Chinese startup mass produces humanoid robots

Agibot published a 4-minute video about the production process at the Lingang Fengxian factory, Shanghai, on its official website and revealed that they are on track to produce 1,000 robots by the end of this year, Interesting Engineering reported on October 20. Meanwhile, US competitors such as Elon Musk’s Tesla company plan to mass produce humanoid robots by 2026.

Peng Zhihui, who participated in Huawei’s Genius Youth program, founded Agibot in February 2023. Six months later, the company introduced its first humanoid robot model, Raise A1. In August this year, the company introduced five new robot models, including wheeled robots and bipedal humanoid robots, designed for various tasks such as housework and industrial operations.

The new video shows the many stages of robot production, including warehousing, component assembly, inspection, life testing and performance evaluation. One notable point is the collaboration between workers and humanoid robots in tasks such as warehousing and parts inspection.

Agibot also established a “data collection factory” that collects real-world data through practical training scenarios. These situations include many activities such as folding clothes, organizing, cleaning, and laundry. Human-machine collaboration and data-driven training enhance the robot’s ability to operate and adapt to a variety of tasks.

To date, Agibot has produced more than 962 humanoid robots. In addition, at the end of 2023, Chinese company Fourier Intelligence also became the first large humanoid robot company to announce mass production. The company has currently delivered more than 100 GR-1 bipedal humanoid robots to partners.

Although Chinese companies announced mass production before American companies, basically, both have made significant progress in developing humanoid robots and moving forward together, according to expert Wei Jiaxing from National and Local AI Robotics Innovation Center in Beijing. American technology giants such as Tesla and Nvidia have strengths in precise robot hand manipulation, high-end chip production and cloud computing services. Meanwhile, Chinese companies excel in motion control, advanced AI modeling and diverse applications.