China’s economic powerhouse province to bolster humanoid robot industry

HANGZHOU, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) — Authorities in east China’s Zhejiang Province have issued an implementation plan to fuel the development of the humanoid robot industry in the economic powerhouse province.
The plan, envisioned for the 2024 to 2027 time frame and published Wednesday on the official website of the Economy and Information Technology Department of Zhejiang, stated that the province will support its capital city, Hangzhou, in making breakthroughs in embodied intelligence technology, in terms of the intelligence systems of humanoid robots including their “brains” and “cerebellum.”
According to the plan issued by the office of the leading group for the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry in Zhejiang, large-language model enterprises will be encouraged to develop universal multi-modal models compatible with humanoid robots. This will accelerate the training of “brains” and strengthen abilities such as voice interaction, logical reasoning and task planning.
Besides, humanoid robot companies will be encouraged to develop specialized models for motion control and balance coordination to enhance the proficiency of “cerebellum” functions.
Efforts will also be made to promote the innovative integration of robots with cutting-edge technologies such as brain-inspired intelligence and optimize intelligent computing power development, among other objectives.
Moreover, according to the plan, the province will speed up the lab-to-factory leap and cultivate a cluster of enterprises in the humanoid robot sector. ■