China is going all out to outpace the United States in the race to develop advanced humanoid robots. Its latest strategy: sending its bots to boot camp.
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Cities across the country are opening huge humanoid robotics training bases, which put robots through their paces in a variety of different scenarios and harvest training data to help manufacturers accelerate their product development.
The biggest of these facilities, located in Beijing’s Shijingshan district, covers an area of more than 10,000 square metres (108,000 sq ft) and will generate over 6 million data points every year, the local government announced on Thursday.
China and the US are the clear front-runners in the emerging humanoid robot industry, which aims to create robots with humanlike bodies that can replace human workers in a range of settings – from factory floors to nursing homes.
The training bases are designed to address “the current data shortage” that is holding back China’s domestic industry, according to the local government statement.
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The Beijing centre provides 16 specific scenarios for robot training, including settings that mimic a manufacturing facility, a retail outlet, an elderly care centre and a smart home.
In the past, robotics companies collected training data in isolation, resulting in inconsistent quality. The new training base will enable standardised, large-scale data generation, delivering high-quality data at lower costs, the statement said.