Nio Ventures into Robotics: Testing Humanoid Robots on Factory Assembly Lines

Chinese electric vehicle startup Nio has revealed it is testing humanoid robots on an assembly line at one of its factories. In this regard, on February 22, 2024, Hong Kong-listed humanoid robot maker UBTech Robotics shared a video on Weibo showing its Walker S robot working on an assembly line at a Nio factory. This is the first time Walker S has had real-world training at a new energy vehicle (NEV) factory, UBTech said. During the training, the Walker S utilized its real-time image capture and transmission capabilities to participate in quality inspections of door locks, seat belts, and headlight covers and was able to affix vehicle logos, according to the video.

Humanoid robots need to come into the industrial smart manufacturing space, according to UBTech. One of the most important things is to get robots into real factory environments to find solutions, UBTech added.

Founded in March 2012, Shenzhen-based UBTech is a humanoid and intelligent service robotics company. The company debuted on the Hong Kong stock market on December 29, 2023, under the ticker symbol 9880, making it the first humanoid robot maker to list there.

According to its website, UBTech’s humanoid robots include Walker, Walker X, and the Panda. Walker S is not on its product list.

Walker is 57 inches tall and weighs 170 pounds. The humanoid robot uses Intel i7 7500U and i5 6200U as processors, and the operating system is Ubuntu + Linux RT Preempt + ROS + Android.

Walker uses lithium iron phosphate batteries as its power source, which take 2 hours to charge and have a full battery life of 2 hours.

Nio’s vehicles are produced at its F1 and F2 factories in Hefei, in eastern China’s Anhui province. They were initially assets of its automotive production partner, Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group, but were acquired by Nio late last year. Both plants have highly automated production lines, according to CnEVPost.

Nio opened the F2 plant to the public last October, saying that the plant’s body shop was one of the most advanced in the world, with 756 robots for automated production.

Nio’s factory would place a higher priority on using humanoid robots and would also consider using robots that can think independently. Nio revealed this through an interview with CnEVPost and others.

Companies that have demonstrated or disclosed the use of humanoid robots include Tesla, BMW, and others.