China is stepping up its efforts to lead the global humanoid robotics market.
According to China Daily, local and central governments are pooling their resources as the country aims to mass produce humanoids in 2025 and corner the market by 2027.
HUMANOID Research Hub
Officials just elevated the Beijing Embodied Artificial Intelligence Robotics Innovation Center, or HUMANOID, to a national level research hub. That means the center, established in November 2023, will receive funding from Beijing as well as the central government to accelerate research and development.
Earlier this year, the center introduced Tien Kung, a general-purpose humanoid robot with an open-source and open-architecture design to encourage further innovation and development. Standing 1.6 meters and weighing 43 kilos, the AI robot is fully electric and features cutting-edge flexible sensors and actuators.
The center, the first of its kind in China, said it will use the increased funding to establish industry standards, reduce R&D costs for enterprises, expand use cases, and accelerate the product development. The ultimate goal is to make humanoid robots essential in industries like manufacturing and logistics.
The center is also speeding up work on its Kaiwu platform, which will combine more than 100 key skills to handle complex tasks.
They’re also building a national dataset with more than 1 million entries, open for the whole industry to use for improving AI systems, training robots, and developing better technologies across different fields.
More Innovation Centers
China Daily reports that, since the beginning of the year, manufacturing provinces like Zhejiang, Shandong, Anhui, and Sichuan have also set up innovation centers.
The Zhejiang Humanoid Robot Innovation Center recently showcased its NAVIAI Navigator 2, which features a reported 41 degrees of freedom. The center is primarily funded by SUPCON, which specializes in intelligent manufacturing and industrial automation.
And in May a new humanoid innovation center in Shanghai was built with national and city funding. The National Local Joint Humanoid Robot Innovation Center recently unveiled its full-sized general-purpose humanoid robot, QingLong, featuring a reported 43 degrees of freedom. The open-source robot’s hardware structure and related technologies are being shared through the OpenLoong community.
AgiBot Partners with Fulin PM for Production
Meanwhile Fulin Precision, an auto parts company, has partnered with AgiBot and others to form a company that will build humanoid robots in Chengdu.
This venture aims to produce robots that can do human-like tasks, with Fulin providing key parts for the robots. The joint venture helped increase Fulin’s stock value because of its potential in the fast-growing robotics industry
AgiBot, founded by former Huawei Youth Genius Peng Zhihui, introduced its line of advanced AI robots earlier this year.
The company is also known as Zhiyuan Robot. Its flagship, the Expedition A2, has 40 degrees of freedom and is equipped with sensors like cameras, lidar, and microphones to interact with dynamic environments.
It’s designed for tasks requiring extreme precision, such as threading a needle, and is ideal for roles in customer service and business consulting.
Agibot plans to deliver 300 AI robots by the end of the year, with plans to commercialize them next year, targeting the manufacturing sector.
The humanoid robot line also includes the Expedition A2-W, designed for flexible manufacturing tasks. It can carry up to 5 kg in each arm with 7 degrees of freedom and is wheeled for swift movement in industrial settings.
There’s also a heavier-duty version, the A2 MAX, that carries heavy objects and boasts 67 degrees of fully body freedom. Its legs can exert 8,00Newtons of thrust, enough to lift a small car, and its 450 Newton-meters of torque can tighten large bolts or turn cranks.
Booster T1 Available
Beijing based Booster Robotics’ new open-source humanoid robot is now available for purchase.
The Booster T1, which is intended for developers, features advanced motion control for flexible movements.
It walks autonomously, plays soccer, and performs kung fu. Standing 1.2 meters, the T1 robot weighs about 30 kilograms or 66 pounds.
It’s slightly shorter than Unitree’s G1 AI robot, which the Chinese-based robotics leader is selling for 16 thousand dollars.
The Booster T1 gained significant attention at the 2024 World Robot Conference for its demonstrations performing difficult tasks like lateral and vertical splits, along with 360-degree joint rotation.
Booster’s website does not specify pricing.