Meituan Academy of Robotics Shenzhen Headquarters and Robot Delivery Operation Station

Guangzhou/ PMT Partners Ltd.

A test field for Human-Robot Symbiosis

Human, Robot, Urban

In the foreseeable future, intelligent Robots will be an indispensable and important role in people's lives, and will also be participants that cannot be ignored in urban space. They will not only appear in the form of "Embodied Intelligence ", but also in other diverse professional functional forms to serve all aspects of people's lives. Therefore, "Human-Robot Symbiosis space" is an important proposition for new species. These spaces belong to humans and are also adapted to different forms of intelligent Robots, allowing humans and Robots to coexist in a wider and more flexible urban space.

MARS (Meituan Academy of Robotics Shenzhen) was established in this context. It is a research institute for non-embodied Intelligence service robots under Meituan Group.
We were commissioned to design the MARS headquarters office, laboratory, exhibition center and the second-generation robot delivery operation station located on the top of the podium in different shopping mall in Shenzhen.

Both a building and a Machine

Due to the background and needs of MARS, we define the project as a test field. In this field, space and machine are mirror images of each other, with blurred boundaries - it is both a building and a machine, adapt to the rapid iteration of Robot.

For this reason, we designed the NEOWALL which is based on the AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle) system, NEOWALL module can be accurately positioned in space under soft decoration control and freely switch to different space combination modes.

In order to cope with the display and storage needs of different generations of products, the space design strategy is flexible and variable.

NEOWALL is an ideal model about variable space. It is also the background of the MARS project and the extreme space requirements that make these ideas realized. In fact, NEOWALL can create more undefined spaces in various usage scenarios.

These undefined spaces are a visionary strategy to cope with the rapidly changing era. It can reduce the huge waste of resources we put into space. In the same physical space, NEOWALL can collaborate with users to create more adaptive spaces and release spatial efficiency.

Therefore, the MARS exhibition center is generally defined as four basic modes: parallel mode, separate mode, gathering mode, and empty field.

The separate mode produces a free spatial layout, allowing different types of products to be displayed relatively independently.

parallel mode

The parallel mode produces corresponding sequences, so that different generations of the same product can be clearly displayed.

Gathering mode

The gathering mode is aimed at the display of large-size products.

empty field

the exhibition hall also needs to have the function of hosting small meetings of hundreds of people, and in most cases, the functions of meetings and exhibition halls need to be switched quickly. Therefore, this also provides a demand basis for the conception of NEOWALL.

All-domain collaboration

In fact, MARS has a systematic plan for future urban distribution: the global collaborative system that connects low altitude, ground, buildings, automated equipment, and urban infrastructure.

Human-Robot collaboration—Fuzzy Cube

"Fuzzy Cube" is the second-generation unmanned delivery interactive terminal established under the global collaborative framework of MARS.
This "operation station" will be combined with the "drone automated delivery terminal" (still in the confidentiality stage) and laid out on the roofs of different shopping mall. It includes drone maintenance, flight control, and goods assembly and transportation functions.

Consistent with NEOWALL's idea of "both a building and a machine". Through the programming control of the hydraulic arm, the four facades of the cube can be opened and closed according to different needs, forming a space-expanding eaves and barrier-free platform to meet the needs of different climatic conditions and usage scenarios.

Through these means, we hope to blur the boundaries between indoor and outdoor, building and machine. And this square box, can also be quickly deployed, with the universality of the product.