UBTech Walker and Cruzr robots strut into CES 2019

A company called UBTech has unveiled a pair of robots at CES 2019 that the firm calls its most advanced robots ever. The bots are a new version of the Walker bipedal humanoid robot and Cruzr, a cloud-based rolling humanoid service robot. Walker now has arms and hands while Cruzr has improved performance and reliability.

The company is positioning the robots to "enhance" home life and retail environments. Walker is billed as an "agile smart companion" and is a bipedal robot that stands 4.75-feet tall and weighs 170 pounds. The new bot is more advanced with arms and hands that can grasp and manipulate objects.

The torso of the robot is refined and offers improved self-balancing, smooth and stable walking in challenging environments, and multi-modal interaction with voice, vision, and touch. Walker uses 36 actuators and has a full range of sensing systems. Those systems give it gait planning and control with the ability to walk on multiple surfaces.

The self-balancing system helps it to stay upright when disturbed by external impacts. Other features include smart home control and face and object recognition. The latest version of Cruzr is aimed at retail 4.0 environments and is in use by customers in Europe.

Cruzr has refined body structure and servo motors and a more powerful processor. The audio chamber is redesigned for better sound quality and volume. The robot also has 4G LTE functionality, dual USB ports, and dual HDMI ports. Improved navigation helps the bot to avoid obstacles better and improved wheels make Cruzr more maneuverable and quieter. Pricing is unannounced on both robots, Cruzr is available globally now.