"We have reason to expect that by the 2040s, there will be one billion humanoid robots on Earth," - David Holtz, Founder of Midjourney.
Since 2023, we have witnessed numerous advancements in the global humanoid robot industry. Tesla unveiled the second generation of the humanoid robot "Optimus," showcasing more graceful walking movements and greater dexterity in its hands through a video demonstration. OpenAI's venture fund led the investment in Norwegian robotics company 1X Technologies, targeting commercial robots for professional environments, and announced a partnership with Figure to develop the next generation of AI models for humanoid robots. Amazon's humanoid robot, Digit, has already shown its potential in various practical work scenarios. The world's first humanoid robot model, unveiled by NVIDIA's CEO and founder, Jensen Huang, at the GTC conference, has become an exciting milestone in the industry.
With the term "new productive forces" included in the government work report for 2024 and listed as the primary objective among this year's top ten tasks, humanoid robots, as one of the most disruptive and cutting-edge industries, possess characteristics of high technology, high efficiency, and high quality, continually capturing industry attention. The "Guiding Opinions on Innovative Development of Humanoid Robots" issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions") stated that humanoid robots are expected to become a disruptive product following computers, smartphones, and new energy vehicles. As the optimal carrier of "general artificial intelligence," the humanoid robot industry is gradually transitioning from theory to practice, leading the wave of intelligent manufacturing and representing an optimistic new productive force for future demands.
Amid the demand for digital transformation, the commercial momentum of humanoid robots is on the brink of a swift upsurge. Numerous players have glimpsed the development potential in this new blue ocean and are rapidly advancing, surging into this golden track leading to the future technological era.
UBTECH
Founded in 2012, UBTECH is a global high-tech innovation company that integrates the development of artificial intelligence and humanoid robots, platform software development and application, and product sales. Since its establishment, UBTECH's consumer-level robots have received global acclaim and have been involved in intelligent logistics, education, and smart healthcare. Furthermore, its humanoid robots have entered the industrialization phase, with a particular focus on intelligent manufacturing, especially in the automotive manufacturing sector, which is expected to be its first large-scale application field.
In December 2023, UBTECH was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under the code 9880, becoming the "first stock of Chinese humanoid robots." As of the time of this report, UBTECH's stock was trading at HKD 219 per share, with a total market value of approximately HKD 91.573 billion. Its industrial humanoid robot, Walker S, has already entered NIO's second advanced manufacturing base's final assembly workshop for on-site "training," marking the world's first instance of a humanoid robot collaborating with humans to complete car assembly and quality inspection tasks on an automotive factory production line.
Agibot
Established in February 2023, Agibot positions itself as an innovative enterprise dedicated to the fusion of AI and robotics, aiming to create world-leading embodied intelligent robot products and application ecosystems. Led by the former Huawei "genius youth" and Bilibili UP master Zhuhui Jun (formerly known as Peng Zhihui), the company has secured six rounds of financing within just over a year, making it a domestic humanoid robot "unicorn" company, with investments from notable firms.
In August 2023, Agibot launched the Expedition A1 embodied intelligent robot, showcasing its applications in scenarios such as screw tightening, chassis assembly, home companionship, and hazardous material experiments. In February 2024, at its first shareholders' meeting, Agibot further disclosed its plans to commence with the new generation products Expedition A2 and Dust C5, aiming to empower industrial and commercial scenarios, and achieve better commercialization.
AELOS
Established in 2016, AELOS Robot is a high-tech enterprise focusing on the field of artificial intelligence, with its core founding members originating from Harbin Institute of Technology. Currently, AELOS has established multiple research and development bases and regional centers nationwide, with two major R&D headquarters, two research institutes, two production bases, and seven regional service centers, creating an intelligent robot service ecosystem integrating educational services, medical transport services, and special scenario services.
