On March 25, 2025, staff were testing industrial robot products at the Tosda Dalingshan production base in Guangdong in Dongguan.

Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Deng Hua

On March 26, 2025, in the exhibition hall of Shenzhen UBL Technology Co., Ltd., the new generation of industrial version of the humanoid robot Walker S1 demonstrated the handling of items.

Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liang Xu

On March 27, 2025, at Leju (Shenzhen) Robot Technology Co., Ltd., technicians were debugging the humanoid robot "Kuafu".

Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liang Xu

On January 28, 2025, Hangzhou Yushu Technology humanoid robot was backstage in the 2025 CCTV Spring Festival Gala.

Xinhua News Agency

On April 13, 2025, at the 5th Consumer Expo held in Hainan, children interacted with the robot dog displayed by Yushu Technology.

Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Yang Guanyu

On April 19, 2025, Tiangong team player Tiangong Ultra (front right) rushed to the finish line in the game. On the same day, the 2025 Beijing Yizhuang Half Marathon and Humanoid Robot Half Marathon were held in Beijing.

Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Fang Xin

　　Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, April 20th title: Humanoid robots accelerate evolution

　　Xinhua News Agency reporter

　　On April 19, the world's first personal robot half marathon was held in Beijing. On the 21.0975-kilometer track, for the first time, 20 robot teams from universities, research institutions and enterprises participated in the competition.

　　On the previous Spring Festival Gala of the Year of the Snake, more than 10 Yushu robots wore flowery cotton jackets and took on the stage, dancing yangko and handkerchiefs with real dancers, which attracted great attention from all parties. People exclaimed that humanoid robots have come to the ordinary people's life.

　　Building a machine like a human is a long-standing dream of mankind. From the records of Yanshi's "doll" created by Liezi Tangwen" to the birth of the world's first humanoid robot, WABOT-1, at Waseda University in Japan in 1973, people's exploration of humanoid robots has never stopped. Over the past half a century, this industry has been developing ups and downs, and countries around the world have launched a variety of humanoid robots, but overall development is slow.

　　Nowadays, why does the development of humanoid robots suddenly accelerate?

　　Robots attract attention frequently

　　"You can encounter a humanoid robot every few steps." At the end of March, a guest attending the annual meeting of the Zhongguancun Forum said. During the annual meeting, nearly 100 humanoid robots from more than 10 companies were active in welcome, exchange, hosting, and performing scenes.

　　In the more than two months since the Spring Festival, popular videos of humanoid robots have often appeared on social media, showing off their unique skills such as front somersaults, back somersaults, and cycling, refreshing people's understanding of embodied intelligence.

　　Embodied intelligence is a new word that has entered the public's vision in recent years. It emphasizes the close integration of intelligent systems and bodies, and realizes intelligent behavior through the interaction between the body and the environment. The concept that is different from the concept is bodyless intelligence, such as a chatbot that does not have a physical body and relies entirely on computing and data processing to achieve intelligent behavior.

　　Humanoid robots are one of the typical application forms of embodied intelligence. At this year's National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the government work report clearly stated that it will establish a mechanism for future industrial investment growth and cultivate future industries including embodied intelligence.

　　Some factories, universities, scientific research institutions, artificial intelligence companies, etc. are taking the lead in using humanoid robots.

　　In the recently released video of UBL, two 1.72-meter-high robot Walker S1s stood face to face at the Zekr Automobile Factory. They nodded to each other at the same time, then spread their arms to jointly carry a material box that is 1.2 meters long, 50 cm wide and 40 cm high.

　　"The work efficiency of the robot is about 70% of that of skilled workers." Leng Xiaokun, founder of Leju Company, said that the robot "Kuafu" who has entered the car factory for training cannot do the complex work undertaken by senior technicians such as making precision screws, but does heavy, generalized, and highly repetitive work, such as carrying boxes of different sizes, colors, weights, and sizes, and sorting spare parts of different shapes.

