"Embroidered Intelligence" and "Intelligent Robots" were written into the "Government Work Report" for the first time this year, and humanoid robots have become a hot topic of science and technology at present. As a cutting-edge direction in the field of artificial intelligence, embodied intelligence is becoming an important direction for my country to cultivate future industries. What are the cutting-edge achievements of the embodied intelligent industry? What changes will it bring to production and life? As an ideal carrier of embodied intelligence, what stage of development is the humanoid robot in? What other bottlenecks and difficulties are facing industrial development? With these questions in mind, the reporter visited many companies to explore new trends in industrial development.

  On April 19, the world's first humanoid robot half marathon fired a gun in Beijing. Watching the scenes in previous science fiction movies come into reality, netizens watched them exclaimed. These "competitors" with flexible postures and quick steps are the cutting-edge achievements in the field of embodied intelligence that are currently attracting much attention.

  For many people, embodied intelligence may not be unfamiliar with it. From sweeping robots that enter thousands of households, to common delivery robots in restaurants and hotels, to industrial robots that "work in factories", embodied intelligence products are accelerating their penetration into various scenarios of production and life. The broad application space and development prospects have made the embodied intelligent industry more and more important.

  Show your skills in a variety of scenarios

  In layman's terms, embodied intelligence is to give AI a physical "body". With the "body" AI can interact with the physical world and learn to evolve during the interaction, constantly increasing intelligence.

  In recent years, with the application of multimodal large models, embodied intelligence has made great progress in the processing of multiple types of information such as vision, touch, and voice, and application scenarios have been continuously expanded.

  At Wuba Intelligent Technology (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd., staff showed reporters a video: In the smoke-filled building, a four-legged robot dog nimblely climbed up the stairs and shuttled through various rooms in the corridor to "search". Using advanced sensing systems, this robot dog can promptly transmit information such as ignition points, smoke toxicity, and location of trapped people detected in the fire field to the rear command center to help firefighters formulate and adjust rescue strategies. In addition, it can also transport rescue supplies to help trapped people rescue themselves.

  "We actively plan to build the field of bionic robots and launch a number of four-legged robots to the market." Chen Peng, general manager of Wuba Intelligent Technology (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd., introduced that the company's police series of robot dogs have been involved in the actual combat of local public security many times, and are used in street police patrols, security for major events, and unmanned equipment collaboration.

  Four-legged robots are a more mature form of embossed intelligent products. According to specific uses and usage scenarios, embossed intelligent also has many forms such as humanoid robots, unmanned vehicles, drones, etc. At present, the commercialization process of embodied smart products is different. Some non-human-shaped embodied smart products have achieved relatively mature commercial applications in the fields of catering services, industrial manufacturing, medical care, etc.

  He is about 1 meter tall, and there are 4 layers of space on the cylindrical "body". A pair of big eyes blinking on the oval electronic screen at the top, like a cute baby face. This is a delivery robot developed by Qinglang Intelligently. It can complete food delivery in restaurants, hotels and other scenarios. It can not only independently plan the delivery path, but also avoid obstacles in a timely manner. "We also have multiple categories such as cleaning robots and disinfection robots. At present, the company's commercial service robots have shipped more than 100,000 units." said Li Tong, founder of Qinglang Intelligence.

  In the field of industrial manufacturing, embodied intelligent applications can not only improve production efficiency, but also make safe production more secure. When I walked into the exhibition hall of the festival robot, I saw a group of collaborative robots demonstrating the operation of industrial manufacturing scenarios: assembly, welding, handling... Each movement is smooth and accurate and orderly. Among them, a K-1 humanoid double-arm robot attracted the attention of reporters. "This robot can realize dynamic path planning, precise control and coordinated obstacle avoidance between the two arms. It can achieve collaborative operation with workers in production links with high flexibility such as high-precision assembly of parts and cable plugging." Liu Bofeng, general manager of Jieka Robot Product Line, introduced.

