Elephant Robotics releases the Mercury series: an innovative leap for humanoid r
2024-06-12 / tech
The "14th Five-Year Plan" for the development of the robotics industry highlights that the research, development, and application of robots are important indicators for measuring a country's level of technological innovation and high-end manufacturing capabilities. Currently, the robotics industry is thriving and significantly changing the way humans produce and live, injecting strong momentum into economic and social development.
Humanoid robots, as a crucial part of the robotics industry, possess unique technologies and functions, and are widely applied in education, research, service, entertainment, and industrial fields, bringing unprecedented convenience and efficiency.
In October 2023, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Guiding Opinions on the Innovative Development of Humanoid Robots." The report pointed out that robotic technology has a mature technical foundation, and with breakthroughs in artificial intelligence technologies such as large models as a leading force, the technology of humanoid robots is rapidly evolving. It has become a new highland in technological competition, a new track in future industries, and a new engine for economic development, with great potential for development and broad application prospects.
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In line with the product layout and development path of Elephant Robotics, the company officially released the Mercury series of humanoid robots priced at the ten-thousand-yuan level.
The Mercury series of robots includes three products: the Mercury A1 seven-axis collaborative robotic arm, the Mercury B1 semi-humanoid dual-arm robot, and the Mercury X1 universal wheeled humanoid robot.
The industrial design of all three products is carefully crafted by a Swedish team, integrating seven core robotic algorithms and various usage and development methods, aiming to meet the needs of five major application scenarios: education, research, service, entertainment, and VR teleoperation.
Mercury Robot Product FamilyMercury A1 - 7-Axis Collaborative Robot
The Mercury A1 is a lightweight 7-degree-of-freedom collaborative robot, powered by 7 self-developed harmonic modules from Elephant Robotics; the brand-new 7-axis industrial design is meticulously crafted by a Swedish team, with the entire machine using an ultra-lightweight carbon fiber shell, which reduces weight while significantly enhancing the strength and rigidity of the machine.
The Mercury A1 adopts a single master control with dual auxiliary control methods. The master control features a Cortex A72 - 1.5GHz processor, equipped with a 2.0-inch IPS-LCD capacitive touch screen, complemented by Elephant Robotics' self-developed robot convenient development operating system, myPanel OS, which enables rapid deployment of applications without the need for programming.
Mercury B1 - Dual 7-Axis Semi-Humanoid Robot
The Mercury B1 dual-arm semi-humanoid robot has a total of 17 degrees of freedom, equipped with two A1 7-axis robotic arms, capable of independent operation of each arm and coordinated operation of both arms; the head is mounted with a 9-inch high-definition LCD touch screen, supporting multi-touch control and customizable expression display for users; controlled by an Nvidia Xavier main control chip and four independent auxiliary controllers. With an integrated 3D camera, it can perform 2D/3D machine vision-guided grasping and VR-enabled remote operation.
As one of the earliest robots to be compatible with ChatGPT for Robotics, the Mercury B1 comes with a high-definition microphone array built-in, supporting real-time voice collection, which will bring a new experience of AI voice intelligent recognition interaction.
Mercury X1 - Wheeled Full Humanoid RobotThe Mercury X1 wheeled humanoid robot has a total of 19 degrees of freedom, composed of the Mercury B1 and a high-performance mobile base. The entire machine is equipped with dual main controllers, NVIDIA Jetson Xviaer and Jetson Nano, with four independent sub-controllers for the upper body and one independent sub-controller for the lower body for coordinated control.
The mobile base is equipped with high-performance LiDAR, ultrasonic sensors, and 2D vision for rich perception; it uses direct drive motors for propulsion, with a maximum operating speed of 1.2m/s; the maximum slope climbing height is 2CM; the maximum slope climbing angle is 15 degrees. The entire machine has a maximum endurance of up to 8 hours, meeting the needs of personal and commercial applications.
