There are many weird and wonderful humanoid robots out there, but one of the most eye-catching machines launched this year can change its own battery pack — making it capable of running autonomously for 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The Walker S2 robot, made by the Chinese company UBTECH, is 5 foot 3 inches (162 centimeters) tall and weighs 95 pounds (43 kilograms) — making it the size and weight of a small adult.
Using a 48-volt lithium battery in a dual-battery system, the robot can walk for two hours or stand for four hours before its power runs out. The battery takes 90 minutes to fully recharge once depleted.
Its most interesting feature — which UBTECH representatives say is a world first — is that instead of relying on a human operator to remove and recharge its battery pack, the machine can perform this task entirely on its own.
In new promotional footage published July 17 on YouTube, the Walker S2 robot is seen approaching a battery charging station to swap out its battery supply. Facing away from the station, it uses its arms to remove the battery pack fitted into its back and places this into an empty slot to recharge. It then removes a fresh battery pack from the unit and inserts it into its port.
The robot will swap out its own battery in the event that one of its batteries runs out of power. It is also capable of detecting how much power it has left and decides whether it is best to swap out one of its batteries or charge based on the priority of its tasks, company representatives said, as reported by the Chinese publication CnEVPost.
The Walker S2, which is designed to be used in settings like factories or as a human-like robot to meet and greet customers at public venues, has 20 degrees of freedom (the number of ways that joints or mechanisms can move) and is also compatible with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.