China Sets Six-Month Deadline To Test Humanoid Robots in Real Jobs

China is launching a nationwide training programme to help humanoid robots move from dance performances and marathon races into factories, warehouses and hospitals, as Beijing steps up efforts to commercialise the technology.

The goal is to accelerate the deployment of humanoid robots and embodied AI in real-world production and service environments, giving local governments and state-owned enterprises less than six months to prove the technology’s viability in such settings, according to an official document issued on Tuesday.

Authorities said implementation plans must be submitted by the end of June, with progress reports due by the end of November. “By the end of 2026, key humanoid robot products will complete application verification and regular deployment in a number of representative scenarios, entering ‘work mode’,” the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission said in the document.

Beijing is pushing to create more than 100 high-value applications and support the deployment of 10,000 units by year-end – a target that reflects a broader shift in the industry’s priorities, said Shao Hao, senior director of the robotics lab at Chinese smartphone maker Vivo.

“The core purpose of the policy is to push the industry from a demonstration-driven logic to a task-oriented logic, and from showcasing individual capabilities to building integrated systems that can perform real-world tasks,” Shao said.

“Six months is not a long time, but a concentrated effort like this can help the industry converge more quickly on viable technology paths and engineering solutions.

“In the longer term, this phase could determine whether embodied AI can achieve large-scale commercial deployment.”

The programme spans manufacturing, inspection and maintenance, warehousing and logistics, retail, healthcare, workplace safety, emergency response and disaster relief. According to the document, real-world training would be used to “continuously optimise embodied AI models, accumulate high-quality, real-machine data and improve the performance of key hardware components”.

One example highlighted battery testing on production lines, where humanoid robots could replace workers in plugging and unplugging high-voltage testing connectors. The task remains difficult to automate because of product variation and high flexibility requirements.

Under the proposed standards, robots would be expected to identify battery interfaces with an accuracy rate of at least 98 per cent and achieve a success rate of no less than 99 per cent when inserting and removing connectors.

The process involves handling high-voltage equipment and is seen as a potential application to improve safety and consistency.

The announcement followed remarks by Premier Li Qiang last month during a visit to Beijing’s Humanoid Robot Innovation Centre, where he called for more real-world scenarios to test and deploy intelligent robots and urged faster commercial adoption of AI-powered manufacturing technologies.

Li said artificial intelligence was “rapidly integrating with advanced manufacturing” and “profoundly changing production models and industrial forms”.

The initiative marks a growing policy focus towards deployment as well as long-term technology development.

Guidelines on humanoid robot innovation released in 2023 focused on building industrial foundations, including a secure and reliable supply chain and an internationally competitive ecosystem by 2027.

The latest programme reinforces efforts to accelerate application testing, commercial deployment and real-world adoption, as embodied AI and humanoid robots feature more prominently in China’s industrial strategy.