New interactive robot capable of riding bike set to serve in multiple scenarios

A brand-new quick-thinking interactive humanoid robot has caught wide attention after being unveiled in Shanghai on Tuesday for its wide range of performance capabilities, with the robot capable of riding a bicycle and even carrying out delicate tasks such as using a needle and thread.

The newly-launched robot is the latest in a series of eye-catching breakthroughs for China's robotics industry as the sector continues its rapid development.

The 1.3-meter-tall robot has also unlocked a range of new athletic skills, including riding a scooter and operating a self-balancing scooter with ease.

Featuring 28 different degrees of freedom (DOF), the robot is also equipped with a multimodal interaction model, enabling millisecond-level interactive responses.

It can also accurately judge and respond to human facial expressions and vocal tones. When asked, the robot says its purpose is to chat with its human counterparts, solve problems, and simply "make life more fun."

Peng Zhihui, co-founder of the company responsible for the new robot, stressed there is still a way to go to convincingly replicate the emotional level of a human.

"I believe the biggest challenge is enabling the robot to possess a level of intelligence as agile as that of a human. To achieve this, we need to make technological breakthroughs in three areas - motion intelligence, interactive intelligence, and operational intelligence," said Peng.

Additionally, the new robot has initially developed 'zero-shot' generalization capabilities for manipulating objects based on a large embodied model, which means it can learn to solve problems and respond to new challenges or tasks based on its own intuition.

For example, it can learn to pour water simply by watching videos of humans doing so, demonstrating the ability to extrapolate from learned tasks.

In addition, the robot can also recognize different types of cups without requiring repeated training for different shapes or sizes, marking a significant step toward the generalization and openness of embodied intelligence.

Many experts believe the robot has the potential to be utilized in various application scenarios in the future, including in the health care and service sectors, or may even be deployed to provide companionship in people's homes.

New interactive robot capable of riding bike set to serve in multiple scenarios

The first widespread heavy rainfall China has experienced this year has triggered emergency responses across the country.

The National Meteorological Center (NMC) said the heavy rain is set to intensify throughout Saturday night to Sunday.

Level-IV flood control emergency responses were activated at 12:00 on Saturday for central China's Hubei Province and the southwestern Chongqing Municipality, while responses at the same level were maintained for the southern province of Guangdong and the southwestern province of Guizhou.

On early Saturday, heavy rain hit Guizhou's Zhenning Bouyei and Miao Autonomous County, with rainfall in some regions in the county exceeding 50 millimeters,

Trees toppled over on some roads in Zhenning, as thunderstorms and high winds swept the city.

Local authorities immediately launched emergency responses including hazard inspections and road obstacle clearance.

Continuing rainfalls in Guigang City in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region caused extensive flooding in major streets.

With the help of traffic control and flood drainage, the situation on the city's roads has returned to normal.

In Chongyi County, in east China's Jiangxi Province, persistent rain has flooded farmlands and triggered landslides on some roads.

Swift responses were launched to clear debris and reopen roads and traffic has started flowing again.

Heavy rains trigger emergency responses across China