Zhang Ruirui: "Behind the Scenes Expert" in Building the "Rongbao" Robot Chengdu | Sports Games | Expert

Editor's note

The 31st Chengdu Summer Universiade is about to be held, marking the first comprehensive international sports event held in the western region of China. In addition to the fierce competition of young athletes on the field, there is also a vigorous youthful energy surging outside the field, including the staff of the Universiade, foreign volunteers, and various scientific and technological innovation personnel... They shine and shine in their respective positions, jointly writing the unique brilliance of the Chengdu Universiade and leaving shining footprints for the Universiade.

To some extent, Zhang Ruirui, born in the 1980s, made the same correct choice as Musk, born in the 1970s.

In 2018, when Zhang Ruirui returned to Chengdu with a group of British returnees to start a business, the robotics industry was not as lively as it is today. He started his own business out of his own pocket, with limited funds. At the beginning of the business, he could only choose one technological path to determine the "chassis" of the robot. Simply put, it is the "vision" of robots, relying on cameras or radar - he chose binocular vision.

"Binocular vision is equivalent to using a camera for pure visual navigation. However, four years ago, LiDAR was mainstream, and even Tesla had not yet achieved complete binocular vision navigation. Today, it can now rely entirely on cameras." Zhang Ruirui explained that the advantages of binocular vision are high navigation accuracy and low cost. "Tesla now only costs $120 to install 8 cameras, and a LiDAR may cost tens of thousands of yuan.".

The "Rongbao" robot, specifically designed for the 31st Summer Universiade in Chengdu and known as the "Special Service Student," uses binocular visual navigation. And Zhang Ruirui is the "behind the scenes expert" in creating the "Rongbao" robot.

Zhang Ruirui studied mechanical engineering for both his undergraduate and master's degrees. During his doctoral studies, he studied abroad and chose a relatively unknown robotics related major in China at the time. "That was in 2004, and I can be said to be one of the earliest PhDs in China to specialize in robotics," he said. At King's College London in the UK, Zhang Ruirui studied under Professor Dai Jiansheng, an international robotics guru, academician of the Royal College of Engineering, and academician of the European Academy of Sciences. During his studies, he founded his own technology company locally, applied for more than 40 patents, and won the German Red Dot Industrial Design Award.

After graduating with a PhD, Zhang Ruirui stayed in the UK for many years and became a co-founder of a Fortune 500 company in Europe. Until 2017, he came to Shenzhen and participated in the Shenzhen Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition in China, winning the championship. Later, he was invited to Chengdu to participate in the "Last 100 meters of express delivery" logistics robot research and development project.

"It was my mentor who asked me to return to China to participate in the 'Deep Innovation Competition'. After returning, I saw the possibility of robots developing in my homeland and hometown." Zhang Ruirui stayed on like this.

At the beginning of his return to China for entrepreneurship, the core team members of the startup company were all Zhang Ruirui's classmates in the UK, and he packed them back to Chengdu. On the one hand, Chengdu gives everyone the impression of being a very livable city, and on the other hand, the field of artificial intelligence does not particularly rely on geography. I think no matter where it is, as long as it is our team, we can do it. After several years of development, the company currently has more than 80 members, with overseas returnees accounting for about 10%, and local talents are thriving.

The Rongbao robot is equipped with a high-resolution map, which integrates mapping, global/local path planning, obstacle detection, and data fusion. It has multiple functions such as explanation, inquiry, translation, guidance, and emergency rescue. This is currently the most well-known work by Zhang Ruirui's team, but his robot team is far more than that.

"What I want to do is a service-oriented robot, and I don't want to repeat what others have done," said Zhang Ruirui. A reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Network saw a charging robot designed specifically for new energy vehicles. After being put into use, the car owner can scan the code to place an order, and the robot can carry the battery to ordinary parking spaces to charge the car, solving the problem of difficult charging of new energy vehicles in cities.

Looking back on his initial choice, he still felt it was an adventure: "Our money can only bet on one. At that time, LiDAR had a ready-made chassis, which was relatively easy to make. This was also the technology used by most domestic robotics companies at that time, but its disadvantages were also obvious. Our team all supported this decision, and we are all in research and development. We see the future."

The Chengdu Universiade has not yet begun, and Zhang Ruirui revealed that the "Rongbao" robot has been "reserved" in many places, including museums and communities. In the future, when visiting museums in Chengdu, you may encounter the successful "Rongbao" robot for re employment.