　　Yushu Technology, which has not yet planned to let robots enter the factory, has recently been "new" on e-commerce platforms at home and abroad such as JD.com and AliExpress. Yushu products have two types: four-legged robot dogs are mainly aimed at C-end consumers, and humanoid robots are mainly aimed at developers.

　　Huang Jiawei, marketing director of Yushu, said that last year, Yushu humanoid robots were sold to more than 100 countries and regions, and their core users were universities, research institutes, technology AI companies, etc. Users do secondary development on Yushu hardware.

　　The industrial layout of humanoid robots is accelerating in many places across the country. At present, more than 10 local governments including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chongqing, etc. have established and prepared to establish industrial funds.

　　In the investment world, robot companies are also becoming more and more popular. According to data from IT Orange, a data service provider for venture capital and emerging technology industries, in the first three months of this year, more than 50 companies embodied in the smart track received financing of over 6 billion yuan.

　　Why did the acceleration start?

　　In 1973, Waseda University launched the world's first full-size humanoid robot WABOT-1, which took 45 seconds per step; at the beginning of this century, Japan's Honda Company released the humanoid robot ASIMO, which can go up and down stairs; in 2013, the humanoid robot Atlas released by Boston Dynamics Company in the United States was amazingly motivated...

　　Despite several technological iterations, the humanoid robot industry fell into silence for a time until it began to accelerate in recent years. Why is this?

　　Wang Tianmiao, honorary director of the Robotics Institute of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, said that robot development has been based on programming for a long time. AI models are released in 2022. They can simulate the human brain and have the ability to generalize and migrate, and promote the development of the new species of humanoid robots.

　　Xiong Rong, director of the Zhejiang Humanoid Robot Innovation Center and professor at Zhejiang University, said that the traditional robot research paradigm relies on mathematical modeling of human motion texture. Nowadays, people can enable robots to master more implicit knowledge through large-scale data acquisition and neural network training, and learn from one example and apply it to others.

　　Artificial intelligence empowers robots is also a consensus in the industry.

　　In the view of Zhang Jin, president of Shenyang Xinsong Robot Automation Co., Ltd., the greatest force in promoting the development of humanoid robots is the new generation of artificial intelligence, which allows physical robots to have a "brain" and gradually have the ability to generalize.

　　Several experts interviewed mentioned a landmark event in the industry in 2022: Tesla officially released the humanoid robot Optimus (Optimus). Musk showed videos of it carrying boxes at a car factory and grab metal rods, and said it would produce at scale.

　　Zhao Mingguo, director of the Robot Control Laboratory of Tsinghua University, observed that Tesla has introduced the supply chain advantages of the automobile industry into the robot field, greatly reducing hardware costs.

　　Humanoid robots are mainly dominated by three parts: "brain", "cerebellum" and "ontology". Taking the example of a robot that has a glass of water from a robot that needs to disassemble instructions, identify the environment, and plan the path, the "brain" requires that the "brain" have multi-level decision-making ability; to complete specific actions such as walking, picking, turning, and passing, the "brain" needs to be precisely controlled.

　　Some products unveiled this year have shown the improvement of key robot technologies. The Yushu robot performed in the Spring Festival Gala is considered to be "developed in cerebellum" and shows a high level of motion control. The "Huisi Kaiwu" platform released by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center attempts to build a general software system compatible with multiple ontology and multi-scenarios and has strong generalization capabilities.

　　The industry believes that the biggest bottleneck restricting the development of humanoid robots is still the "brain".

　　Zhang Weinan, deputy director of the Department of Computing at Harbin Institute of Technology and executive dean of the School of Artificial Intelligence, said that in terms of the "brain", there have been no breakthrough products like big models at home and abroad. In terms of software, high-quality and large-scale data for cross-scenarios are lacking. In terms of hardware, dedicated computing power chips for machine brains need to be further developed and popularized.

　　Xu Huazhe, co-founder of Xinghaitu Artificial Intelligence and assistant professor at Tsinghua University's School of Intersectional Information, the main research direction is the basic model of embodied intelligence. He used cooking as an example to describe the level that the ideal robot "brain" can achieve.

