On December 29, 2023, Ubisoft, the first stock of humanoid robots, went public. The industrial version of the humanoid robot Walker S, standing at 1.7 meters tall and holding a red hammer, sounded the opening bell on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange with the company's founder. In March 2024, Huawei Cloud signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Shenzhen Leju Robotics. Huawei's Pangu Big Model and open-source HarmonyOS will complement Leju's self-developed "Kuafu" robot body research and manufacturing capabilities. On April 27th, the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center released the universal humanoid robot mother platform "Tiangong". Tiangong, which stands at 1.63 meters tall and weighs 43 kilograms, is officially open to industry developers. It can smoothly pass through slopes and stairs, respond quickly to bumps, falls, and other situations, and can run steadily at a speed of 6 kilometers per hour. On May 15th, the Shanghai Humanoid Robot Manufacturing Innovation Center released "OpenLoong", the world's first open-source community for full-size humanoid robots. In the past two years, with breakthroughs in generative artificial intelligence technology, the popularity of the humanoid robot industry has continued to rise. Several domestic startups have released bipedal humanoid robot products, and many local government departments have introduced policy measures to support industrial development. In November last year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Guiding Opinions on the Innovation and Development of Humanoid Robots" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), proposing to establish a preliminary innovation system for humanoid robots by 2025; By 2027, the comprehensive strength will reach the world's advanced level and become an important new engine of economic growth. What is the current development status of China's humanoid robot industry? What breakthroughs have been made in basic core technologies? What other challenges do industries need to face in landing? The reporter interviewed experts and industry enterprises. The industry continues to heat up and is expected to become a trillion dollar "blue ocean" with a maximum of 54 free body parts, capable of fast walking, agile obstacle avoidance, stable uphill and downhill movements, and also resistant to impact interference; Breaking through 145 kilograms in weight-bearing squats, it can also flexibly perform dance movements such as one line horse, jumping, spinning, and splitting; Not only can it perform functions such as handshake, reception, and guidance based on the conversation content, but it can also sing and dance, and "preach and teach" in the classroom... Walking into themed exhibition halls such as Guangdong, Sichuan, and Shanghai during the 2024 China Brand Day event, humanoid robots proficient in "eighteen martial arts" attract many visitors to stop. Humanoid robots are the culmination of advanced manufacturing industry. The development of the humanoid robot industry will drive the common development of high-end industries such as machinery, electronics, sensing, software, communication, and artificial intelligence Zhou Jian, Chairman and CEO of Shenzhen Youbixuan Technology Co., Ltd., believes that compared to traditional industrial robots, humanoid robots are more flexible and intelligent, and can replace more heavy and boring job positions in the manufacturing industry, effectively alleviating labor problems in the manufacturing industry. The Opinion clearly states that humanoid robots, integrating advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, high-end manufacturing, and new materials, are expected to become disruptive products after computers, smartphones, and new energy vehicles. They will profoundly transform human production and lifestyle, reshape the global industrial development pattern. Currently, humanoid robot technology is accelerating its evolution and has become a new highland for technological competition, a new track for future industries, and a new engine for economic development. The 2024 Research on the Ecological Development of China's Humanoid Robot Industry released by CCID Research Institute shows that in 2023, China's humanoid robot industry entered an explosive period, with the industry scale increasing to 3.91 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 85.7%; It is expected that the humanoid robot industry will continue to grow rapidly in 2024 and 2025, and the scale of China's humanoid robot industry will exceed 20 billion yuan in 2026. According to Goldman Sachs' prediction, under the ideal situation of revolutionary technological breakthroughs, the compound annual growth rate of global humanoid robot sales from 2025 to 2035 can reach 94%, and the market size will reach $154 billion by 2035. A more optimistic prediction suggests that in the current era of the explosion of generative artificial intelligence technology, humanoid robots are highly likely to achieve unexpected growth, and the next trillion level "blue ocean" is about to emerge. Starting from the manufacturing industry and accelerating its entry into ordinary households, at the beginning of this year, a special "intern" was added to the final assembly line of the NIO factory in Hefei. It can easily complete vehicle door lock inspection and rear light cover inspection while moving, and can also stop and reach into the car for seat belt inspection, high-precision and flexible labeling... The video of the first factory training of the industrial version of the Youbixuan humanoid robot WalkerS was released, which shocked everyone. Subsequently, numerous car companies have sent invitations to Ubisoft, hoping to invite WalkerS to come from their factories for practical training. "Don't think that companies are just trying something new. Some car companies have already come up with detailed procurement plans." Zhou Jian calculated for the reporter that compared to the three major processes of stamping, welding, and painting, which have an automation rate of 90% or even 100%, the automation rate of the automobile assembly production line is less than 30%. Currently, the cost of industrial humanoid robots ranges from $40000 to $50000. Tesla has announced that the Optimus humanoid robot can be priced at $20000 after its large-scale production, while a mature worker in the final assembly workshop of a vehicle factory can earn an annual salary of $180000 to $200000. "If