Summary: At Chinese unicorn Ninebot Inc, VP of Robotics Li Pu compares building the Loomo personal robot to that of Apple's first personal computer, with the vision of introducing a robot helper or companion into everyday life. By democratizing the underlying requirements for robotic function (e.g. computer vision, voice recognition, mobility, etc.), Li's robotic platform serves as base infrastructure on which incredible applications and uses cases can be developed. A massive undertaking indeed, but I wouldn't put it past Li and his team to help accomplish this. After all, Li's academic background is incredible. He received a bachelor's degree in engineering from the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a CS Master's from Tsinghua, before receiving his Ph.D. in artificial intelligence from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL). He's won numerous awards, including the China Air Robot contest, and was instrumental in the successful completion of China's first UAV mission (China's 24th Antarctic expedition). Li joins us today to explain the following: Ninebot and Segway originally sold self-balancing scooters, so how and why did they decide to develop robots? After Ninebot acquired Segway in 2015, what was the impact on collaboration and partnership between the two entities? Why is there such a keen focus on personal robots, when other industrial robotic applications currently comprise 75% of revenue in the market? What are the key drivers and barriers in the personal robotics space? Why is it important to create a robotic platform as opposed to a singular product, and how will Ninebot build an ecosystem of developers to come up with killer applications? What is the competitive environment like globally, and what are some major differences between the US sand Chinese robotics ecosystems?
