This week we hosted the sentio Robotix team in our lab, led by Martin Krček, a Google Developer Expert in the field of AI/ML. Both of our companies operate on the Czech humanoid scene, but with different models: we at Robot George develop our own industrial humanoid, while sentio Robotix focuses on modifying and integrating a humanoid platform of Chinese origin. We devoted the meeting to sharing experiences in transferring behavior from a digital twin (simulation) to real hardware.
The sentio Robotix team introduced us to the humanoid Sentio, which, on the basis of an imported platform, they are adapting for Czech and European deployments: walking, dynamic movements, spatial perception. We presented the current state of Robot George's development, including the simulation environment, teleoperation via an exoskeleton, and the hardware prototype.
A Shared Challenge: sim-to-real
Both projects work on the same technical question, which, however, we approach by a different path: how to transfer behavior learned in a digital twin to a real robot so that it works in operation. Sim-to-real transfer is among the most active areas of current research in humanoid robotics.
"When a team that pursues humanoid robotics in the Czech Republic comes to our lab, whether they develop it or integrate it, it is not competition. It is a great opportunity to enrich one another, exchange experiences, and move this field forward," says Jiří Pálka, our CEO and founder.
The Ecosystem of European Robotics
The European humanoid scene is today forming in several local clusters. In the global race, American and Chinese companies hold the lead, and Europe at this stage is forming more as a network of collaborations than as a single dominant player. In the Czech Republic, a distributed network is taking shape from Prague's CTU to the laboratories in Zlín.
"These meetings make sense. The more we exchange experiences, the faster we will all grow. Czech humanoid robotics is not one isolated project," adds Zdeněk Huspenina, our Chief Business Development Officer.
Regular working meetings between independent teams are at this stage still more the exception than the rule. We want to change that.