  With excellent cognitive planning capabilities and high-precision motion control capabilities, embodied intelligence can also empower the medical industry. At Zhejiang Ganavi Medical Technology Co., Ltd., the reporter met an intelligent medical device called "CT interventional surgery navigation and positioning system". This device is not only equipped with a flexible and accurate medical robotic arm and a high-precision optical binocular navigation camera, but also equipped with an intelligent software system that can accurately identify target lesions and plan the optimal puncture path when a doctor performs puncture interventional surgery, thereby improving surgical accuracy and efficiency.

  "With the assistance of this set of equipment, doctors can complete surgical operations with high quality and greatly improve the surgical effect." said Chen Qiang, general manager of Zhejiang Ganaiwei Medical Technology Co., Ltd.

  These robots with unique skills fully demonstrate the characteristics and advantages of embodied intelligence: embodied intelligence is not only a mechanical product, but also a smart body; it can not only achieve high efficiency and accuracy of mechanical operations, but also rely on wisdom to understand the environment, make decisions and perform tasks. Combining these two characteristics, the application prospects of embodied intelligence are wide: being a "worker" in a factory, a "waiter" in a restaurant, and a "nanny" in a family... As the technology maturity is increasing, the application space of embodied intelligence is constantly being opened.

  Humanoid products are expected to be implemented

  Among all embodied intelligent product categories, humanoid robots are particularly concerned. Because of its human-like appearance, humanoid robots can better adapt to the production and living environment and are considered one of the most ideal carriers of embodied intelligence.

  Get goods from the shelves of the convenience store, make sandwiches in the kitchen, wash cups in the milk tea shop, and fold clothes into the bedroom... In the data collection center of Zhiyuan Robot, the protagonists in ordinary life scenes have all been replaced by humanoid robots. Although their movements look awkward and slow, like to toddlers, humanoid robots also need to collect a large amount of real data to master a movement and learn a skill during repeated practices. This is their only way to use.

  From learning skills to practical applications, how long is there for humanoid robots to go?

  The reporter's investigation learned that humanoid robots still need to cross three thresholds to achieve large-scale application: technical difficulty, high manufacturing costs and safety risks.

  Specifically, in some open scenarios, humanoid robots are required to have stronger environmental perception, motion control, and human-computer interaction capabilities, and have sufficient battery life, but relevant software and hardware technologies still need further breakthroughs. Humanoid robots require higher flexibility and require more joints and high-precision components, so they invisibly increase production costs. In addition, how to ensure the safety and reliability of humanoid robots when applied is also the key to its commercialization.

  Although we face many difficulties, the pace of commercialization of humanoid robots has not stopped. Industry insiders generally believe that industrial manufacturing is expected to become the first scenario for large-scale application and commercialization of humanoid robots.

  "Humanoid robots may be the first to be implemented in industrial scenarios. On the one hand, it is because the labor gap in manufacturing is expanding and there is a strong demand driven; on the other hand, it is because the industrial manufacturing scenarios are relatively structured, making it easier for humanoid robots to integrate into the environment." Tan Min, chief brand officer of UBLIC, said.

  It is understood that the current application of humanoid robots in industrial manufacturing scenarios is in the early stage of commercialization, and the products of some companies have entered the manufacturing scenario for practical training and testing.

  In a video released by UBL, the humanoid robot Walker S stood in front of the factory operation table, held the electric screwdriver with a clever hand, rotated his arm to a suitable angle, took a screw from one panel, and then adjusted the action, aimed at the hole position of the other panel, pressed the screwdriver switch, and nailed the screw into it. In addition, it also demonstrates the joint glue application operation between both arms.

  "Although some factories have achieved high degree of automation, some work is more flexible, and robotic arms are difficult to complete, while humanoid robots can perform collaborative operations." Tan Min introduced that UBL's humanoid robots are currently mainly responsible for intelligent handling, intelligent sorting, intelligent quality inspection and some refined operations during factory training.

  Yao Maoqing, partner of Zhiyuan Robot and president of Embodied Business Department, introduced that the company has screened out a small number of scenarios with large-scale application value and potential from hundreds of scenarios to conduct early verification of product applications. Currently, it focuses on two scenarios: 3C electronics and automobile manufacturing.

