Fired after first shift: Two robots fail test at Chinese store
In China, androids brewed 147 cups of coffee and greeted hundreds of customers, but failed to cope with the trash can.
Chinese company Agibot has staged a large-scale crash test of its humanoids, sending six robots model G2 24-hour watch in a round-the-clock store in Shanghai. The live broadcast of "Robots Never Leave a Shift" was supposed to prove the readiness of androids for real work. Machines worked both during peak hours and at night, faced even artificial interference: developers specially shook food containers and hid goods, checking the adaptability of systems.
The results of the shift look impressive: the team completed 1,730 tasks. Android 683 times greeted customers, found and reported to the cashier 369 products and brewed 147 cups of coffee. The four robots did the test perfectly. However, two of the employees failed the test.
The robot responsible for restocking the shelves was too slow and lacked initiative in a dynamic trading environment. And the janitor completely went away: faced with an overcrowded garbage basket, he lost orientation in space and just left the store.
Technically, the G2 looks impressive: a mobile platform with a human torso, 26 degrees of freedom, an arsenal of lidars and cameras, and the ability to lift up to five kilograms. But the devil is in the details. The manufacturer modestly remained silent, whether the machines needed recharging, the help of human curators and how their speed correlates with the work of live cashiers.
