Siye Technology CEO Chen Shikai
SciTech Technology was established in 2013. Its predecessor, RoboPeak, was established as early as 2009. It was a technical research and development team that developed in spare time. In 2010, RoboPeak began to study laser radar sensors. The team hopes to develop robots that can be "moved."
On the afternoon of August 13, Chen Shikai, founder and CEO of SciTech Technology, attended the CCF-GAIR Summit organized by the Chinese Computer Society and organized by Lei Feng Network (searching for the "Lei Feng Net" public number) . At the conference, he described to us the bright prospects that robots could enter into millions of households:
“Like housework, caregivers who take care of the elderly and children, and receiving express delivery, these things can be solved through robots, so that people can have more time to enjoy life and make life easier and more convenient. Imagine the future of human life, how to make robots living in humans, on the one hand to assume their own work, and on the other hand live in harmony with human beings. This is what we have been trying to explore.â€
Among these bright prospects there is a crucial issue to solve - the cost issue. Chen Shikai graduated from the Computer Department of Shanghai Jiaotong University and has been engaged in the research and development of the SLAM positioning navigation system and low-cost laser radar for the robot core for many years.
With the popularity of home robots, the path planning capabilities of robots have become just what the industry needs. In the industry, autonomous positioning navigation is considered to be one of the core technologies of service robots. At that time, regardless of the academic or industrial community, solving this problem was dependent on laser radar, but there were few suitable products on the market to allow robots to walk freely. Because lidar is expensive.
In the media interview, Chen Shikai said that at the beginning of the team's establishment, Lidar was selected as the research target, and the entry point was placed on achieving low-cost laser radar, because this was the point of interest of the whole team at that time. In addition, the problem they have to solve is the navigation and positioning of the robot. After solving this problem, the robot can "walk freely."
"If you want to make the robot move, you have to make it clear where you are. At the time, Lidar was already a mature solution, but the biggest problem is that LiDAR is relatively expensive and not suitable for civilian use." The team must reduce the cost of laser radar,†Chen Shikai told us.
For this reason, their solution is: based on the triangulation technology, combined with computer vision technology, using micro-cameras to collect images, and based on its characteristics to measure records. At the same time optimize the algorithm to reduce the processor requirements. According to Chen Shikai's explanation to us, it is through the geometrical characteristics of optics, using computer vision to find the distance. The advantage of this method is that it requires only the imaging device of the traditional camera, so it can achieve the purpose of reducing costs.
If you want robots to walk autonomously, only "eyes" (laser radars) are not enough. Chen Shikai said that the robot’s autonomous walks, the core of the technology involves indoor autonomous building plans and path planning. "This is equivalent to installing a cerebellum that controls the action of the robot." The modular chip SLAMWARE plays this role.
Currently SciTech has 3 product lines:
Low Cost High Performance Laser Radar RPLIDAR
This is one of the main products of ThinkPad Technology. It is a sensor that performs 360-degree autonomous rotation scanning within a 6m radius.
Autonomous positioning navigation module SLAMWARE
It is a kind of single-modular robot autonomous positioning navigation system, which integrates laser radar based synchronous positioning and construction and matching path planning functions.
Commercial robot platform ZEUS
ZEUS integrates self-developed sensors and autonomous positioning navigation technologies to form a commercial platform for robots. It can carry different applications and work in any commercial environment without the need for external environment adjustments and human programming settings. Currently it is mainly used in shopping malls, banks, hospitals, or office locations.
The 2014 first-generation laser radar RPLIDAR A1 was introduced to the market and the product was sold for only a few hundred dollars. According to public information, Sihe Technology has accumulated more than 1,000 corporate customers. However, Dantian did not disclose product sales to us, but said that sales to research institutions and developers each year was nearly 10,000 units.
After five or six years of exploration, this startup company has achieved notable results, and at the end of last year, it got a Series A round of US$10 million in financing. After solving the problem of laser radar's cost, Chen Shikai said that the team will focus on "how to make robots move smarter" - specifically for the robot "cerebellum."
He said that the team will then focus on the research and development of the "cerebellum." In accordance with his vision, the product was transformed into a standardized module, and expansions and interfaces that are very conducive to external use were developed. Only in this way can robots move more intelligently and autonomously after they have “eyesâ€.
At the end of the exchange, Chen Shikai said that he would still be optimistic about the robotics industry. He firmly believes that future navigation positioning will become the standard for robots. In terms of technological breakthroughs, laser radars will become even smaller. He also said that the future sensor is a fusion relationship rather than an alternative relationship, "the future integration of these technologies together, can provide the original single sensor can not be achieved." Chen said.