  Compared with industrial manufacturing scenarios, humanoid robots need more breakthroughs to enter the home service scenario.

  "Family is an open scenario, characterized by diversified and personalized needs. Only when humanoid robots are universal and sufficiently good at entering the family." Yao Maoqing believes that technological development requires a gradual process. Before entering open scenes, we must continuously accumulate data to improve the intelligence level of humanoid robots through training in structured and semi-structured scenes. In addition, we must continuously improve the universal capabilities of humanoid robots so that we can finally meet the technical conditions to enter the family.

  In the view of Xiang Zhong, vice dean of the School of Mechanical Engineering of Zhejiang University of Technology, in order to enter the home scenario, humanoid robots need to establish a complete application ecosystem in terms of laws and regulations, insurance services, after-sales maintenance, etc. "In the long run, the family service scenario has more growth potential. In the future, when humanoid robots enter thousands of households, it will bring huge changes to our production and lifestyle." Xiang Zhong said.

  Coordinated development of the industrial chain

  Against the backdrop of my country's vigorous promotion of new industrialization, as a typical representative of new quality productivity, embodied intelligence is widely favored because of its huge potential for change and economic value.

  A series of favorable policies are being introduced at an accelerated pace. This year's "Government Work Report" mentions embodied intelligence and intelligent robots for the first time, and encourages the development of related industries. Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and other places have issued action plans for the development of embodied intelligent industries and established industrial development funds to provide policy assistance and financial support for industrial development.

  Fish know the best whether the water quality is good or not. "The company does not disturb you when there is nothing to do, and comes to your door immediately when there is any need." This is Shao Bilu, general manager of Hangzhou Junchen Robot Co., Ltd., evaluation of the local business environment. Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province has built a fertile ground for innovation through refined policies and services and supported the development of the artificial intelligence industry. In addition to the unified planning at the municipal level, each district also increases its support in policies and services based on actual conditions. For example, Xihu District has issued the "Several Measures to Further Promote the Development of the Artificial Intelligence Industry in Xihu District", creating a good environment for industrial development; Qiantang District Dachuang Town has worked hard to optimize services. In 2024, enterprise service specialists visited more than 5,000 enterprises in total, helping enterprises solve more than 160 problems such as financing, talents, and technology.

  We will strive to improve the business environment, actively provide supporting services, and strengthen the connection between resource supply and demand. In the good innovation and entrepreneurship atmosphere created by various places, my country's embodied intelligent industry development ushers in spring. The development of embodied intelligent leading companies such as Yushu Technology, Zhiyuan Robots, and UBLY is accelerating. Large technology companies such as Huawei and Xiaomi are speeding up their layout. Robot companies focusing on vertical fields such as Qinglang Intelligent and Card-Jiangjia Robots are constantly expanding their business scope, and some new technologies and new achievements are emerging one after another.

  In March this year alone, a lot of good news came from domestic embodied smart companies—

  In response to the technical pain points of insufficient generalization capabilities of large models, Zhiyuan Robot released its first universal embossed base model - Zhiyuan Qiyuan Big Model. It is understood that this big model can be learned using human videos, and its generalization capabilities have been further improved, and can be deployed on multiple robot bodies of Zhiyuan.

  In terms of promoting the implementation of humanoid robot applications, UBIT has carried out the world's first multi-, multi-scene, and multi-task collaborative training in the Zekrch 5G smart factory, promoting the evolution of humanoid robots from stand-alone autonomous to group intelligence.

  In terms of humanoid robot training ideas, Qinglang Intelligent proposed the concept of "robot job-based" and released the first humanoid embossed service robot XMAN-R1, hoping to widely deploy it to vertical scenarios for application, thereby accumulating massive data, continuously optimizing algorithms, and improving product general capabilities.

  The hot development situation in the industry has also driven upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain to enter the fast lane of development. Shanghai Aoyi Information Technology Co., Ltd. is a supplier of robot core components - smart hands, with more than 70 customers in China. "We are being pushed forward by the rapidly developing industry. Currently, orders for dexterity have been scheduled to 3 months later. This year, we are also preparing to expand the factory and increase the monthly production capacity from 200 units to 500 units." said Ni Hualiang, the founder of the company.

