Nio (NYSE: NIO) vehicles can quickly obtain fully charged batteries through battery swap. Now, this concept is being applied to humanoid robots to enable uninterrupted operation.
UBTech Robotics (HKG: 9880), a Chinese humanoid robot manufacturer headquartered in Shenzhen, announced today that its new-generation industrial humanoid robot Walker S2 supports battery swap, making it the world’s first of its kind.
The humanoid robot can autonomously complete battery swap in three minutes without human intervention or shutdown, it showed in a video.
This plug-and-play autonomous battery swap technology enables the Walker S2 to operate continuously 24/7, according to UBTech.
The Walker S2 is equipped with dual-battery power balancing technology and uses standardized battery modules, the company said.
Its dual-battery system can seamlessly switch to the backup battery in case of a main battery failure, ensuring the execution of critical tasks, it said.
The autonomous battery swap enables the humanoid robot to maintain continuous operational capability, reduce human maintenance costs, and enhance overall production efficiency, according to UBTech.
The humanoid robot can autonomously select between battery swap or charging based on task priority, thereby achieving dynamic energy management, the company said.
UBTech was founded in March 2012 and is a company specializing in humanoid robots and intelligent service robots, according to its website description.
The company made its debut on the Hong Kong stock market on December 29, 2023, becoming the first humanoid robot manufacturer to list there.
In February 2024, UBTech demonstrated its Walker S robot working on an assembly line at a Nio factory in a video.
This marked the first time the Walker S robot was deployed for training at a new energy vehicle (NEV) factory, UBTech said at the time.
In addition to Nio, BYD (HKG: 1211, OTCMKTS: BYDDY) and Zeekr (NYSE: ZK) had also tested UBTech’s humanoid robots on their production lines.
Nio’s F2 factory has added several robotic quality inspectors that perform smoothly over a range of operations, said William Li.