Harmonic Module Series from Liyuan Series: High torque, low self-weight, and powerful output from the newly developed module
All series of Mercury robots are equipped with the newly developed Liyuan Series harmonic module from Elephant Robots. The new modular design module comes standard with electromagnetic brake and hollow wiring. It features high precision, high inertia, and low self-weight.
The maximum output torque can reach 80Nm, and the highest option is a multi-turn 12-bit encoder, with a repeat positioning accuracy of up to 0.6 arc minutes. Combined with the mechanical arm's shell made of aluminum alloy and carbon fiber, it further reduces the self-weight of the entire machine and optimizes the power performance.
Strong computational power empowers the new frontier of embodied intelligence
The Mercury humanoid robots B1 and X1 use the new NVIDIA Jetson Xavier edge computing core as the main control module. With up to 21TOPS of AI performance, these modules provide strong computational support for processing visual ranging, sensor fusion, positioning and map building, obstacle detection, and path planning algorithms, creating endless possibilities for the development and application in the field of embodied intelligence.
Especially in overcoming the technical challenges of VR remote operation, ensuring the acquisition of low-latency video streams has always been one of the key challenges. Elephant Robots has adopted an innovative solution, which is to use the Accelerated GStreamer plugin provided by the NVIDIA Xavier platform to successfully achieve GPU-accelerated video encoding and decoding. While ensuring real-time performance, it optimizes bandwidth utilization to the greatest extent and provides hardware acceleration for VR remote operation.Seven Major Integrated Algorithms, Crafting Machine Intelligence
The Mercury robot series has integrated seven major intelligent algorithms for the first time, enhancing the kinematics and dynamics of the robotic arm, suppressing vibrations, and enabling smooth and coordinated dual-arm operation. With deep integration of vision, laser, and voice sensors, and the support of artificial intelligence, it creates a comprehensive three-dimensional machine intelligence.
Mercury Seven-Axis Robotic Arm Control:
The kinematics algorithms enable the robotic arm to perform trajectories such as straight lines, arcs, and splines. The seven-axis robotic arm, also known as a redundant robotic arm, has a structure similar to the human hand, allowing it to maintain the end effector's position unchanged while achieving motion in zero space by simply adjusting the redundant arm angles. The presence of redundant arm angles allows the robot to move to adjacent continuous positions without the need for large posture rotations, giving it a unique advantage in small-range rotational movements. The Mercury robot series also features functions such as drag teaching, soft floating of the robotic arm, collision detection, and velocity blending, which have been implemented in other product lines of Elephant Robotics.
Dual-Arm Coordination:
Inspired by human dual-hand coordination, myBlockly integrates dual-arm synchronous coordination algorithms to achieve coordinated dual-arm operation, making the robot more flexible and efficient in complex and precise tasks. It also features regular algorithms such as dual-arm self-interference detection, synchronization, and cooperation.
SLAM Laser Navigation:
Adopting advanced RTABMAP 3D and 2D combined SLAM navigation technology. By perceiving the plane environment with a LiDAR and constructing a map in real-time with a 3D camera while simultaneously localizing, Mercury Mercury achieves intelligent navigation and obstacle avoidance, possessing efficient and accurate mobility.
Monocular Vision:Leveraging advanced visual algorithms and OpenCV-based technology, the Mercury robotic arm has achieved multiple intelligent recognition functions. With various recognition methods such as color, shape, Aruco markers, feature points, and YOLO object detection, the robotic arm is capable of quickly and accurately handling a wide range of tasks.
Whether it's color recognition, shape positioning, or swiftly capturing specific markers, the Mercury robotic arm demonstrates exceptional flexibility and efficiency. In complex and variable working environments, it can complete tasks intelligently, making it a valuable assistant in the workplace.
Binocular Vision:
The Mercury robot incorporates advanced indoor 3D vision reconstruction technology, capable of accurately capturing the indoor environment through LiDAR and cameras. With feature extraction and depth estimation, it generates precise 3D maps in real-time, providing strong support for intelligent navigation and environmental understanding.
