In the past, when we talked about robots, we talked about precision, efficiency, and substitution; Today in Lanzhou, this group of robots with unique skills gave another narrative - in the hypoxic tunnel at an altitude of 3,800 meters, they are silent "night watchmen"; Under the spotlight of the Silk Road Theater, they are "cyber actors" who share the stage with Huo Qubing and border poets; In the veins of the power grid, they are precise "surgeons"; Around children and the elderly, they become patient "family members". Technology no longer coldly overrides life, but humbly blends into every crevice that needs it. From extreme environments to human fireworks, Lanzhou's robot industry is not only a panorama of application scenarios, but also a leap from following to running side by side, from manufacturing to intelligent manufacturing.
Hardcore attack
Forging "Lanzhou Intelligent Manufacturing" in extreme scenarios
In the plateau railway tunnel at an altitude of 3,800 meters, there is no GPS signal, and it is subject to high dust and strong electromagnetic interference all year round, and the low temperature in winter can exceed minus 20 degrees Celsius. Here, the "Tianyou No. 3" tunnel intelligent supervision robot independently developed by the team led by Professor Shen Yu of the School of Electronic and Information Engineering of Lanzhou Jiaotong University, known as the "cradle of China's railway engineers", has been persisting for more than 1,000 days, becoming the first tunnel intelligent supervision robot in China, and also opening a new model of Gansu's research and development and production of unmanned intelligent equipment for the western alpine region.
"Our R&D direction has been very clear from the beginning, which is to solve a core problem: to let robots replace humans to complete high-precision and high-risk supervision and operation and maintenance work in extreme environments that are difficult for humans to go to and cannot stay." Shen Yu's words broke the original intention of the team's scientific research for more than ten years.
Shen Yu said frankly that since the official launch of robot research and development in 2019, the most difficult thing has never been the breakthrough of single-point technology, but the persistence and iteration day after day. "Making a prototype in the laboratory is only the first step, from the prototype to the product that truly adapts to the northwest alpine, windy and sand, complex terrain, it has to go through hundreds or thousands of times of debugging, trial and error and overturning. Many times R&D will enter a bottleneck period, and even overturn all previous plans, but it is the obsession with using technology to solve the practical problems in Northwest China that supports us step by step to turn the results of the laboratory into products that can be truly put into front-line applications. "Focusing on the needs of unmanned operations in extreme environments, the team has built a complete unmanned system platform from perception, decision-making to control. At present, the team is developing special robots with independent intelligence for the nuclear industry scenario, relying on the advantages of key industries in Gansu's nuclear industry, and contributing technical strength to the quality and upgrading of the province's "14+1" key industrial chain.
While tackling technical problems, the team has always put talent training at the core and built a talent training model of "deep integration of industry, university, research and application, and project-driven throughout the whole process". Up to now, she has guided more than 200 students to participate in various science and technology innovation competitions, and has won more than 30 national, provincial and ministerial awards, including 1 national special prize and 2 first prizes.
Cultural tourism breaks the circle
Humanoid robots interpret the new story of the Silk Road
If the robots in the plateau tunnel are "hard-core special forces" who specialize in gnawing hard bones, then the group of robots in the Gansu Humanoid Robot Innovation Center are "literary and artistic youths" who can perform and dance and have their own traffic.
In a mobile robot trendy play park in Chengguan District, it is crowded with citizens watching robot performances every day. Through the curtain printed with the words "Gansu Humanoid Robot Innovation Center", the noisy popularity came to the face.
"Dear tourists, welcome to Yumen Pass...... A robot tour guide was surrounded by children in the middle and explained in a rounded manner. Not far away, a robot dressed in a Monkey King costume is hosting a show in the theater, where there is no cold display, but with the four chapters of "Dunhuang Ancient Music", "Oracle Bone Dance", "Yellow River Lantern Dance" and "Light and Shadow Dance", a complete cultural tourism story line is connected.
