BME’s Humanoid Robot, Máté, Gets Down to Business

Why does a higher education institution need a humanoid robot? It wouldn’t be far from the truth if we answered: a technology-focused university today simply cannot afford to lag behind without robots — but there are more serious answers than that. “We’ve already received requests for robotics research, so if we want to be competitive, we need one of these,” says Bertalan Forstner, associate professor and deputy head of the Department of Automation and Applied Informatics (AUT), pointing to the robot resting on its stand.

It arrived from China at the end of April, costs no more than a mid-range new car, and is officially called the Unitree G1 Edu3. The researchers felt that a humanoid machine deserved a friendlier name, so they named it AUT-o-Máté (Máté is Hungarian for Matthew). Of course, the department has had several types of robots before — the one paying ping-pong is perhaps the best known among them — but compared to those, a humanoid is useful because many interfaces (such as a doorknob) are sized so that they can be easily used by a human.

Bertalan Forstner and the newcomer 

Its ability to manipulate objects with the three fingers on each hand is made possible, among other things, by a Lidar sensor and a stereo camera. It also features a closed computer for lower-level operations and an open one with 100 TOPS of processing power, which can even run a large language model — this is how Máté can chime in during a conference panel discussion (see this video). It can run for more than 2 hours on a single charge, and its battery can be fully charged in about 75 minutes.

The Hungarian importer helped with the initial training, and since then, the lecturers have been in an intensive familiarization phase. “We’re obviously lucky to be a department for software, mechatronics, and electrical engineering all under one roof,” notes Mr Forstner. The manufacturer regularly updates the software, so Máté’s movements may improve even further in the future. And he’s already moving quite well:

Unboxing and the first steps followed by commanding presence

The Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics hopes that Máté will be useful in teaching a wide variety of subjects. Students will certainly encounter him in the specializations of AUT, particularly in the AI master’s programme. His most memorable appearance to date was at the BME career orientation event in Szeged, where he encouraged local high school students to apply to BME.

Rector’s Office, Communications Directorate