Speech Recognition:
myBlockly combines speech recognition with GPT models, allowing the user's voice commands to be translated into Blockly code. Users can generate complex Blockly code with simple verbal instructions, eliminating the need for manual input and greatly improving programming efficiency.
ChatGPT Integration:
myBlockly integrates with ChatGPT, enabling AI programming through natural language interaction with ChatGPT. Users do not need to understand programming languages; they can simply describe the function of the program to generate Blockly blocks with one click, easily constructing complex programs.
Three integrated software operation methods, a brand-new self-developed operation software! Redefining human-computer interaction.Unleash the power of Mercury effortlessly
The Mercury A1 robotic arm, equipped with the "myPanel" and a two-inch touch screen, enables rapid teaching programming of the arm without the need for any additional hardware for debugging and deployment.
myBlockly (Graphical Programming Development Software)
The newly introduced myBlockly features an innovative dual editing bar function, providing users with a more convenient and efficient programming experience. At the same time, myBlockly also integrates with the base SLAM control module API, enabling seamless integration of the entire programming and control of humanoid robots, further expanding the application fields of the Mercury robot.
With preset shortcut commands, users can quickly write control programs for both left and right arms, achieving efficient collaborative work of both arms, thus achieving the "1+1>2" effect.
VR Real-time Control
In conjunction with the latest Meta Quest3, the Mercury VR remote operation (MVRM) has been developed to achieve low-latency VR real-time control, providing a new robotic solution for special dangerous situations.
The Mercury robot can achieve 16 degrees of freedom in VR operation, supports both wired and wireless connections, and can be combined with 2D/3D cameras and various grippers, suction pumps, and dexterous hands.
Thanks to the Accelerated GStreamer plugin provided by the NVIDIA Jetson Xavier platform, the MVRM operation latency is less than 300MS; the operation accuracy reaches ±1MM, and it has been the first to adapt to the Meta Quest3 series.Multilingual software ecosystem, supporting mainstream simulation platforms
The Mercury robot series adheres to the open-source tradition of the Elephant software, supporting a rich software ecosystem and mainstream programming languages.
It also supports mainstream simulation software including ROS2, Moveit, Gazebo, Mujoco, and Isaacsim, facilitating users to simulate robot movements in simulation systems, enhancing the capabilities of intelligent autonomous learning and rapid iteration.
Support for secondary development
Python API - pymyCobot
pymyCobot is a universal Python control library designed to support multiple robots under the Elephant Robotics brand, providing a simple and flexible interface for developers to control robots.
C++ API - Mercury
Mercury API is a C++ control interface specifically designed for the Mercury robot. It is concise and easy to use, offering flexible control over robot joints, posture, and actuators, helping developers quickly implement various robot applications.Five Major Application Scenarios
Educational Scenarios
Robotic teaching kits, the Mercury A1 collaborative robotic arm can be paired with 2D or 3D vision modules, enabling the study of knowledge in various fields such as image recognition, model training, robotic control, motion planning, robotic spatial calibration, and vision and robotic hand-eye calibration. The Mercury B1 robot can be equipped with a Tuyang 3D industrial camera for the disordered picking of industrial parts.
Research Scenarios
A one-stop research embodied intelligent humanoid robot - Mercury B1. Thanks to the application of self-developed control algorithms and self-developed modules, B1 can be used for research and applications in various directions such as bimanual coordinated control, bimanual motion planning, and visual perception plus robotic applications, making it the preferred model for humanoid robot application research.
Bimanual Manipulation of Test Tubes Display
3D Reconstruction
3D SLAM Autonomous Navigation Scenario: The wheeled humanoid robot - Mercury X1. Equipped with a 3D camera and a 360-degree omnidirectional radar, paired with an NVIDIA core main control, it achieves 3D scene scanning and mapping, supports ROS environment expansion development, and supports the loading and saving of environmental maps, allowing the robot to integrate into the actual environment for various applications such as robotic movement, autonomous navigation, and 3D mapping.Service Scenarios
The robust performance and inherent capabilities of the Mercury series, coupled with its elegant design, make the Mercury robot not only suitable for educational and research scenarios but also for commercial service settings. With various end-effector attachments and a range of everyday furniture and appliances, the robot can serve in actual company presentations, trade shows, and industry exchanges, showcasing the cool applications of robot waiters.
