There are a lot of companies determined to sell us the idea that, in the not too distant future, we will all have a humanoid robot at home. We have many doubts that they will be the revolution they promise (and there are reasons for this), but in China they are very clear.
Patents. They say in the South China Morning Post that Morgan Stanley has published volume 3 of its ‘Robot Almanac’ series, which details some key data on the state of the humanoid robot industry. China is far ahead when it comes to patents, having registered 7,705 patents in the last five years, while in the United States they have registered 1,561, almost five times less than its technological rival par excellence.
Dependence. It’s not just about patents, China has another key advantage and that is that its production lines are much more efficient from a cost point of view. This causes the rest of the companies that manufacture humanoids to depend on them if they do not want their production costs to skyrocket.
The cost of building a supply chain in which China was left out would raise prices exponentially. The report estimates that manufacturing the Tesla Optimus Gen 2 without China’s participation would raise the cost from about $46,000 to $131,000.
Obsession with robots. Humanoid robots from companies like Unitree or Deep Robotics have been in the public eye for a long time. We have seen them participate in the first robotic Olympics, fight, play soccer and as a dance group in macro concerts. They are appearances clearly focused on going viral, showing their capabilities to the world and, ultimately, making people see them as something cool and want to Buy one. However, although humanoids take all the spotlight, they are only the tip of the iceberg of a strategy that goes much further.
AI personified. In English it would be ’embodied AI’ and it is the approach that China has adopted in its particular AI career. The government included the term in its work report this year, highlighting its strategic importance. More than large language and software models, China wants AI that is present, whether in the form of humanoid robots, drones, autonomous vehicles or industrial robots. Speaking of industry, guess who has 51% of all the industrial robots in the world? Exactly: China.
Robots industriales. According to data from the Financial Times, China installs 280,000 robots a year in its factories with a clear objective: to automate to achieve the greatest efficiency and to continue being the world’s factory. Now that workers’ salaries are higher, the way they have found to remain competitive against markets like India or Bangladesh is automation.
Image | Andy Kelly on Unsplash
In WorldOfSoftware | I have asked for water from the first humanoid robot working in Beijing. It’s a weird vending machine.