  "From motors, electronic components to chips, sensors, to cloud services, voice interaction solutions, etc., the suppliers of a chain-owned enterprise have a very wide range of radiation." Yao Maoqing introduced that not long ago, Zhiyuan held the first supplier conference in Shanghai, with more than 100 suppliers from all over the country participating. The powerful and efficient supply chain system provides strong guarantees for Zhiyuan's rapid development.

  "Embroidered intelligence not only empowers thousands of industries, but also drives the coordinated development of upstream and downstream industries and gives birth to huge emerging industries." Xiang Zhong said. Data released by Toubao Research Institute shows that the scale of the embossed intelligent market is constantly expanding. In 2023, the scale of my country's embodied intelligent market reached 418.6 billion yuan. With the continuous breakthroughs in big model technology, the market size is expected to reach 632.8 billion yuan in 2027.

  Development shortcomings need to be filled

  Although the embodied intelligent industry has broad prospects, it is currently facing many challenges. If the weaknesses that restrict development are sorted out, technical problems will first surface, such as insufficient algorithm maturity, low hardware durability, and problem of software and hardware decoupling.

  "The field of embodied intelligence may also have its own 'Moore's Law', and the ability of embodied intelligence may grow exponentially in the future," said Li Tong.

  Like Li Tong, many industry insiders are optimistic about the development of embodied intelligence technology. They believe that looking back at the development history of artificial intelligence, although technological progress has experienced rounds of peaks and troughs, even in every technological bottleneck period and industry trough period, significant progress can be seen compared with the previous development stage. In the future, the embodied intelligent technology system will also be gradually improved through exploration.

  Solving technical problems can be left to time, but in the construction of some external rules, ecology and key variables, all participants need to fully exert their initiative and take positive actions.

  ——The formulation of industry standards is to be accelerated. At present, there are a lack of technical, security, ethics, and supervision standards that are embodied in the intelligent industry. "Improving standards construction is of great significance to the development of the industry. For example, if there are unified standards for parts, the parts produced by different manufacturers will be interchangeable, which can significantly reduce product production and maintenance costs." Xiang Zhong believes that to promote the healthy development of the industry, it is necessary to promote the generalization of basic common technologies, modularization of parts, and unified interfaces with unified technical standards. It is necessary to formulate safety ethical standards, clarify the behavioral boundaries of robots, standardize ethics and privacy protection, etc., to eliminate user concerns and increase market acceptance. We must also use regulatory standards to promote industrial legality and compliance and ensure stable market order.

  ——The basic ecology needs to be improved. After the embossed smart products are put into use, on the one hand, there may be security accidents, privacy leakage and other problems; on the other hand, the product itself may also be malfunctioning, damaged, etc. Making good plans for these issues is the prerequisite for promoting the large-scale application of embodied intelligent products, which requires building a complete basic ecological environment from the aspects of laws and regulations, insurance services, operation training, maintenance and maintenance. "When an accident occurs that damages personal property safety, a series of issues such as how to define responsibilities and how to compensate compensation require relevant policies, regulations and supporting services to ensure it." Yao Maoqing said.

  ——The industry talent gap needs to be filled. Talent is the key support for the development of the embodied intelligent industry. Many industry insiders have reported that embodied intelligence is a typical talent-intensive industry, but at present, my country's professional talents are insufficient, and there is a large gap from algorithm engineers to post-maintenance personnel. "From the perspective of the entire life cycle of the product, R&D, production, technical maintenance and after-sales service all require a large number of talents. Especially with the rapid development of the industry, the number of robots is increasing, and the shortage of after-sales maintenance and maintenance talents is a foreseeable problem." Chen Peng believes that in addition to paying attention to the introduction and cultivation of R&D talents, it is also necessary to improve the vocational education system and cultivate more high-tech talents and industrial workers required by the industry. (Reporter Wang Minghao)

[Editor in charge: Ran Xiaoning]