"Come on, come on, this 'little guy' runs really well and has the most steady pace." When he saw the robot running through the corner flexibly, the roadside audience couldn't help but shout. On April 19, in Yizhuang, Beijing, human marathon athletes and humanoid robot "runners" stood on the same starting line.

　　At 7:30 in the morning, the world's first humanoid robot half marathon started. The first "Tiangong" robot to appear is mighty and tall, and is a 1.8-meter-old man. The "Tornado Boy" and the "Little Naughty Boy" are small and flexible, with a stable stride, and even wearing sneakers, they run like children.

　　"Although some robots need support, some stagger and even fall, it is still particularly shocking to get in close contact and feel the scenes I have seen in science fiction blockbusters in the past." Xiao Tang, who deliberately took his children to the competition, told the Science and Technology Daily reporter.

　　For humans, running on the marathon track is not difficult; for humanoid robots, moving towards real and open scenes is a big step for technology and industry.

　　The "2025 Humanoid Robot and Embodied Intelligent Industry Research Report" proposes that in 2025, the humanoid robot industry is expected to transition rapidly from the "technical verification period" to the "large-scale commercial period", and the global embodied intelligent market size is expected to reach 19.525 billion yuan.

　　Wang Xingxing, CEO of Hangzhou Yushu Technology Co., Ltd., believes that the number of humanoid robots will increase significantly this year and is expected to be promoted in some basic service industries or industrial applications within two years. As technology continues to mature and costs gradually decrease, humanoid robots will enter thousands of households faster and faster. At present, what stage of development are humanoid robots in and how far is it to the road to true commercialization?

　　Behind the sudden burst of fire

　　Since turning handkerchiefs on CCTV Spring Festival Gala stage, humanoid robots have been frequently seen and have attracted a lot of attention.

　　In the capital market, it is also becoming a new "hot spot". In the first half of 2024 alone, the global financing for humanoid robots exceeded US$5 billion, equivalent to the sum of the past five years.

　　"Behind the sudden popularity of humanoid robots is a breakthrough in embodied intelligence." said Leng Xiaokun, chairman of Leju (Shenzhen) Robot Technology Co., Ltd.

　　Leng Xiaokun explained that embodied intelligence refers to integrating artificial intelligence into physical entities such as robots, giving them the ability to perceive, learn and interact dynamically with the environment like humans. This concept proposed in 1950 emphasizes that the agent generates intelligent behavior through the interaction between the body and the environment.

　　It is generally believed in the industry that embodied intelligence is mainly composed of three parts: "brain", "cerebellum" and "ontology". The "brain" is an AI model, which can improve the robot's key abilities such as language interaction, environment perception, and task decision-making, helping the robot to communicate and make decisions with humans; the "cerebellum" is a motion control algorithm that controls the robot's movement, body perception and balance. "Humanoid robots are undoubtedly the most suitable carrier for large models to enter the physical world." Leng Xiaokun said.

　　In the history of humanoid robot development, there are three milestone events that cannot be bypassed: in 1973, the world's first humanoid robot was born at Waseda University in Japan, realizing bipedal walking for the first time, despite the mechanical stiffness of the movements; in 2000, Honda released the first generation model of humanoid robot ASIMO, which made it more natural to walk; in 2013, the bipedal robot Atlas developed by Boston Dynamics in the United States was unveiled, with great balance, not only able to run, but also able to stand up after falling.

　　Zhang Weimin, professor at Beijing Institute of Technology and chairman of Beijing Institute of Technology Huahui Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., said that for a long time, robot development has been based on programming, and AI models are released in 2022, and its strong learning ability promotes the rapid development of humanoid robots.

　　The exploration of humanoid robots in my country started in the late 1980s. Most domestic companies adopted the "integration of whole machine and self-development of key components" route to accelerate the iteration of whole machine products.

　　"At present, domestic humanoid robot products have relatively stable basic functions such as walking, running, jumping, and standing up, and are comparable to those of foreign countries in terms of technology." Zhang Weimin said that the implementation of these actions is mainly due to the progress of the "cerebellum". After the basic motion control algorithm is solved, the stable balance ability of the humanoid robot has been significantly improved. Combined with the training and learning of the big model in the scene, its actions are becoming more and more relaxed.

