The world's fastest robot fighter

China's Qibbot robot can be remotely controlled with a response delay of just 12 milliseconds, less than 1/15 the time it takes to blink an eye.

Qibo Robot Company in Shandong province, eastern China, has developed Qibbot, a remote-controlled, one-armed robot designed to simulate the real movements of a boxer, SCMP reported on August 3. The Qibbot operator can stand nearby and control its movements like a trainer outside the ring.

In a video shared by Qibo, Qibbot demonstrates an incredible response time of just 12 milliseconds, a record for remote-controlled robot systems. Qibo Robot Company introduces this as the "world's fastest" telerobot (remote-controlled robot).

The main technical challenge with fast remote-controlled robots is not their speed, but their ability to react in relation to the actions of their human operators. In situations such as sports competitions, crime fighting, and military operations, the robot's response time is extremely important. Even the smallest delay can have major consequences.

According to Geng Tao, founder of Qibo Robot, more than 95% of remote-controlled robots in the world are designed for low- or medium-speed tasks, with significant delays in response, often exceeding 100 milliseconds.

Qibbot has extremely low latency, just 12 milliseconds in high-speed operations, less than 1/15th the time it takes to blink an eye, according to Geng. This means the delay is unlikely to be felt by the operator.

Remote-controlled robots rely on many factors to optimize speed and performance. To achieve impressive speeds and extremely low latency, the team at Qibbot focused on solving mechanical and controller challenges.

With Qibbot's control algorithm, Geng and his colleagues use a new predictive controller in addition to the conventional feedback controller. This real-time prediction tool predicts system latency and reacts in advance, partially compensating for the latency introduced by mechanical systems and virtual reality devices.

Only a handful of robots in the world have achieved fast remote control with extremely low latency, but they are small in size and the remote control devices are very complex. Meanwhile, Qibbot is 1.9 m tall with 1.5 m long arms and the single-arm version already weighs 140 kg.

The Qibbot project began in 2019 and the team spent three years developing the first generation model. They then spent another year refining it before launching Qibbot in June.

Geng’s team plans to build an upgraded version of Qibbot later this year with two arms, each with more joints and smoother movements. They believe the fast-moving remote-controlled robot has potential applications in a variety of emergency and dangerous situations, such as crime fighting and military operations, and could significantly improve production efficiency.

Thu Thao (According to SCMP )

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