In the whole of Serbia, there is not a person whose heart did not skip a beat while being broadcast live from afar Kine watched our president in front of a Chinese folklore group job who, especially for this occasion and in his honor, learned to play "Moravac". If the robots wore trumpets, we would believe that they were cast in the Smederevo steel plant, and that the software that breathed life into them was written by the winner of the trumpet festival in Guča, everything was so spontaneous, natural, homemade. And what a flood of emotions we experienced when we found out that as soon as tomorrow, we will start assembling those robots, programming them, that those robots will have an authentic Serbian "vibe" and that we will be, as the president said, "the first in Europe" - only a writer can tell that.
"This is like the 22nd century", stated the President of Serbia, "we will make thousands of these robots". The idea is to push domestic artificial intelligence into it (we are short on natural intelligence) because, recently, in Kragujevac we have a data center and a supercomputer and 40 megawatts of electricity. Of course, it's still early to reveal all the cards and announce what all these robots will be able to do, but the start is more than promising. It is to be expected that everything that is made will be immediately and looted. Because who wouldn't be happy to receive a Serbian robot that, just taken out of the box, knows how to play "Zika's Wheel"? And that is just one, not necessarily the most important, useful function.
While we wait for the future to begin, let's educate ourselves a little, to use this text for those purposes, because only an educated person can understand the magnitude of the "miracles" we just saw in China, neither Trump nor Putin got those robots, they left empty-handed, tempted, almost humiliated. But that's why the Serb, whack whack with a fork, and we got drawings, complete documentation, even notes for "Moravac" and the factory that will assemble those robots... If our president with a degree in law could understand the importance of robotics in the hilly Balkans, why shouldn't we learn something useful, even if belatedly.
There isn't much time to study because production has to start by mid-July, expect the job posting to appear today, tomorrow at the latest. Your chances of getting a job in robotics will be significantly higher if you read this text to the end, and only the wisest will remember to print it and show it to the competition committee as a key proof of their competence.
FROM THE MOVIE TO THE FACTORY
Well, let's get started... The playful machines we saw in China belong to the class of so-called "humanoid robots" and they have, in fact, been talked about a lot lately. By robot we mean any machine that can be programmed to perform one or more complex operations independently. Industrial robots have been with us for decades: they can assemble cars, weld sheet metal or transfer goods from shelf to shelf. The vast majority of these robots resemble an enormously mobile human hand tied to a fixed base, but there are also mobile ones that know how to navigate in space and avoid obstacles, from cranes with intelligent grippers, to vehicles that transport raw materials between the warehouse and the production line, to vacuum cleaners capable of cleaning the entire apartment.
Humanoid robots are different, their main characteristic is that they resemble human beings: they have a head, torso, arms and legs, they have joints that imitate human anatomy (shoulder, hip, knee, knuckles), the more joints, the greater the mobility, they have human-like senses (they can see and hear), they can communicate (by movement, sound), they behave "intelligently" using modern models based on artificial intelligence (AI), and they also have strength which greatly exceeds human muscles. So far we have mostly seen them on film, and it all started with Fritz Lang and his Metropolis, back in 1927. The concept of humanoid robots, their ability to think, to partially or completely imitate human beings, is a theme that filmmakers constantly return to. Here are some accomplishments we're happy to return to: Terminator (1984) Blade Runner (1982) I, Robotized (2004) A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) Ex Machina (2014) Her (2013) Bicentennial Man (1999) ...
At the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century, film began to intertwine with reality. It started with "Asim" from the company "Honda", a robot that traveled the whole world and had the honor of shaking hands with Prince Charles, Barack Obama and many other famous people. "Asimo" retired in 2022 because it was supplanted by incomparably smarter and more mobile models from other manufacturers. Today, large global companies that develop robots are constantly serving up marketing sensations, most often masterfully directed "YouTube" clips in which some new "Asimo" with amazing ease and precision overcomes an endless chain of obstacles, does something clever or simply "goofs off" (plays a round).
