Day 1 of Our Alibaba Ecommerce Program: Touring DEEP Robotics (2 of 3) (Tech Strategy)

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We just finished up Phase 2 of our Alibaba Ecommerce Training Program. This is our program (in partnership with Alibaba) for training ecommerce entrepreneurs.

  • Phase 1 was a month of classes on ecommerce entrepreneurship. We cover everything from long-term strategy to AI marketing.
  • Phase 2 was a week in Hangzhou doing classes at the Alibaba headquarters. And also visiting local companies.

The program really went well. I think it’s a pretty unique training offering.

We’re looking to roll this program out in other geographies Probably Southeast Asia and Brazil / Latam. I’m starting to talk with local partners right now if you have any suggestions please let me know.

And if you want to know more about our tours and training programs, go here.

In the first article, I started going through the first day of our Hangzhou week. I went through our visit to Geely / Zeekr (which was awesome). I’m heading back there next month.

After that, we headed over to DEEP Robotics.

The Basics of DEEP Robotics

I really like DEEP Robotics.

They make industrial-grade robot dogs (i.e., quadrupeds). Which can be used for inspections of energy grids and other large scale industrial sites. And their robots are industrial grade, which means they are built for harsh conditions. Think of snow, rain, dust storms, etc.

I’ve written about DEEP before.

Here is my basic assessment:

  • I mostly like industrial, infrastructure and government-focused robot use cases. Much more than the consumer-facing use cases. Chinese SOEs are arguably the best customer base out there right now. I’m going to be writing a lot about this.
  • DEEP is out front with products and technology specialized for industrial-grade use cases. This includes all weather capabilities, submergibility (IP67 rated) and temperatures from negative 20 to 55 degrees Celsius.
  • DEEP has moved from pilot to production. They are scaling up in sales and production and have expanded to 500 staff.
  • The use cases for industrial grade quadrupeds are clear. We can see them being deployed and adding real value (not just doing backflips). Here are some of Deep’s clients and partners (from their presentation).

In this article, I’m mostly just going to show some videos and pictures from our visit. I’ve detailed the business and its specs before.

Our Arrival at DEEP in Hangzhou

Our group took our bus to Zijin Plaza, which is in Northwestern Hangzhou. This is just north of Alibaba and Zhejiang University, which is where the founders (Zhu Qiuguo and Li Chao) are from.

Zijin Plaza is a nice office complex situated on a river. So, they have their robots running around the parking lot. And behind the building along the river.

According to them, they have about 500 staff at this location now. But they are expanding pretty rapidly. In R&D, production and sales. Here’s the map from their presentation.

DEEP’s New Humanoid Is Industrial Grade

We played around with their new humanoid (the DR-02) in the parking lot This is a departure from their quadrupeds and I’m not quite sure of the use cases. But they are also industrial grade.

Here are some photos (taken at the World Robot Conference in Beijing). And some videos.

The Main Products and Use Cases

Here are their products and main use cases.

The Flagship X30 Is Getting an Upgrade

This is their flagship robot. This is their all-weather workhorse.

If you want the specs, you can find them here.

Here is an introduction to this robot (from two years ago).

 

And the main use right now is power station inspections.

Here’s a video for powerplant inspections (1 year old).

The Lynx M20 Is Fantastic

This one is my favorite. Just because of how fast it zip around.

 

I like the firefighting solution. But I think this is probably the X30.

Here’s a video for firefighting.

 

The New Lynx S10 Is Pretty Interesting

This is from 3 months ago.

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Ok. That was it for Day 1. Then we went off to Fly Zoo Hotel. More on that in the next part.

Cheers, Jeff

Here’s Some More DEEP Pictures and Videos

Ok. That’s a lot of published stuff. Here are my videos and pictures. From their office and the WRC in Beijing.

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Related articles:

From the Concept Library, concepts for this article are:

  • Robotics

From the Company Library, companies for this article are:

  • Deep Robotics

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I am a consultant & keynote speaker on how to increase digital growth and strengthen digital AI moats.

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