I met a lot of amazing robots at CES — these are the most memorable

CES has always been a big surprise, and this year’s event saw the announcement of several important robotics products, including new, production-ready products. Atlas debuthumanoid from Boston Dynamics. Then there were all the robots on the show floor, where bots are often a good product for the companies involved. If they don’t give an accurate picture of where the ad is currently being sent, they give a picture to visitors of where they are going. And, of course, they are definitely fun to look at. I spent a lot of time reading the bots featured this week. Here are some of the most memorable ones I encountered.

A ping pong player

The movie Marty Supreme I just got out a month ago, so I think it’s only fitting that there was a ping-pong playing robot at this year’s convention. The Chinese robotics company Sharpa built a complete bot to play competitive table tennis against one of the company’s employees. When I stood next to Sharpa’s court, the robot was losing to his human competition, 5-9, and I couldn’t have shown the game that was happening so fast. However, the spectacle of seeing the robot play ping pong was impressive in itself, and I’m sure I know some people whose ping pong skills were equal to (or slightly worse than) the bot’s. A Sharpa representative told me that the company’s biggest product is its robotic hand, and that a full-body bot was released at CES to demonstrate the hand’s capabilities.

He has punched

One of the exhibits that attracted a lot of people was robots from a Chinese company EngineAIwhich is developing humanoid robots. The bots, called T800 (which is based on the Terminator franchise), were in the boxing ring and were labeled as fighting machines. That said, I’ve never seen any of the bots collide. Instead, they act like a shadowbox nearby each other, not really connected. They were also a little unknown. One continued to walk out of the ring and into the audience, which naturally aroused the audience. At one point, one of the bots tripped over its feet and landed face down, where it fell asleep for a while before deciding to wake up again. So, not as Mike Tyson was, but the machine still managed to evoke the evil humanoid character that makes for great entertainment. I heard someone laugh at me: “That looks a lot like Robocop.”

Dancer

Dancing robots have always been a fixture at CES, and this year was no different. This year, the dancing torch was carried by bots from Unitree, China’s own robotics manufacturer. has been investigated in order to communicate with the Chinese military. Unitree has announced some exciting new product features, including an upcoming humanoid bot. running at a speed of 11 mph. I didn’t see any evidence of foul play at Unitree’s booth this week – just a lot of bots making noise.

Store assistant

I stopped by the booth of Galbot, a Chinese company that claims to focus on large multi-language and on-demand robotics. Galbot’s bot was designed to look like a shopping mall, and its bot appeared to be connected to a menu app. Customers come to the site, select an item from the menu, and then the bot goes to deliver the selected product to them. When I selected Sour Patch Kids, the bot took a box to the shelf. According to the company’s website, the robot has been used in several virtual environments, including as an assistant. in Chinese pharmacies.

Housekeeper

Developing a washing machine has been one of the biggest ambitions of the business community. The ability to take a T-shirt and fold it is considered important test about the ability to do it yourself. For this reason, I was impressed by what was presented at Dyna Robotics, a company that produces advanced robotics. There, two robot arms were seen neatly folding clothes and stacking them. A Dyna representative told me that the company has already established partnerships with several hotels, gyms, and factories.

One of those businesses, the rep told me, is Laundry Monsterfrom Sacramento, California. Monster incorporated a Dyna shirt-folding robot into its operations late last year and is now calling itself “the first laundromat in North America to install a state-of-the-art Dyna folding machine.”

Dyna also has impressive support. It ended up being $120 million Series A funding round in September that included funding from Nvidia’s NVentures, as well as from Amazon, LG, Salesforce, and Samsung.

Cup bearer

I also stopped by LG’s CES booth to check out its new robot, the CLOid. It was beautiful but not the fastest on the block. You can read my full review of my experience Here.