Investments in humanoid robots are increasing, and the value of the companies that design and manufacture them is growing at a crazy speed. Leading the way is "Boston Dynamics", the company behind the Korean "Hyundai", whose robot "Atlas" should enter commercial use this year. "Atlas" has 56 joints and is designed so that it can lift loads heavier than 50 kilograms, it can replace a discharged battery by itself, and it can work even in conditions of extreme humidity and temperature. Thanks to the artificial intelligence that is based on "NVidia" hardware, "Atlas" is able to learn a new skill in just one day. "Boston Dynamics", however, does not want to limit its cooperation in the AI field to just one giant: it has already been announced that this year it will start cooperation with the company "Google", which also intends to develop its range of intelligent robots.
Others are also making progress: for example, the company "Figure AI" had a stock market value of about 2,5 billion dollars in 2024. When it presented its latest humanoid robot model "Figure 03" last year, its value jumped to over 40 billion. Tech giants such as Tesla, Microsoft, NVidia and Amazon are also pumping additional billions into research to secure their place and position in the nascent market.
Elon Musk is also not taking his foot off the gas: "Tesla" already has its own humanoid robot model, "Optimus", the current focus is on lowering the price and improving performance. The strongest rival is, of course, China, which has already provided its companies with state aid and subsidies in the amount of 10 billion dollars in order to keep the price of Chinese robots as low as possible and their market share as high as possible (Chinese companies have registered more than 5.500 patents in this area, more than the rest of the world combined). According to estimates by "Goldman Sachs", the market of humanoid robots will reach a value of at least 40 billion dollars by the end of this decade.
photo: ap photoYOUR ORDER HAS ARRIVED: A delivery robot on wheels, at the Mint factory in China
WHAT IS POSSIBLE IN THEORY?
Why would anyone want to build a humanoid robot anyway? Why is the human form the most desirable? Why is it not an elephant, an octopus, a pig, some bird? The strongest argument boils down to the statement that we, as humanity, have spent many hundreds of years creating a living and working space that is intended exclusively for us. Factory halls, apartments and houses, corridors and doors, hooks and handles, shelves in shops, home furniture, stairs, tables and chairs, all of this is made exclusively to the measure of man. When a factory decides to speed up its work processes by using conventional robots, it usually means additional multi-million dollar investments to adapt the workspace to the needs of the new machines. Because, in order for a mechanical arm to function, it is necessary to clear the space for it, install rails and guides along which this arm will move, bring electricity, make a safety cage to ensure the physical safety of employees in the immediate vicinity. If it is an intelligent means of transportation that transports cargo between distant factory locations, it is necessary that the floor is flat and has a certain roughness - all unevenness must be removed. In large plants, the costs of such adaptations can be astronomical.
This is where, at least in theory, humanoid robots could step in. They have legs and feet and do not need a flat floor. They don't even need special tools: they have hands that are dexterous enough to hold a standard screwdriver, soldering iron, or hammer designed for the human hand. They are aware of their surroundings and will not hurt the craftsman, therefore they do not need a large, isolated, specially equipped space, the working conditions that every "ordinary" worker has are sufficient. Given that they have approximately the same figure as a human, it is not a problem for them to move through already existing passages and doors, to use elevators, ladders...
Humanoid robots simply fit easily into the existing environment. Thanks to their physical resemblance to flesh-and-blood humans, they can sit in any vacant chair and pick up where the previous worker left off. Thanks to their anthropomorphic hands, these robots can use virtually all basic tools that were originally designed for humans, not machines. They can deal with loading and unloading, moving objects and boxes, simple repetitive jobs, everything that a person does not like or cannot do continuously. And, finally, these robots have no fear - you can send them anywhere where the presence of people is extremely risky: at the bottom of the sea, in Fukushima or Chernobyl, in war zones, in space...
Where can all humanoid robots find application? On production lines, in various stages of the production process, in warehouses and logistics, in technical support, apartments, healthcare facilities... Potentially, robots like this can compensate for the lack of labor in many countries that already have a population that is rapidly aging (Germany, Japan, China, South Korea), where there is already a chronic shortage of workers who would engage in manual work or work in the third shift.