Entertainment Scenarios
Equipped with custom end-effectors and the development of human-like motion simulation, the Mercury robot can achieve humanoid motion applications and creative development for personal applications.
Boxing Glove Motion
VR Teleoperation Scenario
With VR equipment, the robot can be remotely controlled for various applications.Robot control can be unrestricted by time and space, and can be widely used for remote landing solutions in various customer scenarios. Dual-end software coverage is provided, supporting UI interface control on both VR device and robot ends, allowing for rapid setup of robot remote control scenarios, making humanoid robots more practical.
VR Teleoperation for Picking Eggs
VR Teleoperation for Sorting Toys
VR Teleoperation for Sorting Parts
Enriching the Ecosystem
The Mercury series of robots offers a complete range of auxiliary hardware, including various grippers and suction pumps, which can be used in combination with both 2D and 3D vision systems, truly achieving the "hand-eye coordination" of robots.
We provide three major categories with over ten types of accessories, all available in sync with the product launch. These meet your personalized scene development needs, freeing you from the application challenges of conventional robot accessory selection.
Electric Gripper
Adaptive Gripper: Maximum gripping width of 120mm, maximum load of 1KG, equipped with force control for grasping, automatically adapts to the width of objects, suitable for objects of various sizes with regular or unknown shapes.
Angled Gripper: Maximum gripping angle of 90 degrees, maximum load of 1KG, equipped with force control for grasping, supports automatic width adaptation, and is compatible with flexible fingertips, making it suitable for objects with irregular shapes.Parallel Gripper: Maximum gripping width of 50mm, maximum load of 1KG, with force-controlled grasping, controllable closure width, suitable for precisely shaped objects.
Suction Cup Pumps
Integrated Suction Cup Pump: Maximum load of 1KG, integrated installation application, no need for additional suction pump cables, supports IO control.
Modular Suction Cup Pump: Adjustable distance between multiple suction heads, suitable for flat objects, maximum load of 1KG, supports IO control.
Camera Modules
2D Camera Module: RGB color 2M-pixel USB camera, can be directly connected to the robot arm's USB port.
3D Camera Module: RealSense 3D camera, supports depth information acquisition.
Regarding Pricing
Elephant Robotics has prepared a special introductory offer for the launch of the Mercury series robots. Place an order before February 1, 2024, to enjoy exclusive discounts:
Mercury A1 7-axis collaborative robotic arm: ￥28,998Mercury B1 Semi-Humanoid Dual-Arm Robot: $68,998
Mercury X1 Universal Wheeled Humanoid Robot: $98,998
About Elephant Robotics
This year, Elephant Robotics has achieved significant sales with its desktop robotic arm myCobot 2023, dual-arm collaborative robot myBuddy, mobile intelligent chassis myAGV, and artificial intelligence vision kits, gaining market recognition.
The Mercury series of robots, as an innovative work that possesses the characteristics of the above products, widely applies cutting-edge technologies such as 3D vision, VR remote sensing, and large language models, enabling the Mercury series robots to be implemented in various fields.
Since the first desktop robotic arm designed by the founder of Elephant Robotics, Song Junyi, in 2012, he has harbored a dream: to create more and more robot products that people love. He hopes that through these innovations, people can enjoy a world where they live with robots and experience the perfect integration of technology with daily life.
In the future, humanoid robot technology will continue to evolve, with more powerful artificial intelligence, more advanced perception technology, and more flexible and diverse mobility. "Enjoy Robots World" is the corporate vision of Elephant Robotics, and together with the Mercury robots, let's embark on the journey into the world of robots!
Elephant Robotics is currently seeking national channel partners, implementing a supportive channel policy, and empowering regional project sales with official digital marketing. We sincerely invite you to join the world of robots and look forward to your contact!
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