DIFFERENT TYPES OF HUMANOID ROBOTS UNVEILED
When it comes to China’s youth unemployment, the problem is well-publicised, but what is less widely known is that many Chinese manufacturers are looking for workers. The authorities forecast a shortage of nearly 30 million manufacturing workers by next year.
Enter the AI-powered humanoid robots, which look and move like humans and could eventually perform tasks the way humans do — maybe even better.
In recent months, Chinese companies Huawei, EX-Robots, Unitree Robotics and Zhejiang Humanoid Robot Innovation Centre have launched different versions of humanoid robots that can, for example, babysit children, chop carrots, play chess, make conversation and, of course, work in factories.
Wang Wen, the dean of Renmin University’s Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, believes that this branch of new quality productive forces has huge potential, particularly as China’s population ages and manufacturers face a labour shortage.
“China’s robot industry has experienced double-digit growth in market share every year for the past 10 years. … This has led to a doubling of the robot industry in China approximately every three years,” said the professor.
“Robots can replace humans in areas of production that are either neglected or high-risk, for example … in tasks related to firefighting, forest rescue (and) earthquake relief.
“In some factories, only a few people are working (alongside robots). But they’ve achieved the output that would’ve required thousands, even tens of thousands, of people in the past.”
These factories are “dark factories”, he added. “They don’t even need lights to operate.”