According to some estimates, this problem will increase because the global population on the planet is expected to reach its zenith in the next few decades (somewhere around 9 billion inhabitants), after which the number of inhabitants on the planet will begin to decline, due to the decrease in fertility. According to some estimates, the number of working-age people will decline by over 20 percent by 2050, making room for the employment of 2-3 billion robots by the end of 2060. A drastic drop in the number of inhabitants is expected especially in China, which in the next couple of decades will have to hire at least 300 million robots in order not to have to resort to mass importation of labor (an option that China does not want at all).
Do people want to see a robot in their house? There is no clear answer to that question yet, but we have already seen advertisements in which humanoid robots water house flowers, bring coffee, serve fruit, take care of cleanliness... We are facing an age in which the majority of the population will be old people. Someone will have to take care of that increasing number of seniors, buy them newspapers and groceries, talk to them or take care of medical therapy. For someone who spends his old age in solitude, a robot could be an acceptable surrogate for the society that is no longer there. Musk advertises his robot "Optimus" as an "autonomous assistant" and "humanoid friend". The company "1X" intended its robot "Neo" exclusively for home use: "You should do the things you love. Our robot will do everything else." "Neo" vacuums, wipes windows, throws out garbage...
Another argument in favor of the use of humanoid robots lies in their versatility. An ordinary mechanical arm can weld several hundred spots on a car body in just a few minutes, but that same arm is completely useless for anything else, say scratching your back. Such a robot looks like a specialist doctor who may be an extremely expert orthopedist, but that's why he only has basic school knowledge in dermatology. A humanoid robot, on the other hand, is like a general practitioner: it has a solid understanding of everything and with the same hardware it can carry boxes, clean floors or assemble parts, but it doesn't fully understand anything, let alone welding car bodies.
Another argument was presented only recently, when systems based on the use of artificial intelligence became popular and available to everyone. Humanoid robots have, in the last few years, progressed primarily by boasting an increasing degree of integration with intelligent software models, while engineering improvements have been of secondary importance.
Training robots for their use begins with the use of methods that belong to the so-called "machine learning". The algorithm built into the robot itself allows them to draw conclusions based on previous experience and process signals coming from sensors to be able to make decisions in real time.
However, humanoid robots have significant advantages: they can also learn by the method of "imitation", using an inexhaustible supply of video materials and documents describing the way a human solves a certain problem. Today's robots can easily reproduce what they see and read, ie. they imitate precisely because they have an "anatomy" that corresponds to ours. In addition, there is always the possibility of the operator entering a suit equipped with sensors that will record his every movement. When the operator performs a certain task, the data collected by the sensors can, with very little effort, be translated into instructions that the humanoid robot will be able to blindly execute. On the other hand, if instead of a humanoid robot you need to train a mechanical spider, a transporter that looks like a crate with wheels or a mechanical arm - training a robot using already existing human experience becomes incomparably more difficult.
The first two learning methods are combined with the third, known as the name reinforcement learning: each action of the robot is passed through a mathematical function that analyzes the robot's behavior and generates a certain number of reward and penalty points based on the performance. Through this evaluation system, the robot gradually learns to avoid actions that bring it negative points, gradually increasing its efficiency and quality of work.
photo: julija bakić / tanjugEASY, SERVE GUESTS: President Vučić at the Mint robot factory in China
AND NOW A LITTLE PRACTICE
In this way, humanoid robots, along with a human body, also got a human brain, at least on paper. That's how we got "physical AI", a system based on artificial intelligence that also has its own physical component. In which direction this inorganic "life form" will evolve further remains to be seen. However, there is a growing number of those who believe that humanoid robots are another great technical delusion and that they will never become universally accepted.
First of all, the big question is whether robots should really stand on two legs and walk. Thanks to their legs and feet, humanoid robots can climb stairs, but in the average factory hall this ability is usually unnecessary because the floors are flat. At the same time, standing on two legs is technically very demanding - unlike some "pointy" assistant who can calmly wait for his orders in a corner without spending any energy, humanoid robots represent the complete opposite: in order not to lose their balance and fall on their noses, they must continuously make filigree precise corrections of their position, sometimes a thousand times a second, which leads to the batteries that provide the drive for these robots being discharged at a high rate. Without a replacement battery, today's robots must be plugged in every 30-90 minutes.