　　In this marathon, "Tiangong" successfully completed the race in 2 hours and 40 minutes and won the championship. "For robots, the ground may be uneven during marathons, and there may be turns and slopes. When the center of gravity deviates, it is difficult to maintain body balance." Wei Jiaxing, head of brand public relations at the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, introduced that in order to prepare for this competition, the team optimized it at multiple levels such as embossed intelligent large, cerebellum and ontologic bodies.

　　In terms of robot body, the center optimizes the structure based on the Tiangong Ultra platform, finds the balance point between weight and stiffness, reduces the impact of the ground facing legs and feet during running, and improves the stability of long-term running.

　　In order to improve the speed of movement, the R&D team continuously trains "Tiangong" in the simulation environment to explore the peak boundaries of joint torque and speed. At the same time, joint thermal conductivity and air-cooling heat dissipation technology have been improved, so that the robot can run for 21 kilometers for a long time. "This was unimaginable before," said Wei Jiaxing.

　　From dancing, front flips, to climbing the steps and running in the snow, the speed of humanoid robot skills is dazzling. Wei Jiaxing said that among many actions, it is difficult to achieve the steps. During the experimental stage, when humanoid robots go up and down steps, most people need to scan the stairs in advance to create a three-dimensional model, and then take a fixed stride according to the preset program.

　　"This way of "walking tightropes according to the drawings" faces the unpredictable terrain in real scenes, it is like letting blindfold climbers replicate yesterday's footsteps. Once the steps change in size or positioning is offset, it is very easy to get out of balance." Wei Jiaxing said.

　　Previously, the "Tiangong" robot successfully climbed more than 100 steps in succession and made important technological breakthroughs. "In the near future, these humanoid robots can even carry out various operations such as rescue in extreme environments such as mountains, snow, and ruins, laying the foundation for the popularization of embodied intelligent applications." Wei Jiaxing said.

　　Finding the application scenario is the key

　　Bend your knees, squat, steadily lift the material box from the pallet and put it on the trailer, then turn around and continue to carry... Nowadays, humanoid robots enter the factory to "work" and "take jobs" in many industrial fields such as automobile manufacturing and electronic manufacturing.

　　"We are not just going to be a humanoid robot that can run and jump, but we must truly promote it to empower thousands of industries." In Leng Xiaokun's view, letting robots serve people and the industry is the most fundamental purpose.

　　Leng Xiaokun analyzed that the industrialization of humanoid robots must go through three important stages, namely, for scientific research institutions and exhibition hall scenes, industrial scenes, and home scenes.

　　Compared with other fields, industrial scenarios have more urgent demands for humanoid robots. It is regarded as the most promising industrial assistant. Compared with traditional industrial robots, humanoid robots have significant advantages in flexibility and adaptability. For example, in the battery assembly process, high-precision operations can be easily completed and manual participation is reduced.

　　"But in fine operations and complex long-chain tasks, the work efficiency of the robot is about 70% of that of skilled workers, and humanoid robots still need to break through key technologies." Leng Xiaokun said that robots cannot do complex tasks such as screw-making, but can only do some heavy and repetitive rough tasks such as handling, assembly, and welding.

　　A report released by China Securities shows that humanoid robots have been experimentally applied in many fields such as shopping mall reception and flexible manufacturing. In the long run, my country's automobile manufacturing industry alone has a potential demand for about 340,000 humanoid robots.

　　"The attention at the national strategic level has also injected strong impetus into leading the accelerated development of my country's humanoid robot industry." Zhang Weimin said that in November 2023, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Guiding Opinions on the Innovation and Development of Humanoid Robots" to elevate the development of humanoid robots to the same status as computers, smartphones, and new energy vehicles.

　　At this year's Two Sessions, "embodied intelligence" was written into the government work report for the first time. All regions have made arrangements, industrial chains, upstream and downstream are working together, technological iteration is accelerating, and the implementation of scenarios is accelerated.

　　However, Leng Xiaokun said that the application of humanoid robots in industrial scenarios is still in the small-scale experiment stage. At present, only a small number of advanced factories have begun to explore the use of certain work processes, and it is too early to achieve large-scale replacement of labor.