　　"I want the robot to make a squirrel mandarin fish because the operation is difficult enough - the fish is live, slippery and sticky, and has granular scales. Not only does it handle live fish, it also has to be able to change knives, fry, stir-fry sugar, pour juice, and plaster." Xu Huazhe said that it will take at least more than ten years to eat this dish made by the robot.

　　Recently, videos such as humanoid robots serving tea and pouring water and threading needles on grapes have been widely circulated on social media. Many people think that they can buy a robot as a nanny soon. Many industry experts are cautious about this.

　　The team of Zhang Rui, founder of Beijing Iron Man Technology Co., Ltd., was selected to participate in the China Astronaut Humanoid Robot Project in 2021. He admitted that compared to entering space, humanoid robots have a higher difficulty and longer cycles into the family. Because home is a complex environment - there may be elderly people, children, cats and dogs; the flatness and friction of different grounds vary, and there is a risk of falling when humanoid robots walk. He believes that the humanoid robots entering the family in the future cannot be a stack of existing mechanical and electronic structures, but should use new materials to form a new generation of muscles and bones.

　　In Leng Xiaokun's view, humanoid robots that enter the family in the future must be as cheap as home appliances and as smart as doctors. He said that it is only a matter of time before the cost of robots is reduced, but how to apply AI intelligence to the ontology is a difficult point in research.

　　China's manufacturing advantages

　　There is an industrial park at the junction of Shanghai Lingang and Fengxian District, where the first phase of Shanghai Zhiyuan Xinchuang Technology Co., Ltd. is located. This is known by the industry as the first mass production factory in Shanghai. The 1,000th universal embossed robot was launched in January this year. The factory is divided into two floors. The first floor is production and assembly, and the second floor is the whole machine testing.

　　"Just like a human has more than 200 bones, the bipedal humanoid robot A2 has more than 400 parts on its entire body." Yao Maoqing, partner of Zhiyuan and president of the embossed business department, said that the robots are not completed just assembled together, but just started. In order to avoid walking unsteady or falling, it must undergo one sub-test after another, such as a squat with a single leg weighing 30 kg, and more than 2,000 tests are required.

　　In addition to humanoid robot startups, there are two types of companies that are entering the research and development of humanoid robots: one is leading technology companies, such as Huawei, iFlytek, etc., which start from the perspective of artificial intelligence to provide "intelligence" for robots; the other is new energy vehicle companies, such as Xiaopeng, Xiaomi, etc., which are mainly based on humanoid robots and smart cars that can migrate in supply chains such as batteries, chips, and sensors, and have similarities in the application of autonomous driving technology and AI models.

　　"Although humanoid robots first appeared abroad, the real industrialization is most likely to be implemented in China, because China has a very complete industrial chain, and all the required core components and technologies have team research." Zhang Jin said that some focus on "brain", while others are good at making feet, arms, etc. Everyone will work together to form a complete and healthy industrial ecosystem.

　　He Xiaopeng, founder of Xiaopeng Motors, said that the company is currently focusing on developing the physical world model required for the "brain". The current humanoid robot is close to the initial stage of L2 in autonomous driving, and it is expected to realize the L3 capabilities that can be mass-produced and commercially valuable as soon as possible.

　　The acceleration of the humanoid robot industry is also due to the decades of development of my country's robot industry, which has accumulated a large number of technology and customers in the fields of industry, services, etc. Last year, my country's industrial robot market sold more than 290,000 units, the highest level of application in the automotive and electronics industries.

　　Wu Fengli, founder of Guangdong Tosda Technology Co., Ltd., which mainly engages in industrial robots, said: "The confidence in becoming a humanoid robot in the future is that the company already has more than 200,000 manufacturing customers, and the developed humanoid robot products can be used for existing customers as soon as possible."

　　Zhang Jin said that Xinsong has been focusing on industrial robots for more than 20 years and has accumulated rich industrial knowledge and experience. Once a large number of application scenarios of humanoid robots appear in the industrial field, the enterprise's humanoid robot team can quickly follow up.