The fact is that robotic walking attracts attention, because a person walks on two legs. But that is not the biggest technical challenge. Hands are much more complicated – the human hand has a mobility that is equal parts precision, strength and subtle sensitivity. The thumb is a greater wonder than any machine yet seen. Robots compensate by adding joints because each joint increases the robot's maneuverability, but at the same time complicates the training process and the software that needs to manage all those joints.
Experience shows that the universal practicality of a humanoid robot is actually its greatest curse: a classic wheeled conveyor in a warehouse or a simple mechanical arm on an assembly line has incomparably greater efficiency than any humanoid robot that walks through the factory space at a fraction of its cost. There are experts who claim that this is precisely why humanoid robots are trying to answer the wrong question.
Let's go further... If you take a closer look at the environments in which the latest humanoid robots function, you will see that it is a completely artificial, purpose-built space. In such an environment, humanoid robots are incredibly agile, but when you throw them into the real world, they seem completely lost. In addition, in many videos you will see robots packing clothes, making coffee, sorting things and the like, but you will not see the operator, the "wizard of Oz" hidden behind the scenes who, using virtual reality (VR) glasses, actually controls every movement of the robot.
BECAUSE YOU'RE A ROBOT
There is also the price, which varies drastically, depending on the manufacturer and model of the robot. Take, for example, "Atlas", the top-model humanoid robot from the company "Boston Dynamics" - until yesterday it had a relatively slow hydraulic drive, but recently it has been further improved and transferred to electricity. If you go to the company's website and try to put "Atlas" in the basket, and then pay for it with a card, you will be disappointed. You can just leave your contact information because "Boston Dynamics" is still primarily a research and development laboratory funded by "Hyundai" and DARPA (the famous US Agency for Advanced Defense Projects). The largest part of the produced robots was reserved for "Hyundai" and training in factories, while a smaller part went to "Deep Mind", a company that deals with artificial intelligence and is behind "Google". Based on scanty data from already existing contracts, it can be concluded that the price of "Atlas" is not less than 120 thousand dollars per piece (for the outdated hydraulic version), while the price of the electric version is probably between 150.000 and 250.000 dollars. What you could, with a lot of persistence, probably buy right now is a yellow four-legged "dog", which "Boston Dynamics" is already selling at a starting price of $75.000.
The others are not much cheaper either. The company "Digit" sells its model of a humanoid robot, which widely moves boxes in "Amazon's" gigantic warehouses, at a price of 250.000 dollars. The already mentioned robot from the "Figure" company, whose development was financed by "Microsoft" and "OpenAI" and is currently being tested in BMW's factories, costs between 100.000 and 150.000 dollars. For similar money, you can get "Optimus" made by the "Tesla" company, with the fact that Elon Musk believes that the price will drop below 25.000 dollars as soon as the robot enters mass production.
Chinese robots may not have the quality offered by American companies, but that is why they are incomparably cheaper, primarily thanks to companies such as "Unitree" and "Netix". For just $16.000, you can buy a Chinese humanoid robot “G1,” designed for researchers that can do a backflip and use basic tools. The commercial model “H2” is significantly larger and has a starting price of around $30.000.
Expensive? And it should be, because we're going to make this, and it's time to make good money from it. The only problem is that the above prices represent only a part of the total costs. The software used by these robots is very complicated and is built using commercial software libraries, the use of which requires a license worth several thousand dollars per month. The AI services on which all robotic intelligence is based are also becoming increasingly expensive, with a tendency to skyrocket. If you have an entire army of these bots, you'll also need additional orchestration software, ie. coordination of robot work, and that software is charged separately. Of course, there are also the inevitable contracts for training, maintenance and servicing of the robots, which further increase the costs of exploitation.
