Europe

Zhang Shiqi, Associate Professor from Department of Computer Science at The State University of New York at Binghamton discusses the factors driving the global surge in humanoid robot development, including aging societies and more affordable robot hardware. He highlights the need for increased safety measures and intelligence capabilities for humanoid robots to fully integrate into everyday workplaces, addressing issues such as handling unexpected events and adhering to regulations.

Transcript

00:00Best to leave that there, I think.

00:02Zhang Shixi is Associate Professor of Computer Science

00:04at the State University of New York at Binghamton.

00:07Professor, good to see you.

00:08What's driving the speed, the current global surge

00:11in humanoid robot development?

00:15Hi, thanks for having me here.

00:19So there are many factors driving the surge

00:23of the humanoid robot development.

00:26One big reason is that we are facing a society

00:29that is aging very quickly.

00:32For the manufacturing industries,

00:35for instance, like car manufacturing,

00:37it is more and more difficult

00:40and more and more costly to recruit the labor,

00:44especially the well-trained labor in this industry.

00:48And at the same time,

00:50like the full supply chain in China

00:52is making the humanoid robot hardware

00:54more and more affordable.

00:57So then, all together,

00:59we are thinking of using humanoid robots

01:02to bridge the labor gap

01:04and better support the manufacturing

01:06and other industries.

01:09That's just two of the important factors

01:12driving this humanoid robot development.

01:15If you're a distinguished professor like you,

01:17clearly you're very excited by this.

01:19If you work on a car assembly line,

01:21how worried should you be?

01:25So there are many things to consider.

01:27For instance, in the manufacturing industry,

01:31many of the robots are still working

01:33in the so-called forbidden zones.

01:35So if we have the robot operating,

01:37then people are not allowed to enter the area

01:40for safety reasons.

01:42So to really bring the robots,

01:44especially humanoid robots

01:46that walk around in those factory environments,

01:49to humans' everyday life,

01:51there's still a lot of research needed

01:53to increase the safety levels,

01:55to increase the intelligence

01:57and the perception capabilities.

01:58What breakthroughs and, frankly,

02:01safeguards are still needed

02:03before we see robotics in everyday workplaces?

02:09So we already see robots,

02:12humanoid robots in environments

02:15like manufacturing industries,

02:17warehouses and hotels

02:19like to deliver toothbrushes and water bottles.

02:23But those are relatively controlled environments.

02:26So there isn't a lot of the human activities

02:30or the other agents acting at the same time.

02:34So to really bring the robots one step further

02:38to our everyday life,

02:40like factories and other scenarios,

02:43the robot needs the intelligence

02:45to capture all the corner cases in human society.

02:50Like if the robot is delivering something,

02:52what if the object falls onto the floor?

02:54If the robot delivers a coffee,

02:56what if there's a coffee spill?

02:58And how to deal with those corner cases

03:00requires a lot of common sense

03:02and reasoning about the rules

03:04and also the regulations

03:06where we don't have sufficient data

03:09or the knowledge to support

03:10that kind of capabilities.

03:12And there's still work needed

03:13to bring the robot to the next level

03:15like those scenarios.

03:17Professor, we could talk for hours about this.

03:19It's fascinating stuff.

03:20Sincere thanks for your time.

03:21I'm Zhang Xiexi, Associate Professor of Computer Science

03:24at the State University of New York.

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