China initiates world's first ISO international standard for humanoid robot datasets

China has successfully initiated the world's first international standard in the field of embodied intelligence - Humanoid Robot Datasets, in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), said Standardization Administration of China (SAC) on Friday.

In the meantime, China also saw the establishment of the first working group within the organization convened by a Chinese expert, according to SAC.

Wang Zhenlin, head of the China Mirror Committee of the ISO Technical Committee 299 (Robotics), highlighted the significance of the two milestones for China.

"Most of the discourse power in the field of robotics is in the hands of developed countries. In the past, we often followed other countries' standards and remained in a passive position, simply adapting to international rules. This time, we have achieved two historic breakthroughs. The first breakthrough is filling the gap in formulating international standards for humanoid robots. The second is helping establish a working group for international robot standards," he said.

The newly approved international standard project draws on the content of China's standard for humanoid robot datasets, which is currently under development.

Experts from major countries around the world will join hands to participate in the development of this standard as well as other standards in the field of humanoid robots.

"If we compare humanoid robots to humans in the learning process, then datasets serve as their 'textbooks' and 'exercise banks.' Robots are not born with the ability to work or walk; all their skills are acquired through learning. Only through thousands of demonstration cases can they gradually master skills. In essence, a dataset records various multimodal data from the robot's or a human's learning and task-performing processes," said Wang. These data mainly include environmental perception data, ontology state data, and demonstration data from human beings. In the development of humanoid robots, the datasets play the key role of foundation and underlying rules.

"We want to inform research and development institutions around the world how to collect, store, and label datasets for humanoid robots. We often boast of advanced algorithms and excellent hardware, but without strong data support, everything is mere empty talk," said Wang.

China initiates world's first ISO international standard for humanoid robot datasets

Representative on behalf of cities across China and the United States gathered at a sister cities summit in San Francisco on Friday to share insights on key topics spanning green urban development, culture, tourism, education and youth.

The 8th China-U.S. Sister Cities Summit was initiated by the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries in 2014, serving as a significant bilateral event following the meeting between the Chinese and U.S. heads of state in May while receiving positive responses from localities and friendly organizations in both countries.

More than 150 representatives from 15 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities and 12 cities in China, and 160 representatives from 21 states and 36 cities in the United States, gathered to engage in in-depth exchanges and mutual learning on three main themes of green development and urban governance, culture and tourism, and education and youth.

Five cooperation agreements were signed between relevant cities in China and the United States, showcasing the results of 31 cooperative projects covering areas such as sister city partnerships, cultural and tourism exchanges, and youth exchanges.

The participants said these links boost bilateral friendship and contribute to stable China-U.S. relations.

"China [is one of the] largest economies, all the fantastic discoveries and things being done in China. The U.S. and China have a lot to learn from each other and working together, we can conquer the world's problems," said Carol Robertson Lopez, chair emeritus of Sister Cities International.

"The attendees all expressed their willingness to further strengthen cooperation with sister cities. They believe that there is a great potential, a bright future, and strong vitality in local exchanges and cooperation, and they are willing to contribute to and solidify the foundation of the constructive strategic relationship between China and the United States through close cooperation," said Yang Wanming, president of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.

At present, China and the United States have established 50 pairs of sister provinces and states and 238 pairs of sister cities.

8th China-US Sister Cities Summit held in San Francisco