the cost of buying a robot is lower than the annual salary of a worker, this application scenario will definitely be promoted." Zhou Jian said that the automobile manufacturing industry is expected to become a leading industry for the large-scale application of humanoid robots. The commercial service scenario is also a market for the rapid application of humanoid robots. Ubisoft's first batch of humanoid robots, WalkerX, has landed in NEOM New Future City, Saudi Arabia, becoming the first generation of large-scale humanoid robots "citizens" and providing intelligent services. The Opinion proposes key scenarios for the commercialization of humanoid robots: to meet the needs of harsh conditions and hazardous operations, and to create highly reliable humanoid robot solutions for special application scenarios; Focus on key areas of manufacturing such as 3C and automobiles, and build demonstration production lines and factories for humanoid robots; Expand the application of humanoid robots in healthcare, domestic services, and other livelihood fields, and promote the landing of humanoid robots in key industries such as agriculture and logistics. In the eyes of Huang Xiaoqing, founder and CEO of Data Robotics, the biggest application scenario for humanoid robots in the future is still home services. "Imagine if there were a humanoid robot that could easily complete tasks such as companionship, caregiving, and household chores, with a price of only about 300000 yuan, which is equivalent to a high-end new energy vehicle, would you buy one?" Huang Xiaoqing said. Since the beginning of the development of humanoid robots in 2015, Data's goal was to make home nanny robots enter ordinary people's homes as soon as possible. In the clean workshop that leverages policy, industry, and application advantages to seize the development high ground, 29 intelligent assembly workstations are neatly arranged. Next to the workstations, 6 industrial robots are precision assembling planetary gear reducers, servo controllers, and communication interface modules... At the Data Robot 5G Intelligent Factory located in the Maqiao Town Artificial Intelligence Innovation Experimental Zone in Minhang District, Shanghai, the robot intelligent flexible joints that integrate communication, calculation, and sensing can be automatically assembled in just 30 seconds. "Thanks to the '5G+Industrial Internet', digital twins and other intelligent technologies, the factory can produce more than 10 different types of humanoid robot joints at the same time, with a maximum design annual capacity of 1 million units." According to Zhang Lei, the relevant person in charge of the factory, Data Robotics has not only developed the Hairui cloud brain robot operating system, proposed a cloud robot architecture, and successfully implemented product commercialization, but also broke through the limitations of standardization, integration, and industrialization of core components of humanoid robots. Through large-scale automated production, it has lowered the entry threshold for the humanoid robot industry. At Ubisoft's Shenzhen headquarters, Zhou Jian pointed to a facial photo on his phone and asked reporters to identify its authenticity. "This is a humanoid robot model equipped with self-developed electronic skin by Ubisoft." Zhou Jian introduced that after years of deep cultivation, Ubisoft has deeply laid out in core technology fields such as servo drives, motion control, computer vision, positioning and navigation, speech semantics, and robot software and hardware design. As of the end of 2023, Ubisoft has over 2100 globally authorized patents, of which over 400 are overseas patents, with invention patents accounting for over 50%. At the end of last year, the People's Daily Research Institute released a report on patent analysis of humanoid robot technology, which showed that in the past 10 years, China has achieved a transformation from being backward to following and even leading in the field of humanoid robot technology patents. The number of humanoid robot patent applications and the number of valid patents both rank first in the world. Currently, humanoid robots have entered a period of industrial explosion. The research report released by CCID Research Institute also pointed out that the current industry is facing problems and challenges such as low technology and product maturity, difficulty in large-scale manufacturing and maintenance, limitations in high-value application scenarios, and difficulty in commercialization implementation. "The manufacturing costs, supply chain stability, and technological cross integration involved in the mass production of humanoid robots are systemic engineering projects that cannot be solved by individual industry participants." Liang Liang, Deputy Secretary General of the China Electronics Society, believes that the development of humanoid robots needs to gather industry consensus and strengthen top-level design. Wang Hao, Director of the Industrial Policy Research Institute of CCID Research Institute, believes that through the integration of the industrial chain, whole machine enterprises can quickly develop and produce products with application value, which helps to connect the industrial chain, innovation chain, capital chain, and talent chain, promote upstream and downstream integration and mutual benefit sharing. "China, which is striving to catch up in the field of big models, can fully leverage its institutional advantages by formulating forward-looking and highly operational industrial policies, coordinating upstream and downstream industrial chain resources such as industry, academia, research and application, and solving common key and underlying fundamental issues in the industry as soon as possible." Xiong Youjun, Chief Technology Officer of Ubisoft Technology, believes that in 2023, the humanoid robot industry will actively explore the integration and development of cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, new materials, metaverse, and brain computer interface, greatly accelerating the innovation process of key technologies such as "brain, cerebellum, and limbs". "It is recommended that relevant departments research and introduce relevant policies to support and encourage enterprises to use humanoid robots, cultivate the humanoid robot market, leverage the huge advantages of China's market size, and help China's humanoid robot industry play a good" first mover "and seize the commanding heights." (Xinhua)