We set off on 24 August with a simple question: can a software house afford to watch the convergence of artificial intelligence and robotics from a distance? For us the answer was already no. What remained was to find out where this technology actually stands — and to do that, you have to go and see it.
The first stop was Shenzhen, at IOTE – the International Internet of Things Exhibition, among manufacturers of humanoids, quadrupeds and components. The focus was deliberately practical: not just what the machines can do, but costs, after-sales support, speed of development.
Then Hangzhou, at Unitree’s headquarters, where we explored a broad and diverse product range, part of it well suited to the projects we are already working on. That visit opened a path we are now defining: an agreement covering Italy and Luxembourg, with technical support in developing and integrating our software solutions with their robots.
But the most unexpected takeaway wasn’t technological.
“I found a generation that is open, far less formal than I had imagined, international, with a real appetite for meeting others, exchanging ideas and building together,” says founder Giuseppe Capoferri.
In Hangzhou we were welcomed by Zoe Wang of Unitree, and the conversation moved quickly from robotics to people. It led to a mutual invitation: our team to the Unitree campus, Zoe to visit us in Europe. On 9 October she will be in Luxembourg, meeting our team and the project we are developing with SnT, the research centre of the University of Luxembourg. Italy will follow.
“When young Chinese, Italians and Europeans sit around the same table and share technology and ideas, the distances suddenly become much smaller,” Capoferri concludes.
It is also the reason why, more than twenty-five years ago, this company was named Gulliver.