A group of people, a new journey

Start

October 2022, I was still in graduate school, but I was already interning at my advisor's company. The advisor was very good to us, giving opportunities to work on cutting-edge projects and providing pretty good stipends.

As a graduate student, this life was pretty pleasant, so I was also very grateful to the advisors.

However, as someone who regarded Musk as an idol from the first year of college, a stable job was not my ideal situation. So I decided to leave and planned to do something on my own.

Some friends around me were surprised and worried I wouldn't get my degree, but I was more concerned about whether I was doing something that made me grow faster.

Studio: ARSoft

November, after leaving the company, there was no source of income, but as a student, I was already accustomed to a low-level standard of living. I rented a dormitory in the suburbs, bought some cheap tables, chairs, and monitors, and started working.

After a while, some good friends were also willing to join me to do some part-time work together.

March 2023, after months of brainstorming, research, and trials, we reached out to our first client.

At the same time, fortunately, a classmate with a very good relationship was willing to come over full-time to help me, without asking for any return.

That's how we started our first formal job—providing control algorithms for the client's robotic dog.

Here, I need to thank Mr. Wang and Mr. Chen from Unitree Robotics for lending us robotic dogs free of charge to help us verify the algorithm. Their robotic dogs are of very good quality.

May, once the algorithm was mostly completed, we went to the client's site, stayed for two weeks, and helped their robotic dog achieve a fairly good walking condition. From then on, we earned our first income.

Meanwhile, based on our control framework, we casually created something fun—achieving bipedal movement for a quadruped robot.

At that time domestically, it was still the first, and it employed a relatively complex model-based solution. Even internationally, I had only seen one instance using a learning-based approach for bipedal walking.

This work caused some ripples in the legged robot technology circle, and it was also at this time that some people in the circle started to know me.

In fact, this work, from the start to physical realization, took a total of 2 days.

3 months ago, when I first discovered OCS2's strong flexibility, I was also very surprised. Therefore, I tried its effect on real objects when I had spare time, and it truly was strong.

I must admire ETH's work and their contributions to the open source community. Also, thanks to Mr. Liao for the practical application framework, which is indeed very good, and we are using it now.

Company: BridgeDP

End of May, the first collaboration went well, the client chose to continue the partnership. We took the initial modest income, registered a company, and moved to the city, planning to hire some people and try to survive for another six months.

However, there are many pitfalls in recruiting for a startup company, and I stepped into quite a few. The money was spent quickly. I had to borrow some from my family, allowing the company to survive.

July, a batch of employees left the company, leaving only some colleagues with hope and dreams, choosing to advance and retreat with the company. That was a trough, but research and development continued. Fortunately, a startup doesn't require that many people. Some new work was also produced, as shown in the video below.

It was also during that time that we received an interview invitation from Xiji Changtou and ultimately got the offer.

In today’s market environment, it’s very difficult for startups to secure funding, especially for young people like us who are relatively unknown.

It is admirable that Xiji continues to help young people today. Of course, young people who venture to start a business today, having nothing, are probably as abnormal as I am.

Dr. Lu Qi from the north and Professor Li ZeXiang from the south are currently the two most supportive mentors for young entrepreneurs in China. Thank you!

Later, more talented people joined the company, all more capable than me. Clients also came to us one after another, and we had more projects, interacting with various types of legged robots.

Gradually, we became a company specializing in providing control systems for legged robots, which was what I initially hoped to do. Although there are always doubts, it does not hinder trial and error.

Today, we officially released an open-source control algorithm and framework for bipedal robots. The code will be organized and open-sourced at the link below:

https://github.com/bridgedp/hunter_bipedal_control

I strive to organize it by the end of the year, welcome everyone to try it, with effects shown in the video below.

We hope to make the controller for legged robots into a module that can be adapted to various models of legged robots with one click, including quadrupeds, bipeds, and wheeled legs, etc. And its price must be affordable for everyone.

Only in this way can the supply chain for legged robots be improved, downstream integrated applications can thrive, and universal legged robots become possible.

Finally, those interested and who do not have high salary expectations are welcome to join us for internships.

Future

Whether the business of legged robot controllers can take off is still unclear, and the technology is not yet fully ready. There is certainly a long way to go in the future, and difficulties are inevitable, but since we choose to start a business, it's certainly not for an easy life.

Youth may be an advantage for young people, experiencing more growth through a challenging endeavor, creating closer connections with the world, and meeting more interesting friends—isn't that a kind of joy?

Of course, as my arduous challenge, I have to make sure the other colleagues in the company lead happy lives, so earning money is what I need to work hard on.

If you, the esteemed reader, have any good suggestions, feel free to tell me (WeChat ID: wx-of-syx)

Lastly, we hope to overcome all difficulties and, through this journey, contribute to the robotics industry in China and globally!