Humanoid robots are moving from logistics hubs to factory floors across China, as the country accelerates its drive into intelligent manufacturing.
At a logistics center in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, humanoid robots are being deployed for parcel identification, grabbing, and sorting, with each unit capable of handling up to 1,200 parcels per hour.
"This position involves relatively intense and repetitive labor. We introduced this embodied intelligent robot in March this year. It is now capable of recognition, grasping, flipping, placing, and sorting. We expect the robots to reach a processing capacity of 1,400 pieces per hour in the fourth quarter of this year and 1,600 pieces per hour in the first quarter of next year. At the same time, we are also exploring the deployment of robots in loading, unloading, and warehouse allocation," said Wang Lei, head of operations and maintenance unit of Guangzhou Postal Processing Center of China Post.
Beyond logistics, humanoid robots are also taking on an increasing number of production tasks in manufacturing settings.
At an automobile factory in Beijing's E-Town area, which is now home to over 300 robotics companies and a complete industrial chain, humanoid robots are practicing fine operations such as picking and placing parts, placing flexible cover plates, and folding boxes.
"The first task is picking and placing objects. The second involves finger operations of dexterous hands, and the third requires fine tactile assembly and manipulation. At a single workstation, they can achieve a success rate of 98 percent," said Xiang Diyun, deputy general manager of Robotics Division of Chinese tech firm Xiaomi.
China accelerates intelligent manufacturing with humanoid robots
China on Tuesday released the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) for promoting the development of its electronic information manufacturing industry, laying out a comprehensive strategy to enhance global competitiveness of some key sectors.
The plan was jointly released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and the National Development and Reform Commission.
The plan provides that by 2030, the operating revenue of the enterprises above a designated scale in China's electronic information manufacturing industry will have exceeded 30 trillion yuan (about 4.5 trillion U.S. dollars), with a number of advanced technologies and products emerging in fields such as integrated circuits, advanced computing and consumer electronics,
The industry will also have world-class enterprises that can compete on the global market by 2030 and its research and development investment intensity is expected to reach 3.5 percent by that time.
"By 2030, China's electronic information manufacturing industry will have played a pivotal role in the global industrial landscape, with a substantial increase in fields where it takes the lead or runs neck and neck with others. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), the industry will continue to promote innovative development in a number of key areas," said Li Hongwei, chief engineer with China Electronic Information Industry Development Research Institute.
The plan lays out 17 tasks around four areas -- consolidating the industry's foundational capacity, boosting the competitiveness of complete electronic equipment and systems, helping the industry foster new growth drivers, and enhancing the industry's capacity for sustainable development.
These tasks include accelerating the innovation and application of smart sensors, consolidating the development foundation of the photonics industry, accelerating the innovative development of consumer electronics, and strengthening the hardware foundation of artificial intelligence, among others.
Li said that during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China's consumer electronics industry will experience deeper integration with AI, helping drive the development of some key technologies and products.
"As AI is more and more deeply integrated into the consumer electronics industry, new product categories such as AI phones, AI computers, AI glasses and AI toys keep emerging. This will accelerate the iterative upgrading of key technologies and products in the field of consumer electronics terminals, including edge-side large models, AI chips and high-bandwidth memory," he said.
China releases plan to enhance global competitiveness of electronic information manufacturing industry