Finally, let's mention security, the physical one (fear that the robot will injure you or leave you without help due to a system error) and the one related to the security and secrecy of data related to your life and work. Each robot is, in essence, an exotically packaged computer that can be hacked and abused. In addition, all robots see, hear and communicate very well: you can never be sure what everything about your personal life or your business the robot will send to the "cloud" (a term invented by IT experts as an abbreviation for "a computer that belongs to someone else"). Humanoid robots have a "poker" face, they don't sweat and don't blink when they lie, you can't put them on a polygraph... When he's done with work, "Neo" usually sits on the couch: whether he's sleeping, scanning the environment, saving battery or exchanging gigabytes of information over the Internet, it's practically impossible to determine. That's why for many people the very idea of every home having its own robot is deeply disturbing. Because when we decided to make cars that move autonomously, we didn't add a robot to the driver as a replacement. On the contrary, we finished the car. Why do we now have the desire to modernize our home by inserting a humanoid robot to act as our replica? It is much simpler to make the house smarter.
It turns out that the idea of creating a robot that completely imitates a human is still very pretentious because a much more efficient solution, based on classic machines and simpler robots, can be made much faster and cheaper. The dilemma is very simple: would you rather buy a great dishwasher that costs a few hundred dollars, in which you have to stack the dishes yourself, or a robot that costs a few tens of thousands of dollars, that collects and washes the dishes all by itself, using a sponge and detergent? In engineering, there is a principle that form follows function, that a machine should only do one thing and do it in the best possible way, and this directly conflicts with the concept of multi-purpose humanoid robots. Classic mechanical hands, whose performance far exceeds what humans can achieve, systems based on simple motors, gears, rails and wheels, will have the upper hand for a long time to come. "AI with a body", a robot that can do everything and nothing properly, at least at the moment represents a "pie in the sky", a pure "hype" that is kept alive by the use of aggressive marketing and speculative capital. There are those who claim (like Rodney Brooks, the founder of the company "iRobot" that produces the popular robotic vacuum cleaner "Rumba") that, despite the tens of billions of dollars that have already been spent or will be invested, humanoid robots will never reach the dexterity that characterizes human beings.
photo: ap photo...
Even the optimists agree that humanoid robots still have a long way to go (uphill) to move from masterfully produced video clips to factory halls and become profitable in a real production environment. In August 2025, a three-day Olympics was held in China in which humanoid robots participated, competing in running and football. It was a very entertaining show of spectacular failures.
Make no mistake, most of the world's leading scientific authorities in the field of robotics still believe that humanoid robots will someday become a regular part of our everyday lives. The only question is how much time will pass until then and what man will evolve into in the meantime. If humanity then exists at all.
photo: j. bakić / tanjug...
VISION IS IMPORTANT
Everything you've read so far is actually irrelevant. Because who are we to judge cutting edge technology? It could be that humanoid robots are expensive, stupid, slow, fragile, that their battery drains quickly and that they have cold, clumsy hands, it is that they played "Moravac" in front of our president, even if they are playing "Kaljinka", and our president would be happy to watch that... but - everything will be fixed, just not right away. It is important that we have a vision!
Because, "Serbia will go to heaven the second compared to all others in the region, when the first robot leaves the factory, and that is a difference that will not be reached again. Those who are ahead of us - we will overtake them faster. Those who are behind us - that margin and difference will only increase day by day", said the president and added that at the "Expo" robots will be "at every step".
So, the matter is clear: slowly prepare for July 15, for the upcoming "ascension", for parting with our envious regional and even European neighbors who, out of spite, will be mooed by a cow and whom we will leave on the ground, as it were, in the mud, the same one from which, thank God, we pulled ourselves out a long time ago. Ignore the blockading skeptics and height-fearing infidels who go around spreading defeatism talking about how you can't even raise a sorghum broom factory in two months. According to the president, 250 people will work in the production of robots in Šabac. If not in Šabac, then in Belgrade, because there is already an ideal place for new production there: the lot between the chip factory "Mubadala" and the flying car factory "Željko Mitrović" is still empty.
Choose your friend for "Expo"!
Some of today's most famous humanoid robots
Alex (Boardwalk Robotics): Humanoid torso and upper body, no legs. It can move objects, convenient for sorting objects in industry and home use.
Change 3 (Osaka University): Static, but with a movable upper part and a face that supports facial expressions. He has excellent ears and vocal abilities. He conducted the orchestra of the New National Theater in Tokyo in 2020.
