Zhou Jian: The 2018 Ubiquitous Humanoid Robot Program will be launched

After the Spring Festival Evening in 2016, Zhou Jian and his founder must have become famous overnight. This year, Youbie also embarked on the fast lane of development, and products such as alpha1, Jimu and alpha2 robots were launched one after another; the channels under the domestic and overseas lines were rapidly expanded; the B-round financing of 100 million US dollars was completed, and the valuation was 1 billion US dollars. , became a "unicorn" in the field of humanoid robots; Amazon, Apple, Google and other partners stood by; sales increased by 5 times to 300 million...

In an exclusive interview, Zhou Jian revealed that before March next year, the excellent must be refinanced 2 billion yuan, the current intention has been basically negotiated. At the same time, next year will also turn a profit, and start preparations for listing in 2018.

Open the market

All this is absolutely not thought of Zhou Jian eight years ago.

In 2008, Zhou Jian began to study robots because of his interest. He originally wanted to purchase servo steering gear from Japan and Korea for system integration. However, it was found that with 16 steering gears and production R&D expenses, the cost of a robot is more than 20,000. It is difficult to commercialize in China, and the team turned to self-developed servo steering gear.

After four years of research, in 2011, the team broke through the servo steering production technology, which not only enabled the robot to achieve the free twisting of the joint, but also greatly reduced the production cost, and the selection of the entry into the robot market, in 2012, , excellent must be formally established.

“The servo servos account for about 60% of the cost in the robot. The increase in production capacity and self-developed technology make the value of our important spare parts low, which lays the foundation for price competitiveness. In addition, the automation of the factory and the supply chain The integration also promotes a comprehensive reduction in costs." Zhou Jian explained. It is understood that at present, the servo servos of Excellent must have tens of millions of production capacity.

Ubuntu has launched the humanoid service robots Alpha1, Alpha2 and Jimu robots that are compatible with STEAM education, and will soon launch commercial service robots.

In terms of channels, there are currently about 4,000 stores in North America, mainly in large-scale chains. There are different national companies in Europe, with about 2,000 stores. There are provincial banks in various provinces in China, and there are currently about 2,000 stores. Jimu robots are exclusively available at Apple retail stores. In terms of market distribution, North America accounts for about 40%, Europe and China each account for 20%-25%, and other markets 10%-15%.

Zhou Jian said that in 2013, a large number of robot companies were established, mostly integrating existing technologies, flat-panel wheels and Keda Xunfei's intelligent voice system. Bypassing the robot drive and motion design, there is no choice to accumulate experience in core technology and it is easy to fail.

In addition to the product side, Ubisoft hopes to build a profit model of the ecosystem through cooperation with third parties, and to develop profit growth points in the application scenario of service robots. In Zhou Jian's view, the robot will become a hardware carrier similar to the Apple mobile phone in the future, achieving unlimited expansion through the content side and functional areas. Humanoid robots will become the center of the next generation of human-computer interaction.

Profit back to the frontier research and development

Zhou Jian’s dream is to create a real large biped robot that enters every family. But the era of humanoid robots is far from coming, and startups must survive before they have a chance to break out when the market really comes.

Zhou Jian attributed the strategy of Ubisoft to “walking on two legs” and “cultivating CTO with COO” – on the one hand, the exploration of product commercialization, on the one hand, continuous investment in cutting-edge research and development.

"Human-shaped robots are our direction, but we also need to bring the current technology to the extreme and support ourselves. So we launched alpha1, alpha2 and jimu robots, which are mainly services, education, entertainment and other functions, accumulating algorithms, driving technologies and voice. The ability of vision can also make money at the same time." Zhou Jian told the 21st Century Business Herald that the products of the company must be high-margin, but the net profit of the whole company should not be high, because the money will be invested in research and development, and the next 2 billion yuan. Financing will also be put on the cutting edge of the layout.

In another case, Ubisoft announced the addition of several academic big cows. On December 14th, Academician of the European Academy of Sciences, Australian Science Highest Honor Eureka Award, and University of Sydney Professor Tao Dacheng joined Ubuntu as the "Chief Scientist of Artificial Intelligence", focusing on robot vision. It should be pointed out that vision is also the largest layout in the field of artificial intelligence, followed by voice, and again sensing technology.

In Zhou Jian's view, a good humanoid robot must balance development in terms of drive, motion and AI. Artificial intelligence may be used in a single point of technology, and development must be combined with hardware. The fields that professors focus on are different, and these things must be combined.

Drive, motion and AI are also the main research and development directions. On the one hand, the collection of talents upgrades the superior research and development capabilities, and realizes the commercial transformation of cutting-edge research results; on the other hand, through the data collection after commercialization, it will also nurture cutting-edge research.

According to this design, the excellent selection is expected to be profitable next year. According to Zhou Jian, in 2017, the source of income is mainly divided into four. The first is the LYNX robot that Amazon cooperates with, and will become a star product like Echo; the second is from the source of IP products; the third is Jimu robot; The fourth is ToB's Cruzr robot, which is also expected in the fields of banking, business, customs, security monitoring and so on. As well as the launch of Alpha2, these five aspects of growth can achieve 2017 revenue expectations.

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