　　"The high cost has become a constraint on its industrial application." Chen Zhi, a researcher at the China Academy of Science and Technology Development Strategy, found in the investigation that the cost of domestic humanoid robots is about 700,000 yuan per unit. In addition to the high cost of the whole machine, the lack of unified technical standards for core components and insufficient traction in customized scenarios have also hindered the industrial application of humanoid robots.

　　Large model algorithms determine the intelligence level and motility of humanoid robots. The biggest bottleneck facing the development of humanoid robots is still the "brain". Chen Zhi said that the biggest problem facing whether the "brain" is smart is data. There is a lack of high-quality data sets used to train large model algorithms in China, and there is a significant gap between it and abroad in terms of data collection efficiency and simulation technology. "Data is the raw material of robots. Without data, how can robots talk about intelligence?"

　　"The development of humanoid robots in my country is still in its infancy." Leng Xiaokun compared the current humanoid robot market to new energy vehicles around 2018, which are very similar in terms of social acceptance, industrial chain maturity and shipment volume. However, with the decline in cost and the improvement of the ecology, the industry is expected to replicate the development path of new energy vehicles and become a new growth pole of China's economy.

　　It's still a long way to get into the family

　　In a corporate exhibition hall, a humanoid robot is massaging the elderly's shoulders and neck. It can also help children with homework, and fold clothes and clean them in their spare time... The increasingly skilled skills of humanoid robots make people look forward to it entering their daily lives.

　　"Consumers are more happy to see humanoid robots entering homes on a large scale, but there is still a long way to go to actually implement it." said Zhong Xinlong, director of the Artificial Intelligence Research Office of the Future Industry Research Center of the China Institute of Electronic Information Industry Development.

　　Zhong Xinlong said that the family environment covers more fragmented scenarios, and the complexity is beyond imagination. It is very difficult to deal with multiple moving objects such as pets, floating curtains, rolling toys, etc. at the same time, and to continue to learn the habits of family members and understand fuzzy instructions such as "putting medicine where mothers can see it".

　　The latest tests of the Chinese Academy of Sciences show that the task completion rate of mainstream models on the market in simulated home environments is only 58.3%, a decrease of 37 percentage points from the factory scenario. "When a robot is not very smart, it can only do some relatively simple work in the factory, but the deeper meaning of embodied intelligence is to move the robot from a 'specialist' to a 'generalist', from completing a single task in a specific environment to being able to perform complex tasks in an open environment," said Zhong Xinlong.

　　The dexterous hands are the "jewel in the crown" of the humanoid robot. Many actions in family scenes, such as holding chopsticks and holding eggs, require it to be flexible enough to achieve. The man can achieve 21 degrees of freedom and 33 commonly used grabbing actions. A clever hand consists of 12 motors, 6 drive boards, 23 sensors, 741 parts and more than 200 wiring harnesses. Currently, it can only achieve up to 19 degrees of freedom.

　　"It's too difficult to make dexterous hands like human hands." Zhou Chen, CEO of Zhejiang Lingqiao Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., said that robot dexterous hands are much more complex than other components, and it is not easy to achieve more freedom in a smaller size. In software algorithms, when multi-points operate in concert, the torques of each joint need to be dynamically planned to avoid self-collision and adapt to the shape and weight of different objects. This requires extremely high real-time performance of computing resources. "This is also why people think holding chopsticks is so simple, but robots are difficult to achieve," Zhou Chen explained.

　　Zhong Xinlong sighed that one of the ultimate goal and greatest value of robots is to work like a human being. If a humanoid robot can perform housework and take care of the elderly with dexterous hands, humans can really "lie down".

　　Some experts also said that in order to better collaborate with humans or serve humans, humanoid robots need to have natural and smooth human-computer interaction capabilities. In the home service scenario, it is difficult to take into account all scenarios of intelligence at present. You can start with the human-computer collaboration model, starting from simple sweeping the floor, cleaning the desktop, etc., and gradually transition to more complex housework.

　　Leng Xiaokun's judgment is: "Humanoid robots can be practical in 3 to 5 years, and it will take at least 10 years to be used widely in family scenarios." He said that humanoid robots not only rely on technology when entering the family, but also have to pass the obstacles of safety, ethical issues, and market access. It is recommended that relevant national departments promptly introduce corresponding policy support, standards, specifications, and regulatory measures. (Reporter Fu Lili)

[Editor in charge: Zhu Jiaqi]