Vancouver, Canada-based robotics company Sanctuary AI has unveiled the sixth generation of its all-purpose humanoid robot, the Phoenix. Also on board is the AI control system Carbon, the company announced on Tuesday. It is said to provide the robot with “human-like intelligence” so that it can perform various tasks in industry.
Phoenix is about 1.7 m tall and weighs 75 kg. It proves to be powerful, as it can carry weights of up to 25 kg. With its two legs, it can reach a maximum speed of about 5 km per hour, which is about as far as an average human walks in an hour. He has hands with five fingers with a total of 20 degrees of freedom. They are equipped with a “sense of touch”, which is said to make it possible to skillfully manipulate objects.
“Intelligent” mit Carbon
Sanctuary AI calls Phoenix an all-purpose robot. It should be universally applicable and work like a human being. For this purpose, the developers have given it an AI-based control system called Carbon. It integrates modern AI techniques in order to be able to convert natural language into actions, for example. It should enable Phoenix to do everything that a human can do. The system should be able to act “intelligently”. To do this, the developers use methods for deep learning and reinforcement learning as well as a physically realistic world simulation for robot training.
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In the promotional video, Sanctuary AI shows off some of Phoenix’s abilities.
Phoenix can be monitored and controlled remotely. This also works with several robots in fleet management.
In March 2023, he proved in a field test that Phoenix can already master some tasks in the real world. The previous version was used in a branch of the clothing store Mark’s in Vancouver. In the pilot project, the robot performed 110 different retail-related tasks. This included the picking and packing of goods, cleaning work and the identification and labeling of goods.
To further advance the Carbon control system and the Phoenix robot, Sanctuary AI raised 60 million Canadian dollars (about 41 million euros) in Series A financing in spring 2022. In November, the Canadian government injected $30 million from the national Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) into the company. Sanctuary AI is currently looking for additional investors to commercialize the robot.
Phoenix with carbon is in direct competition with Tesla’s humanoid robot Optimus. According to Tesla boss Elon Musk, it should also be able to be used universally – with a focus on industrial use. However, Phoenix is currently a step ahead of the Tesla bot, as it can already complete tasks on its own.
(olb)
