Until now, the robot workforce has had to either be plugged in all of the time, or spend some time cabled to the mains to top up its battery pack. UBTech has launched the Walker S2 humanoid, with dual batteries and the ability to hotswap on its own.
The general idea behind battery swapping for transport is that, instead of having to park your vehicle to recharge for a while, you can just hotswap a depleted battery for a fresh one and be on your way in seconds. Now UBtech is bringing that sort of convenience to humanoid robots.
The upcoming Walker S2 workerbot has two battery bays in its back. When one powerpack starts running low, the humanoid can approach a swap station installed in an industrial facility, twist its upper torso into position and use tool attachments on the end of its arms to remove the spent battery and replace it with a fresh one.
Walker S2 – The World’s First Humanoid Robot Capable of Autonomous Battery Swapping
In the video above, the Walker S2’s dexterous gripper/hand units that it will need to work on the production line appear to have been sacrificed for the purposes of the demonstration. But presumably the production version will have some sort of workaround to accommodate the tool at each wrist that locks onto the sides on the battery unit, as well as whatever manipulation appendage it will need to get its job done.
As such, the potential for 24/7 (almost) continuous working is clear. The swap stations will charge up the battery packs on the factory floor. The only downtime that the S2 will face is the few minutes for ambling over to the nearest battery tower, pulling out its dying battery and replacing it a fully-charged one before returning to its workstation.
UBTech
The health of each battery can be monitored at the swap stations, and any that are in danger of losing charge capacity can be replaced by maintenance staff.
Shenzhen’s UBTech is yet to detail its new humanoid so pretty much all we have is speculation at the moment. The S2 will likely use vision cameras at its head to detect the green light on a stacked battery pack that indicates its full-charge status, and will undertake battery swap operations autonomously “across dynamic industrial scenarios.”
The robot is designed to have a human-like walking gait, and – if its predecessors are anything to go by – will stand around 170 cm (5.6 ft) tall. We do get a brief glimpse of the face in the video, which shows a full-color display underneath the sensor array at the unibrow to offer status information for human colleagues on the production line. There’s an emergency shutdown button to the rear too, y’know – just in case.
We’ll have to wait for the product page to appear before learning more, including full specs, pricing and availability.
Source: UBTech Robotics