In March of this year, AELOS and Haier jointly exhibited the domestic first humanoid robot applied in the "humanoid robot + smart home" scenario at the 2024 China Household Appliances and Consumer Electronics Expo (AWE), named Kuavo. Kuavo is the first domestic open-source Hongmeng humanoid robot capable of jumping and walking on various terrains, and is currently being introduced into households to perform tasks such as laundry, watering plants, flower arranging, and hanging clothes. In the future, AELOS will continue to focus on overcoming the "bottleneck" challenges in the field of humanoid robots and strive to realize the mission and vision of "enabling the entire society to share the convenience of robots."
CMDS
Established in 2015, CMDS Technology is a cloud intelligent robot operator primarily engaged in the research of cloud intelligent robot operation-level secure cloud computing networks, large-scale hybrid artificial intelligence machine learning platforms, and secure intelligent terminals and robot controller technologies.
In August 2023, CMDS launched the bipedal humanoid robot XR4, which utilizes an original parallel structure design, achieving industry-leading high torque density output, with a single leg torque of up to 600N·M. Through the application of reinforcement learning to generate gait and real-time digital twinning technology, XR4 will accelerate its commercialization process and is planned to gradually be deployed in fields such as educational research, factory manufacturing, and logistics handling, ultimately serving community and household scenarios.
Fourier
Founded in 2015, Fourier is a general-purpose robot platform enterprise. Since its inception, the company has focused on the underlying technology of general-purpose robots, providing a technically open platform for various industry scenarios, enabling the universal and widespread application of robot technology. In July 2023, Fourier launched the intelligent general-purpose robot GR-1, which features highly biomimetic body configuration, human-like motion control, rapid walking, agile obstacle avoidance, steady uphill and downhill movement, anti-impact interference, and cognitive intelligence. This robot can collaboratively perform actions with humans, holding enormous potential for industrial, rehabilitation, domestic, and research applications.
"In the future, humanoid robots may become the new generation of terminals, much like cars and mobile phones," said Gu Jie, Chairman of Fourier. Currently, Fourier has successfully implemented the general-purpose robot technology in medical rehabilitation scenarios on a large scale, providing high-performance rehabilitation robots and comprehensive solutions to over 2000 clients in more than 40 countries and regions through the "Intelligent Rehabilitation Harbor" product matrix.
Unitree
Established in 2016, Unitree Technology is a developer of quadruped robots and power system components, excelling in core robot components, motion control, and robot perception. In January 2024, at the "CES Tech Spring Festival" in Las Vegas, USA, Unitree Technology introduced the humanoid robot H1, the only robot capable of autonomous on-site operation, attracting considerable attention.
Unitree Technology has accumulated over 180 patent applications domestically and internationally, with more than 150 patents granted, and has been certified as a national high-tech enterprise. It is China's first and currently the only quadruped robot company to obtain the national-level "Little Giant" certification for specialized and new technology. At the end of 2023, The Robot Report, a renowned robot website, compiled the annual top ten hot topics in the North American robot market, with over half involving humanoid robots, and Unitree Technology being the only Chinese company listed among them.
XPeng Motors
Following Tesla, another automotive company has unveiled a humanoid robot. In October 2023, XPeng, a company centered around automobiles, introduced its self-developed humanoid bipedal robot, PX5. According to He Xiaopeng, Chairman of XPeng Motors, after five months of exploration, this bipedal humanoid robot has achieved stable walking capabilities and can navigate various bipedal walking obstacles, demonstrating stable walking across all terrains.
In addition to manufacturing humanoid robots, XPeng has also ventured into researching robot components. XPeng has independently developed high-performance joints to achieve stable walking capabilities. Currently, PX5 can walk indoors and outdoors and overcome obstacles for over two hours. However, the cost-effectiveness of general-purpose humanoid robots compared to specialized robots in various scenarios is still under consideration. Nevertheless, XPeng is full of imagination and confidence about the future of humanoid robots: "When I grow old, robots can play mahjong with me and even help me change diapers."
