Gary Zhou 
Xiaomi CEO, Lei Jun announced the company’s CyberOne humanoid robot at its launch event in Beijing on August 11th. The debut is ahead of Tesla’s AI Day which many are anticipating a working Optimus Bot prototype. It will be interesting to see the two robots side by side.
According to Xiaomi, the CyberOne robot has arms, and legs, supports bi-pedal motion posture balancing, and reaches peak torque of up to 300 Newton meters (Nm). It can detect human emotions, has advanced vision capabilities, and can create a three-dimensional virtual reconstruction of the real world.
Jun spoke about the robot’s AI and mechanical capabilities being self-developed by the lab.
“CyberOne’s AI and mechanical capabilities are all self-developed by Xiaomi Robotics Lab. We have invested heavily in R&D spanning various areas, including software, hardware, and algorithms innovation.”
“With AI at its core and a full-size humanoid frame as its vessel, this is an exploration of possibilities of Xiaomi’s future technological ecosystem and a new breakthrough for the company.”
In the video below, Jun debus the robot taking small quick steps as it walks on stage handing the CEO a flower. The robot commented that Jun was taller than it thought and said the flower was for him. In the demonstration, the robot said that it had just learned to walk but that its lower body is still not stable. Although, it is also learning Kung Fu.
WILL XIAOMI CYBERONE COMPETE WITH OPTIMUS?
Some have speculated that Xiaomi unveiled the CyberOne to compete with Tesla’s Optimus Bot. It’s most likely true given the timeframe of CyberOne’s debut. And it’s not surprising that there will be competitors.
Although Tesla hasn’t unveiled a working prototype of the Optimus Bot just yet, Elon Musk announced that AI Day was moved to September 30th with the hopes that Tesla would have one by then.
Elon Musk has said many times that the Optimus Bot was one of the most important products Tesla was developing. During the Q4 2021 Tesla earnings call, Elon said,
“So, in terms of priority of products, I think actually the most important product development we’re doing this year is actually the Optimus humanoid robot. This, I think has the potential to be more significant than the vehicle business over time.”
“If you think about the economy, it is— the foundation of the economy is labor. Capital equipment is distilled labor. So, what happens if you don’t actually have a labor shortage? I’m not sure what an economy even means at that point. That’s what Optimus is about. So, very important.”
As we have seen with Tesla’s vehicles, I’m looking forward to the day when we can compare the Tesla Optimus Bot and the Xiaomi CyberOne robot.
