Ubtech’s New Humanoid Robot Swaps Out Its Own Batteries

Automation proponents point to around the clock work as a key selling point for industrial robots. Unlike humans and their demanding lunch, bathroom, smoke, and sleep breaks, these systems can pull 24-hour shifts. That’s the theory, at least. There are plenty of real world elements that can sideline systems for hours or days.

The road to general purpose systems will be paved with robots messing up new jobs in interesting and novel ways. The more complex the robots themselves become, the more potential points of failure you’re introducing into a system. More tasks also require more compute and power consumption, which will likely find these workhorse robots spending more time napping on chargers.

This issue can be addressed, in part, with the addition of hot swappable batteries – power sources that can be removed and replaced without the hassle of powering down or rebooting a system. This way, the robot can (in theory) work all day and night, so long as there are charged up batteries within reach.

Though, precisely whose reach is another question. Will listings for “Humanoid Battery Swappers” be popping up on job sites over the next decade? Seeing as how the robots are designed to increasingly automate workflows, it probably just makes teh most sense to let the robots do the swapping themselves.

Ubtech this week debuted Walker S2, a new industrial humanoid system capable of pulling out and replacing its own batteries. A video released on Thursday by the Chinese firm shows the robot walking up to a charging dock, spinning around, and gently removing a large battery from its back.

The battery is placed in an empty slot on the dock, and another is retrieved and inserted into its own back. This is, in part, accomplished by the presence of the system's twin removable battery packs. This way, there’s always one on-board to power the robot as it performs the swap.

Ubtech was founded over a decade ago in China’s manufacturing capital, Shenzhen. The company’s external efforts have largely focused on consumer products like vacuums and toys, but that focus has recently shifted, as the market for humanoids heats up.