The robot brewed coffee on the spot and served it to people

The first human-machine collaborative, self-learning dual-arm robot brews coffee for the audience on site. Photo by reporter Zhou Chao

The Yangtze River Daily Media reported on June 5 that the first China (Wuhan) International Automation and Robotics Exhibition was held at the Wuhan International Expo Center. At the exhibition, futuristic elements such as smart robots that can imitate coffee brewers and "exoskeleton" wearable devices that often appear in blockbuster movies attracted particular attention.

At the entrance of the exhibition, a small area called YuMi Coffee Station in the ABB exhibition area attracted the attention of many visitors. It turned out that the coffee brewing robot here was a smart robot called YuMi. YuMi used its arms to calmly take the cup, turn on the coffee machine to grind, add milk to the coffee, and then sprinkle cocoa powder to create decorative patterns in the cup, and finally brought it to people.

"In fact, YuMi can do more than that." According to the relevant person in charge of the manufacturing company, as the world's first dual-arm collaborative robot that can achieve human-machine collaboration, self-learning ability, and safe operation, although its small appearance is underestimated, it can do a lot of things.

YuMi at the exhibition was a "barista". Through guided programming, YuMi learned by capturing and imitating the barista's movements. Last September, it took 17 hours to quickly learn and imitate the conductor's movements to complete a band conducting job.

After walking through the ABB exhibition area, the reporter saw another "powered exoskeleton" wearable product that is often seen in blockbusters in the Panasonic exhibition area. The green, purple and black colors are eye-catching, and the appearance is like a vest that we wear on weekdays. According to the staff, this exoskeleton device can automatically sense the wearing action and provide assistance. It is especially suitable for helping heavy physical workers, the elderly and women. The price is about 80,000 yuan. After wearing it, the reporter lifted a 28-pound weight and felt obvious external force assistance on his waist when he stood up. It was easier than when he didn't wear it. Although it didn't have the exaggerated effect of wearing an "exoskeleton" to have supernatural powers like in the movie Avatar, he also felt the change of technology in life.

It is reported that this year's IARS attracted Mitsubishi Electric, Omron, ABB, FANUC, Panasonic and other companies to bring the latest automation and robot products, with international big-name companies accounting for 50%. (Reporter Zhao Xin, correspondent Hu Yuan Kang Kai)

【Editor: Zhu Jie】