Inside China’s race to dominate humanoid robotics industry

Elon Musk, whose company Tesla also makes humanoid robots, has called the Chinese bots “cool.” Musk was in Beijing this week as part of President Donald Trump’s state visit. Trump said his meeting with President Xi Jinping went well and expressed hope for more American collaboration with China.

But there is still much room for improvement in what these robots can do physically and autonomously, meaning without remote direction.

“Where all of the robotics industry needs to improve is in the brains of these robots, in the software that allows these robots to actually do the things we want, whether they be in a house or an industrial setting,” said Joanna Stern, NBC News’ chief technology analyst.

Before these robots can wash dishes or fold laundry, manufacturers need vast amounts of real-world data to train them. Several companies, including U.S. firms, are now offering cash to people willing to strap iPhones to their bodies and record their every move.

Over at X-Humanoid, Gao said, though their robots are powerful, the company doesn’t want its robots to be militarized but added that there was real value in emergency or dangerous tasks.

At its facility, the robots move through each stage of production: assembled, tested and programmed. Designed to crawl through tight crevices or trudge across rough terrain, X-Humanoid says they’re being built for jobs that humans would rather not do. The company stresses that displacement is not the goal.

“We want the robot to help people, free people from this dangerous, harsh, repetitive working environment,” she said, pointing to tasks like power inspections.

In one part of the facility, several dozen half-finished humanoids were lined in a grid, waiting for their heads to be attached. They had no legs, but instead their torso tapered into a boxy wheeled unit.