China has taken a major step forward in humanoid robotics with the establishment of a "big factory" for the design and assembly of the humanoid robots, said a national political advisor on Tuesday.
Qiao Hong, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and also director of National Key Laboratory of Multimodal Artificial Intelligence Systems, made the statement during a group interview before the third session of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China's top political advisory body, opened at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
China's robotics technology has rapidly developed, significantly narrowing the gap with international advanced levels, with installation of industrial robots having accounted for more than half of the global total in the past three years, Qiao said.
Humanoid robots, shaped like humans or human-like, have numerous degrees of freedom, allowing them to directly use human's tools. This means they could potentially replace human beings in various tasks in sectors of industry, agriculture and service. It is highly possible for them to affect human being's production methods and lifestyle in the near future.
"Notably, we have built a 'big factory' for the design and assembly of the humanoid robots as a core technological foundation. This foundation uses intelligent algorithms to address hardware limitations, integrating brain-inspired intelligence, neuroscience, and AI technologies to form a strong barrier. The versatile factory can rapidly produce low-cost, high-performance robotic systems to serve our country's industrial and agricultural sectors," said Qiao.
Qiao also shared her thoughts on the further development of the robotic systems and the key challenges for scientists and entrepreneurs in this regard.
"Our robotic systems will be deployed on larger, more significant national platforms. These platforms must consider not only the scalability of the systems but also their reliability, stability, versatility, intelligence, and most importantly, safety. This is not only a market demand but also a shared dream and challenge for our scientists and entrepreneurs. Correspondingly, integrating the generalization of artificial intelligence, the stability and reliability of automation, the systematization of robotics, and advanced technologies like brain-inspired intelligent materials has become a shared dream and common challenge for scientists and entrepreneurs in this field," said Qiao.
China advances humanoid robotics with groundbreaking big factory establishment: CPPCC member
