Is AI the Decisive Factor in Embodied Intelligence? After Raising 300 Million in Six Months, How Is VBot's First Product Shaping Up? | A Conversation with Zhao Zhelun, Co-founder of Vitality Dynamics

Last week, Beijing's WRC World Robot Conference was unprecedentedly packed.

Vitality Dynamics raised 300 million RMB within six months and made its debut with new products, becoming one of the most crowded booths at the entire venue thanks to its uniqueness.

Zhe Lun Zhao (aka "Monitor Zhelun"), co-founder of Vitality Dynamics, was thrilled. He believes:

In ten years at most, China's robot conference could perhaps be compared to the London World Expo of yesteryear — the 1851 London World Fair was the first World Expo, attracting over 6 million visitors during its five-month exhibition period, with exhibits including engines, textile machinery, and other landmark creations of modern industry.

In this episode, we invited Zhe Lun Zhao to share what he observed at the World Robot Conference, and to walk us through the evolution and key technologies of the robotics industry from Boston Dynamics' release of its first robotic dog to today. Plus, how Vitality Dynamics, which he co-founded, made its first remote-free robotic dog: how they chose their technical approach, and how they view this year's goals.

Additionally, Zhelun told us why he left Li Auto to start a business, how robots can inspire children, robot culture, and his predictions for the future development of the robotics industry.

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🤖 This is also the first episode of Crossroads' series "Robots Arrive at the Crossroads."

02:05 Crossroads vs. Monitor Zhelun — Quick-Fire Q&A

03:43 Thoughts right after attending the WRC World Robot Conference

06:28 "In ten years at most, the World Robot Conference might become the London World Expo of its day"

08:58 What robots mean, summarized: they provide a form of spatial mobility

10:50 The evolution of the robotics industry from Boston Dynamics' first robotic dog to today

11:37 Phase One: Boston Dynamics-led, first enabling human control of legged locomotion via remote

12:53 Phase Two: Unitree-led, leveraging China's supply chain advantages to make elegant structural designs

15:20 Today entering Phase Three, under three maturing technical conditions

17:48 Unitree's Xingxing Wang: VLA is a relatively crude architecture — what's Vitality Dynamics' take, given they adopt VLA?

20:03 Why did Vitality Dynamics choose to build robotic dogs rather than humanoid robots?

24:03 Choosing ToC: delivering user-facing service products, co-founders' personal experiences, considering organizational methods and working approaches

27:05 Researching what robots can actually do for users: casting a wide net for user research

29:35 Key metrics for year one: NPS (Net Promoter Score) and shipment volume

31:38 Hoping users will take Vitality Dynamics' robotic dogs outside

33:18 Why don't more entrepreneurs choose this space?

34:11 Few reference examples, unexpected difficulties encountered while building

37:42 Robotics entrepreneurship requires advancing on two skill tracks; Unitree faces its own challenges too

39:46 After working at Li Auto for so long, why consider starting a business?

41:30 Really hoping autonomous driving achieves L4 one day

43:29 Particularly wanted to build robots, was constantly reaching out to people while at Li Auto

44:22 What it was like working with Xiang Li

46:41 Takeaways from discussing product and brand with Xiang Li after starting a business

49:35 Despite many entrepreneurial options, they're also constrained — because the most important investment is time

52:00 Could build content independently, but hoping to find partners to do something bigger

52:58 The ups and downs of entrepreneurship

56:04 Which user scenario is most promising and commercially viable for consumer-facing robots?

58:31 Tesla's approach is remotely controlling robots to do tasks then accumulating data — this approach probably only works for Tesla

01:00:35 Industry discussions currently focus more on further technical development

01:03:10 What struck me most at this year's World Robot Conference: so many children participating — perhaps this is their robot awakening

01:05:03 Why do robots need to run races, play soccer? We need a robot culture akin to car culture

01:07:16 Is there a bubble in the robotics industry right now?

01:12:22 Predictions for the future of robotics — perhaps much like WALL·E

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