AI-powered humanoid robots deployed to inspect power grids in Guangzhou

In power substations in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered humanoid robots have begun taking over inspection duties from humans, as the country continues to explore the deep integration of AI and advanced robotics.

The humanoid robots' precise inspections effectively ensure stable power supply to nearby communities, shopping malls, and stadiums in Guangzhou.

These robots were developed based on models created by a Chinese robotics manufacturer, with further technological modifications carried out by a tech subsidiary under China Southern Power Grid. The company enhanced the robots with additional sensors, improved manipulators, and increased AI computing power.

"The robot functions like a monitor. It guards us from making mistakes, like entering the wrong section or carrying out a wrong operation," said Piao Chunyu, duty director of the digital operation department of the Guangdong branch of China Southern Power Grid Co., Ltd.

Many of the inspection environments reach temperatures of around 40 degrees Celsius, making them unsuitable for prolonged human presence. Humanoid robots and robot dogs can autonomously perform equipment inspections -- using cameras and thermal imaging sensors, they can operate in environments hazardous to humans, accurately detecting abnormalities.

According to industry experts, while these humanoid robots and robot dogs applied in substation inspections are still in the trial phase, automated and AI-driven inspection equipment has already been widely adopted.

"The demand for automated inspection actually started before the 2000s. Daily operations and inspections of transmission lines required workers to climb mountains and cross rivers. Doing this manually was extremely demanding, inefficient, and the inspection quality was often inconsistent," said Mai Xiaoming, general manager of the intelligent inspection division in China Southern Power Grid Co., Ltd.

Over the past two decades, the company has continuously implemented automation and AI technologies to enhance inspection efficiency.

"By around 2021, the power grids in Guangdong Province have achieved fully automated drone inspections for all transmission lines, substations and distribution networks," said Mai.

The power sector is just one of the areas where China is promoting the integration of AI and robotics technologies. In August, the State Council unveiled a set of guidelines on advancing the "AI Plus" initiative, providing a systematic action plan to embed AI into various sectors and support high-quality social and economic development.

According to the National Development and Reform Commission, which is the country's top economic planner, the implementation of the "AI Plus" initiative will involve introducing supporting policies and accelerating the development of standards across different sectors and industries. This will promote major projects such as the development of AI vouchers, and foster demonstration cases by guiding AI model developers, research institutes and leading enterprises to form cross-disciplinary teams, while encouraging local governments and companies to explore new development models.

AI-powered humanoid robots deployed to inspect power grids in Guangzhou

Attempts to curb China's scientific and technological advancement are futile, a fact that has already been proven, said Kishore Mahbubani, former permanent representative of Singapore to the United Nations, in an interview aired Friday.

In an exclusive interview with China Central Television (CCTV) in Beijing, Mahbubani said he had stated this position in one of his articles published in the United States.

"Actually, I published an article, you know the two, I guess two leading journals in the United States on international relations. One is Foreign Affairs and the other is Foreign Policy. And last year I co-authored an article with two other co-authors, saying that all the efforts to stop China's scientific and technological development will fail. And it has failed always. You know, for example, the Soviet Union tried to prevent the spread of nuclear technology to China, China develops its own. The United States didn't want to share its technology on international space station with China. China develops its own space station. So clearly, efforts to stop China in the area of scientific innovation and technological development have failed. And so it'd be wiser for the West, including United States, to work with China other than to try and stop China seek development," he said.

Regarding China's progress on robots, Mahbubani said China is leading the world in the sector and hopes the country will share its expertise with the rest of the world.

"If there's one country that is preparing for the future well, it is China, because one in six human beings in the world is Chinese. But one in three robots in the world is Chinese, and one in two baby robots being born every day is Chinese. So China is producing far more robots than any other country is. So clearly it's preparing for the world of the future when we will have, for example, labor shortages, as you know, as you develop an aging society. So China is wisely investing in robots. But I hope that China will also share its learning and expertise with other countries. Also because the robots like that can also be helpful even to developing countries cause you can enhance the productivity of their populations, of their factories and so on so forth. So the world should be happy that China is leading the world in manufacturing, producing robots," he said.

Attempts to stop China's sci-tech development doomed to fail: former Singaporean diplomat