You must be wondering how technology has changed a lot of jobs. You are not the only one to think that way. In fact, development in the tech industry has made it possible. It does not matter whether it is the hospitality sector or factory grounds; businesses are looking for ways to add technology to their systems. The reason? Because they want to speed up their work processes. The same shift can now be seen in warehouses. Here, you will see robots performing the duties that once only humans were supposed to do.

Chinese company UBTech has introduced a new humanoid robot that can perform tiring tasks in a warehouse. Moving around boxes all day is one of the most difficult tasks. But now, with the introduction of Cruzr Y1, it is no longer a problem. This robot is a bit different from other humanoid robots, as it has wheels rather than legs to move around.

What’s the Idea Behind?

It’s simple. We all know that warehouses are full of unpredictable situations. They are messy and loaded with boxes or items of every size and shape. Pallets get stacked differently depending on the day. Earlier, conveyor belts were used, but they are only useful when you have already given them a set of instructions. But once things get disorganized, the importance of conventional machinery is gone. This is the gap that UBTech is trying to fill.

That’s why they built Cruzr Y1. It is capable of doing a variety of tasks, such as loading boxes, unloading them, sorting them, and stacking them onto pallets. The robot can use 3D vision to see what is happening all around it. This system is paired with a system that UBTech calls embodied intelligence. Don’t know what that means? In simple terms, it means that if the robot sees an unorganized space, it can figure out on its own how to deal with it. And the interesting part is that it does not require human instructions to do all of this.

What was changed? The main thing that caught the attention was that the robot wasn’t built with legs. They skipped them and replaced them with wheels. Bipedal robots can perform many tasks, such as climbing stairs and walking on uneven surfaces. But the main problem with those robots is that they consume a lot of energy. Since most warehouses have flat surfaces, UBTech decided to go for a wheeled base. It gives up some flexibility on rough terrain but gains stability and better energy efficiency, which matters a lot when a robot is expected to work long shifts.

This is not all UBTech is doing. They are also opening their technology to developers. It includes development kits, tools for vision recognition, in addition to systems for controlling robots. And besides that, UBTech has also built a platform that can manage several robots at once. It’s designed to plug into the factory systems that companies already have running.

UBTech said that it has plans to ship at least 5,000 industrial robots this year, including the Cruzr Y1. Because of that, the company is now getting attention, and many have started comparing it with names like Boston Dynamics and Agility Robotics.

Do you think it is enough to just look at the specifications of the robots? Of course not. If a company is thinking about purchasing UBTech’s robots, their specs alone won’t be the deciding factor. What will matter is whether they are customizable or can be easily integrated with existing warehouse systems.