"We co-wrote this repertoire with Shanghai Zhiyuan, the School of Information of Lanzhou University, and the Shanghai Theater Academy." Lu Chao, head of the Gansu Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, introduced. Here, robots can not only perform dances with local characteristics, but also interact. The most lively thing at the scene is the experience area: the "Guardian of Jincheng" codenamed A2 calmly carried materials as a Han Dynasty official, recreating the busy scene of the ancient ferry; Lingxi X2 instantly changed its identity - just now it was still the "Liangzhou Warrior" who reproduced Huo Qubing's heroic posture on the border, and with the transformation of light and shadow, he transformed into a "border poet" holding a poetry scroll, causing children to compete to chant "Why should the Qiang flute blame the willows".
"The hardest thing is to train the robots and let them 'act' according to the script." Lu Chao said frankly that at present, most of the robots that can be perfectly presented are these "fixed actions" that have been repeatedly debugged in advance. To achieve truly intelligent and flexible adaptation, a large amount of real machine data is also needed to train robots. This is a common challenge for the global industry: sports performance is already excellent, but there is still a long way to go before robots can truly understand instructions and do their jobs.
As the creator of the park, Gansu Humanoid Robot Innovation Center is a technology enterprise focused on the introduction and support of the Chengguan District Government, jointly invested by Gansu Huayue and Lanzhou Chengfa Industrial Investment Company, and jointly built with Shanghai Zhiyuan and the School of Information of Lanzhou University, aiming to promote the embodied intelligent industry in Lanzhou and even Gansu. In the face of the high-threshold robot industry, they chose a pragmatic following strategy and localization integration: introducing robot ontology from Shanghai Zhiyuan, a leading enterprise in the industry, and then focusing on "secondary development" - combined with local application needs, large models, algorithms and function integration. "Our core task is to solve the application problem of the 'last mile'." Lu Chao said. They are jointly building an industry-university-research base with Lanzhou University and other universities, and plan to provide a practical training platform for college students to jointly cultivate local embodied intelligent talents in Gansu and promote the development of the embodied intelligent industry. "We know that the humanoid robot track is risky and very 'burning money', but we always feel that if others can do it, we can do it too." Lu Chao said.
Fireworks fell to the ground
Consumer-grade robots enter people's homes
When special robots stick to the plateau, cultural tourism robots perform in the theater, power operation robots also show their skills in the operation and maintenance of the power grid in Lanzhou, and consumer-grade robots have entered the homes of ordinary people, sending intelligent technology to the daily life of ordinary people.
Recently, the distribution network live operation robot of the State Grid Lanzhou Power Supply Company showed a unique skill, successfully completed the country's first distribution network live operation robot dual-machine collaborative operation, and successfully completed the drainage line dismantling task of the distribution network line three times on the same pole. After completing the first robot live operation in Gansu and applying "UAV + ground wire repair robot" to carry out difficult maintenance, it has won another new achievement in the industry.
While guarding the urban power grid, small and cute consumer-grade robots have also entered thousands of households in Lanzhou. In the Guofang Department Store of Dongfanghong Square, the AI Wukong robot counter created by Shenzhen Haina Zhihui is always surrounded by citizens who experience it on weekends. This robot is equipped with an AI large model, which integrates continuous dialogue, video calls, English enlightenment, picture book explanations, singing and dancing, object recognition and other functions, and is an "all-round all-rounder" that can cover children's growth and the companionship of the elderly.
"My child is 5 years old, we are usually busy with work, and we rarely have time to read picture books and practice English with him, and this robot just fills our vacancy." Ms. Li, a citizen, took her son to experience it for more than half an hour and finalized the purchase intention on the spot. She smiled and said that the robot's English pronunciation is standard, the picture book explanation is vivid, and when she is on a business trip, she can also make video calls with her children at any time through the robot, "children sing and dance with it, which is much better than holding a mobile phone or tablet."
Don't play with the concept of virtuality, only do real scenes, Lanzhou's robot industry uses technology to solve real problems and warm daily life with technology. Relying on this down-to-earth persistence, on the fertile soil of the northwest, a unique new highland for the development of the robot industry has been created, injecting a steady stream of intelligent momentum into the high-quality development of the province. (Reporter Hua Jing text/photo)