Tech Giants: Starting from Bankrupt Companies

270: Chapter 270 Crimson Sky Humanoid RobotThe morning press conference shocked the entire audience; all four engines were extremely cost-effective, with performance at the top tier among products of the same class, yet the price was only 70-80% of their peers.

This significantly saved on production costs, and using Starry Sky engines would make their own products more competitive.

After a short one-hour break, a large number of purchasing managers mingled in the business area to discuss cooperation.

At 1:00 PM, the lighting shifted to deep blue.

The stage background changed.

It was no longer the metallic texture of industrial gray, but a deep starry blue, like diving into the deep sea or drifting into the universe.

Staff pushed out a huge transparent display cabinet, two meters high and one and a half meters wide; the four walls were made of ultra-clear glass, and the internal LED light strips emitted a soft, cold light.

Standing inside the cabinet was a person.

No, not a person—it was a robot.

Silver body, exposed joint structure, hydraulic lines coiled like blood vessels, and every servo motor module was stamped with the Starry Sky logo.

Its head was not a smooth mask, but a dense array of sensors: binocular cameras, LiDAR, infrared thermal imaging, ultrasonic arrays...

Chixiao Humanoid Robot.

Su Chen walked to the side of the display cabinet.

”Boston Dynamics has spent 30 years creating the world’s most advanced laboratory robot,” he paused, ”Chixiao only took 18 months to create the world’s only commercially viable humanoid robot.”

The big screen popped up a technical parameter table: Dimension, Starry Sky Chixiao vs. Boston Dynamics Atlas.

Degrees of freedom: 54 vs. 28.

Peak torque: 320N·m vs. 180N·m.

Walking speed: 7.2 km/h vs. 5.4 km/h.

Single-arm payload: 25kg vs. 11kg.

Battery life: 8-12 hours vs. about 1 hour.

Price: 400,000 rmb.

The whole venue was silent.

This wasn’t a parameter comparison; this was a dimensional crushing.

Boston Dynamics Atlas is the global technical benchmark for humanoid robots, but it isn’t for sale—it’s only rented to a few laboratories for research, with rent costing tens of thousands of dollars per day.

And Starry Sky Chixiao: mass-produced, priced at 400,000 rmb.

”How did we do it?” Su Chen pressed the remote control, and the big screen switched to a 3D exploded view.

Chixiao’s core breakthroughs:

1. Integrated joint module.

Traditional robot: motor + reducer + driver + encoder + torque sensor = 5 independent components.

Chixiao: Four-in-one integrated module, 3D printed shell + embedded FOC driver + high-precision harmonic reducer.

2. Biomimetic gait algorithm.

Training data: motion capture data from 3,000 types of terrain—stairs, slopes, gravel, snow, mud, grass, sand...

Self-recovery rate from falls: 96% (laboratory test, 480 autonomous stand-ups out of 500 falls).

3. Industrial-grade reliability.

MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures): 5,000 hours.

Protection rating: IP54 (dustproof, splash-proof).

Operating temperature: -20°C ~ 55°C.

”This is not a scientific research toy,” Su Chen said, ”This is a productivity tool that can enter factories, warehouses, shopping malls, and laboratories. This is an advancement in productivity, the glory of technology, and a boon for high-risk industries.”

He turned to face the display cabinet.

”Hello, Chixiao.”

The robot raised its head.

The ring-shaped LED light strip on its head lit up with a soft blue halo—that wasn’t a cold indicator light; it was eyes.

”Mr. Su, today is May 7th,” Chixiao spoke.

The voice wasn’t a mechanical electronic sound, but a carefully tuned baritone with slight breathy processing, like a human speaking in a quiet environment.

”The humidity at the venue is 65%, the temperature is 24°C, and there are 1,427 audience members.” It paused, ”You haven’t buttoned the first button of your collar today.”

Laughter rippled through the audience.

Su Chen also laughed and reached out.