　　The industry believes that the engineer dividend is one of the important advantages of my country in developing humanoid robots. my country has cultivated the world's largest and most complete engineer team. In 2016, the Ministry of Education approved "Robot Engineering" as an undergraduate major, and so far more than 300 universities have opened undergraduate majors in robot engineering.

　　At the policy level, the state and local governments have clearly accelerated their deployment. The "Guiding Opinions on the Innovation and Development of Humanoid Robots" issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in 2023 proposes that humanoid robots are expected to become a disruptive product after computers, smartphones, and new energy vehicles. In the "Implementation Opinions on Promoting Future Industrial Innovation and Development" issued by seven departments last year, humanoid robots rank first in the column "Innovation Iconic Products". In recent years, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and other places have issued support policies.

　　The path of humanoid robots to the future is becoming clearer and clearer. Artificial intelligence + advanced manufacturing is putting China at the forefront of the world of robotics revolution.

　　Aspiration and vigilance for the future

　　In what fields will humanoid robots be the first to be used?

　　The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s guiding opinions put forward three scenarios: serving the needs of special fields, creating typical manufacturing scenarios, and accelerating the promotion of people’s livelihood and key industries.

　　Experts said that some operations with harsh conditions and dangerous scenes, such as civil explosions, rescue, etc., require humanoid robots, which can reduce the risk of work. Although manufacturing is an important scenario, humanoid robots are still responsible for simple tasks and are not as efficient as ordinary workers.

　　It is generally believed in the industry that in order to enter a wider range of real applications, humanoid robots must first enter "vocational skills training schools".

　　Shanghai Zhiyuan Robot Data Collection Center is such a school. In the space of about 4,000 square meters, hundreds of data collectors wear VR glasses and hold operating handles, "step by step" to teach the robot to do housework - fold clothes, clean dishes, pour tea, and check in the supermarket... Each action requires the robot to repeat hundreds of times.

　　Peng Zhihui, founder of Zhiyuan, explained that unlike the text, pictures, video and other data required by large language models, robots need to interact with tangible objects in the three-dimensional world. This kind of data cannot be obtained from the Internet. It can only collect a large amount of real robot interaction data by investing a lot of manpower and material resources.

　　At the same time, the national and local co-construction humanoid robot innovation centers in Beijing and Shanghai have also established a "technical school" for humanoid robots.

　　Leng Xiaokun believes that these training grounds abstract the actual production and life scenarios, complete tasks by manually operating the robot, collect multi-dimensional data, and then input the data into the embodied intelligent model, and then deploy the model to the robot after it matures, so that it can acquire new skills. This is the core task of the development of humanoid robots in the next few years.

　　Many people are worried that "humanoid robots will snatch their jobs." In response, a factory manager told reporters that they recruited about 900 people the year before yesterday, more than 450 people last year, and only recruited in their early 300s this year. There are still many jobs, and there are indeed some shortages of people.

　　Xiong Rong said that if humanoid robots are used on a large scale, it means that they can replace humans to engage in dangerous, repetitive and boring work, and are expected to solve the problem of social labor shortage in the future.

　　In the future, humanoid robots will bring great convenience to human work and life, and may also bring challenges to the original social order.

　　People are worried that robots will lose control at any time, that human rights will be violated unconsciously, and that robots' behavior cannot be traced and held accountable.

　　Wang Tianran, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and an expert in robotics and industrial automation, believes that the solution to these problems directly determines the public's acceptance of robots and their technologies. How to restrict the behavior of robots should become a concern for robot designers, producers, applications and even social managers.

　　Liu Zhe, a professor at Peking University, believes that although humanoid robots are still far away from having autonomy comparable to humans, their autonomy will bring multiple ethical dilemmas to human society. Therefore, when conducting ethical governance, we must not only have ethical considerations in the design of robots, but also have an ethical framework with social consensus.

　　This human-machine dance has just begun, and its dance steps will be related to the rhythm of the future of civilization.

[Editor in charge: Chen Tingyu]