Xiaomi
Xiaomi has recently unveiled the SU7, a humanoid robot, showcasing the company's foray into the field of humanoid robotics. In August 2022, Xiaomi introduced its first full-sized humanoid biomimetic robot, CyberOne (Iron Man). "The intelligence and mechanical capabilities behind CyberOne were entirely developed by Xiaomi's Robot Laboratory, involving extensive work in software, hardware, and algorithm development," stated Lei Jun. CyberOne, powered by artificial intelligence at its core and embodied in a standard humanoid form, represents Xiaomi's exploration of future technological ecosystems and a new achievement in Xiaomi's diverse integrated technology system. In August 2023, Xiaomi released its second-generation quadruped robot, CyberDog 2, equipped with visual, auditory, and tactile capabilities, supporting functions such as facial recognition, voiceprint recognition, and emotion recognition, enabling autonomous feedback on human actions and emotions, thus enriching the interactive experience.
Additionally, Xiaomi has contributed to the research of robotics. In March 2024, Xiaomi, in collaboration with Wuhan University, established the "Robotics Department," aiming to explore interdisciplinary research systems empowered by artificial intelligence and deepen industry cooperation.
iFLYTEK
iFLYTEK has consistently shown strong interest in intelligent robots and humanoid robotics, evident from its investment in the first publicly traded humanoid robot company, UBTech, in 2015. In early 2022, iFLYTEK announced the "iFLYTEK Superbrain 2030 Plan," outlining the ambition to develop commercialized general-purpose robot products within approximately 10 years.
At the 2023 Global Developers' Festival on October 24th, iFLYTEK unveiled the AIBOT platform for intelligent robots, integrating multimodal perceptual capabilities of cognitive intelligence, embodied intelligence, and motion intelligence, already serving 372 enterprises in industries such as industrial, educational, service, and specialized fields. On March 31st of this year, at the first China Embodied AI Conference (CEAI 2024), iFLYTEK presented an innovative multimodal human-machine interaction system based on the Spark model, addressing the challenges of robots listening, speaking, understanding, and reasoning in noisy environments, attracting the attention of numerous visitors. iFLYTEK's presence at CEAI 2024 not only showcased its technical prowess in multimodal interaction but also injected new vitality into the progress of embodied intelligence and the entire industry.
Dreame
Established in 2017, Dreame is a globally leading manufacturer of smart home appliances, offering a range of products including cordless vacuum cleaners, floor-sweeping robots, smart floor scrubbers, and high-speed hair dryers, available in over 120 countries and regions worldwide, continuously expanding into personal care and lifestyle domains. In March 2023, Dreame Technology launched two robotic products—a general-purpose humanoid robot and the second-generation biomimetic quadruped robot, Eame One, which currently integrates a large AI language model, possessing high-quality conversational abilities.
Dreame Technology's swift introduction of humanoid robots comes as no surprise. As early as July 2022, Dreame Technology was reported to have plans to enter the humanoid robot arena, emphasizing the core of humanoid robot development as whole-body balance control, requiring a strong dual capability in software algorithms and mechanical design within the development team. Starting with Eame One, Dreame Technology's Robot Research Institute has been focusing on high-performance, large-torque electric motor joints, robot core technologies such as mechanical arms, and continuously exploring the different forms of robots in diverse application scenarios.
Bottome line
Amidst the historic technological wave catalyzed by General Artificial Intelligence (AGI) and large-scale models, humanoid robots with "smart minds" and "agile limbs" are emerging as a hot trend in future industries.
According to the latest forecast by Goldman Sachs, under ideal circumstances, the humanoid robot market is projected to reach USD 154 billion by 2035. Industry insiders further predict that 2024 could mark the first year of commercialization for humanoid robots, with significant potential across various downstream application scenarios such as smart homes, household services, industrial manufacturing, warehouse logistics, disaster relief, and even extraterrestrial exploration.
As a representative of new productive forces, the humanoid robot industry is poised to step onto a larger international stage, offering promising prospects for the future.