Do androids dream of domestic feats?
Training centers and AI ready humanoid robots for service in homes
Real-world focus
Once mature, the models are deployed to robots so they can acquire new skills. This will be the core focus of humanoid robot development over the next two to three years, he said.
The whole point of building robots in human form, researchers argue, is to enable them to fit into a world designed for people.
"The advantage of humanoid robots lies mainly in their ability to adapt to environments without the need for environmental retrofitting," said Chang Ning, who leads the embodied intelligence simulation engine team at Feijie Kesi Intelligent Technology (Shanghai). "They can directly use spaces and tools made for people — things like door handles."
The first group of robots trained at the Shijingshan data center has "graduated" and started factory work. The company won the country's first publicly tendered humanoid robot project in the auto industry initiated by FAW Hongqi.
"In real-world settings, robots' work efficiency is about 70 percent of that of a skilled worker," Wang said.
For now, robots cannot handle complex tasks such as tightening precision screws, a task performed by senior technicians. Instead, they take on heavy, standardized and highly repetitive work — moving boxes of varying sizes, colors and weights, or sorting parts of different shapes.
Wang said those capabilities already meet certain industrial needs. First, robots can operate around the clock, while humans typically work eight-hour shifts. Second, assembly-line jobs are physically demanding and monotonous, making them hard to fill.
Within the next two years, humanoid robots are expected to begin large-scale industrial deployment. Their core industrial value lies in taking on dull, heavy and potentially dangerous roles, he said.
Zhang Yaqin, director of the Institute for AI Industry Research at Tsinghua University, is optimistic. He predicted that within the next decade, the number of robots could exceed the number of humans and that some human jobs would be replaced. In the future, he said, people might need to work only two days a week.
But a home is not a controlled environment. It is a fluid, unpredictable space filled with elderly parents, crawling toddlers and roaming pets.
Floors shift from carpet to hardwood to tile, each surface presenting different levels of friction and unevenness. With humanoid robots weighing more than 100 kilograms, a misstep does not just mean a failed task — it could mean someone gets hurt. "Whether they fall on a person or a pet, they will cause injury," Chang said.
That gap between promise and risk is why Chang remains cautious. "Although robots are developing fast, their current capabilities are still at a very rudimentary stage," he said.
In one or two years, he said, more specialized robots will appear in factories, hospitals and certain public spaces — hotel robots, for instance, paired with large language models, able to communicate naturally with people and assist with check-ins. But a robot housekeeper? That, he said, is difficult to predict, but added "maybe in 10 to 20 years".
Business needs
Still, Chang sees reasons for optimism. Chinese companies have an edge in local deployment and tend to focus on business needs. And because China has developed the full industrial chain across robot brains, cerebella and bodies, the pieces are already in place to accelerate progress.
In October 2023, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Guiding Opinions on the Innovative Development of Humanoid Robots", for the first time positioning them as "a groundbreaking product after computers, smartphones and new energy vehicles". The document set concrete targets such as mass production by 2025, and comprehensive strength at an advanced international level by 2027.
The market appears to be following the ambitious targets.
Omdia, a global tech market research firm, estimated roughly 13,000 humanoid robots would be shipped worldwide in 2025, with China accounting for about 90 percent of the total. Morgan Stanley forecast that China's humanoid robot shipments would double in 2026 to 28,000 units.
According to Morgan Stanley's report "The Humanoid 100: Mapping the Humanoid Robot Value Chain", the global humanoid industry is split into three segments — brain, body and integrators. Among the world's top 100 companies, China ranks first accounting for 37 percent, the United States second at 35 percent, followed by Japan at 10 percent.
Across the country, data-collection training grounds now hum with robot "students" learning new skills. In real-world settings — from medical care to elderly rehabilitation, from energy exploration to emergency rescue — they are trained nonstop, each trial a small step toward bridging the final gap before the robot era.
What the world is waiting for, in the not-so-distant future, is the development of humanoids with a brain that has evolved to be powerful enough to match their bodies.
houchenchen@chinadaily.com.cn






















