AI is the next revolution in technology following the advent of the internet. Companies deploying AI in their processes will be more likely to succeed. The commercial leaders, including Google, Microsoft and Amazon, are already leveraging AI, while a large number of AI unicorns are coming to the fore, making efforts to “overtake on the curve” so that they can be distinguished in the market. Yet, the industry as a whole is asking itself how to go about embracing AI.
From chip to algorithm, from cloud to offline, AI-based products and services come in all forms. Many companies haven’t figured out how to proceed when deploying AI. A unicorn can skillfully solve this issue, helping industrial customers rapidly deploy AI through robots. The unicorn, in this particular case, is CloudMinds, which has formed close partnerships with a mix of domestic Chinese and leading foreign firms, including SoftBank, Foxconn, China Mobile and the China-Japan Friendship Hospital. CloudMinds’ solutions have developed an excellent reputation across the industry.
Companies with a deep understanding of robotics come together
For an AI deployment, a robot is by far the best solution. CloudMinds is renowned worldwide for its “cloud smart robot” solution and is working in close collaboration with several partners. SoftBank Robotics Holdings (SBRH), which has developed deep knowledge on robotics and AI technology, is among its partners.
At the beginning of 2012, SBRH was founded by SoftBank. Subsequently, Alibaba and Foxconn invested in SBRH, equipping the joint venture with strong robot production capacities and vast commercial development channels. SBRH’s humanoid robot Pepper is widely used in various new retail scenarios and has become one of the most advanced AI products in the market.
As AI gains in popularity, SBRH has partnered with CloudMinds, adding the “cloud smart” features to Pepper’s suite of capabilities while maintaining its other advanced features, creating an even smarter robot — Cloud Pepper.
Cloud Pepper’s “brain” is in the cloud. The body is connected to the brain via a mobile high-speed network, while AI remotely manages its activities. By structuring the functionalities in this way, the AI capabilities are fully divorced from and not limited by the local hardware. The massive cloud database empowers Cloud Pepper.
In practical application, Cloud Pepper positions and identifies sound sources in scenarios through four microphone arrays located on its head, easily handling various instructions in Chinese and English. With the human augmented robot intelligence (HARI) platform, the smart AI database can provide a variety of functions, such as accurately answering a question about the availability of a seat at an event, providing a weather forecast or getting an update on current traffic conditions. The proprietary face and object recognition system can not only simultaneously identify several faces, but intelligently identify hundreds of objects.
CloudMinds takes several steps to cement its position in the marketplace
Besides SBRH, CloudMinds has partnered with several other firms, among them, Foxconn, China Mobile and the China-Japan Friendship Hospital, to promote deployment of AI-enhanced robots. Looking at the overall market, robotics is now at a key juncture in the transformation of both industry and technology. There is a consensus that robots will be the next big breakthrough. CloudMinds’ “cloud smart robot” solution is ideal for companies who need to rapidly integrate robotics into their processes.
The “cloud smart robot” solution is widely recognized across all industries, as CloudMinds has taken several steps to comprehensively create its own core competitiveness, directly addressing the main issues across the industry:
CloudMinds created a safe and strong robot network infrastructure — Skynet, which is fully independent of the existing Internet. Skynet effectively addresses the security issue for all players by establishing a highly secure and high-performance backbone network using software-defined network (SDN) and software-defined perimeter (SDP) technologies;
CloudMinds researched and developed the world’s first cloud smart connecting terminal based on dual chips and virtualization technology — AI Mobile. The AI application activates the adaptive robot through this equipment configuration, endowing each robot with a smart “heart”;
In addition, the HARI architecture “cloud smart service” developed by CloudMinds combines human and machine intelligence, offering a variety of cloud smart services, including data analysis, image (face) and voice recognition, for the front end. The architecture drives deep learning of machine intelligence, greatly enhancing the robot’s capabilities following deployment.
By combining the cloud-based brain, a neural network and a terminal, CloudMinds services industrial users with an open “cloud smart robot” ecosystem, helping many industries better embrace AI. CloudMinds founder and CEO Huang Xiaoqing said: “We look forward to providing platform solutions in the future, offering customers a suite of services that, today, can still only be imagined. Based on these solutions, we will support our partners, including developers, software suppliers and data providers, in future commercial applications, security and AI with possible rich scenario applications, driving the arrival of the service robot era.”