Chixiao accurately grasped his hand.

This handshake contained the real-time fusion of three technologies: torque sensors perceived the grip strength, automatically adjusting to a force equivalent to a human hand; visual servoing positioned the palm with an accuracy of 0.1 millimeters; and a tactile feedback array identified the texture of the contact surface.

In the VIP area, Apple’s Chief Design Officer Jony Ive slowly took off his glasses.

He wiped the lenses with a cloth, put them back on, and stared at the tactile feedback data on the screen.

”My God...” he muttered in English, his voice very soft, ”They solved tactile feedback.”

The person next to him didn’t hear clearly: ”What did you say?”

”Nothing.” Jony put his glasses back on, ”Help me book a flight back to Cupertino, the earliest one tomorrow. I need to talk to Tim about something.”

Application scenario demonstration.

The big screen switched to live footage:

Scenario 1: Industrial high-risk position.

Location: CRRC Qingdao Sifang Locomotive Factory, painting workshop.

Traditional painting workers work in toxic environments and must evacuate to rest every 2 hours.

The Chixiao robot held a spray gun and moved evenly over the car body surface.

Monitoring data showed: 8 hours of continuous work, coating thickness error ±5 μm, better than the human ±15 μm.

Scenario 2: Commercial service.

Location: Shenzhen Baoan Airport, T3 Terminal.

The Chixiao robot guided passengers to the boarding gate and answered flight information inquiries.

A foreign passenger asked for directions in English, and the robot automatically switched to English to respond.

Scenario 3: Scientific research and education.

Location: Tsinghua University Institute for AI Industry Research.

Doctoral students performed secondary development on the Chixiao platform, writing new grasping algorithms.

After learning three times, the robot successfully grasped a raw egg without breaking it.

After a brief pause, warm applause erupted in the venue again, even more enthusiastic than before.

This was a micro-industrial revolution, especially important in the field of production; many high-risk industries could avoid dangerous accidents if they purchased robots, and robots only needed regular maintenance to be used for a long time.

Subsequently, a large number of corporate representatives raised their hands frantically, indicating they wanted to place orders on the spot.

Su Chen raised his hand to signal everyone to be quiet, ”We will open the order link later. The big screen behind me will light up with the order QR code. You can scan the code to place an order. We have a 15-minute window. We will lock the orders after the time is up, because our current production capacity is limited and we will not fully open the purchasing channels. Friends who place orders today will have priority delivery. Now, please feel free to place your orders.”

In the following short 15 minutes, the hall was busy; everyone picked up their phones to register their information and enter the ordering interface, followed by calling their companies to negotiate how many robots to purchase; it was a scene of frenzy.

After the countdown ended, Su Chen announced the approximate data for this order.

”The first batch is 30,000 units.” Su Chen pulled up the order list:

Buyer list:

Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Automation: 200 units

Tsinghua University Institute for AI Industry Research: 150 units

Shanghai Jiao Tong University Robotics Institute: 150 units

BYD Central Research Institute: 500 units

Huawei 2012 Laboratories: 500 units

CATL Intelligent Manufacturing Department: 300 units

CRRC Qingdao Sifang: 400 units

Shenzhen Baoan Airport: 20 units

Beijing Union Medical College Hospital Surgical Robot Laboratory: 10 units

In addition, a large number of manufacturing representatives placed orders, such as automobile manufacturing, precision instrument manufacturing, electronic equipment manufacturing, chemical industry, etc.

Total amount: 30,000 units × 400,000 rmb = 12 billion rmb.

In the audience, those robotics scholars who had waited for many years showed expressions of relief for the first time.

It wasn’t because they bought cheap equipment.

It was because they finally didn’t have to wait—wait for the United States to open export licenses, wait for Japan to lower prices, wait for technology transfers from Europe.

Domestic robots could now walk into laboratories, into factories, and in the future, they would walk into homes and become new members of ordinary families.