AMEC (Engineerd Arts): a development platform where artificial intelligence and machine learning systems can be tested. It has full mobility, understands human emotions and communicates using voice and facial expressions. Convenient for use in schools and nursing homes.
Apollo (Aptronic): walks on two legs, excels in complex environments such as warehouses and factories, is capable of autonomously reacting to potential hazards. "Mercedes" is testing this very model in its production halls.
Arms 6 (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology): Can use simple tools such as hammers and drills, cleans floors. Thanks to AI software, it can quickly learn how to grab a certain item and hand it to the worker next to it. Unique in that he knows how to ask for help in an unexpected situation.
Atlas (Boston Dynamics): The bipedal (two-legged) robot that has already been discussed. He is able to maintain his balance when lifting heavy objects and to move in an area with many obstacles. Made largely from parts printed on 3D printers.
Digit (Agility Robotics): The Maradona of robots (before Maradona packed on the pounds), flexible, able to crouch, kneel, stand on one leg, and shift his center of gravity to maintain balance. Currently employed in an American factory, on the machine parts washing line.
Eve (1X): The first robot to get "permanent employment". It has a panoramic view and a sensitive hand, which handles rough and sensitive loads equally well. Although it is not fully "human" because it has wheels instead of legs, it is still versatile and able to learn from previous experience.
(Figure 03 (Figures): A home assistant, with cameras built into her hands to make handling different objects as precise as possible. Unlike many rivals, it is not too ugly. It can be charged wirelessly by standing on a special mat while beating eggs or dusting.
G1 (Unitree): Extremely mobile with very dexterous hands capable of opening a bottle or soldering electrical components.
Jiajia (University of Science and Technology of China): Stationary robot with extremely realistic "skin", lip movements and facial expressions perfectly matched with speech. Intended for research and social interactions.
KIME (Macco Robotics): A humanoid bartender. It can serve coffee, alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, sandwiches and salads (250 servings per hour) and charge for it all. Beer is his strongest point: he can pour two glasses in six seconds and recognize frequent customers.
NAO (Softbank Robotics): Similar to the R2D2 robot from Star Wars. He speaks and understands over 20 languages. It uses ultrasound to detect obstacles and other people. Ideal for use in education and healthcare.
OceanOne (Stanford Robotics Lab): Grebe, capable of exploring shipwrecks, repairing coral reefs, and performing dangerous tasks. Thanks to its robust construction, it can dive up to a thousand meters deep. It has already been tested in real conditions, on the wreck of the ship Louis XIV (sunk in 1664).
Optimus (Tesla): Production worker, domestic assistant, debuted as a ballet dancer in 2021. At its heart, it has hardware that drives a computer based on artificial intelligence and shape recognition. The robot was scheduled to enter commercial use in 2025, but work has stalled due to a US dispute with China over the supply of rare metals. Elon Musk plans to install at least one million Optimus in Tesla factories by the end of the century.
Phoenix (Sanctuari AI): A general-purpose humanoid meant to alleviate labor shortages in manufacturing, logistics, and healthcare. It uses its own ("Carbon AI") operating system that allows it to learn new things quickly, with dexterity that can sometimes be compared to a human.
Protoclone (Clone Robotics): Unique in that it uses over a thousand "myo-fiber" motors to control synthetic muscles that mimic human movements. He can "pump" his muscles like a bodybuilder and is currently training for jobs such as meal preparation and laundry.
RoboThespian (Engineered Arts): Actor by profession, performs in theaters, lectures at conferences. Basically, a projector mounted on a moving platform with several dozen electric motors that allow it to gesture with its hands.
Tiangong Ultra (X-Humanoid): An "Athlete" who uses AI heavily to move his legs and overcome bumps and stairs with ease, without having to slow down. The first humanoid robot to win a half marathon.
lightning (Honor): Another "athlete" created in a famous Chinese mobile phone factory. It has legs that are a meter long, perfect balance and a liquid cooling system that allows it to run at full speed for long periods of time. During the premiere, "Lightning" set a new record for robots in the half marathon (ran 20 kilometers in 50 minutes and 26 seconds).
Real journalism costs money, and we will not be bought by tycoons and corporations. Support us with a one-time or monthly donation. The time for it is now!
