Xiaomi Appoints Two Executives to Robotics Division

Xiaomi has appointed the new general manager and deputy general manager for the company’s Robotics Division, a subsidiary of the Mobile Phone Department, showing that Xiaomi attaches great importance to this innovative business, Jiemian News reported on March 9.

Xu Duo will serve as general manager of the Robotics Division, reporting to Adam Zeng, president of Mobile Phone Department. Xu will also serve as vice-chairman of the technical committee of the group, and report related work to Qu Heng, chairman of the technical committee. In addition, Xiaomi appointed Xiang Diyun as the deputy general manager of the Robotics Division.

The Robot Division was established in 2021 and shortly thereafter released its Cyberdog, a bionic quadruped robot, in addition to CyberOne, a humanoid bionic robot, in August of the same year. Cyberdog has a bionic gait but still offers visual and auditory interaction experience. In some demo videos, Cyberdog can listen to instructions, identify the owner and automatically follow the owner’s movements. CyberOne is 177cm tall and weighs 52kg. It can recognize 85 types of environmental sounds and 45 kinds of human emotions. It can realize the balance of bipedal motion posture through its mechanical joint module and full body control algorithm.

From a commercial point of view, Cyberdog and CyberOne do not have substantial revenue-generating or profit targets. They and the robot laboratory behind them are symbols of technological innovation that Xiaomi has repeatedly emphasized. Therefore, in the eyes of insiders, the marketing significance of these two products outweighs their usefulness.

Xiaomi founder Lei Jun has emphasized the company’s pursuit of technological innovation in his annual speech. In 2021, the Cyberdog team won the “Million Dollar Technology Award” specially set up by Xiaomi to motivate engineers. This year, Cyberdog and CyberOne appeared at MWC 2023 in Barcelona, Spain.

SEE ALSO: CyberDog Team Wins 2021 Xiaomi Annual Technology Award

This appointment once again shows Xiaomi‘s emphasis on this innovative business. Before Xu Duo took up the position, Zhang Lei was the general manager of the Robotics Division and also served as the general manager of Xiaomi‘s Wearable Division.

Xiaomi has given Xu Duo the position of vice-chairman of the technical committee, which means that the company is giving the department more flexible technology transfer rights and more technical resources.