"Organizing Books and Doing Stand-Up Comedy"... How Far Have Chinese Humanoid Robots Come?

Humanoid Robot Games Held
Robots Excel as Librarians in Real Libraries
Diverse Applications Including Robot Chefs and Stand-up Comedy Robots

Chinese media have reported that humanoid robots in China have advanced to a level where they can perform tasks ranging from searching for and organizing books, to cooking and even engaging in stand-up comedy.

According to local outlets such as Sina Finance on August 18, the "2nd World Humanoid Robot Games" was recently held in Beijing, where robots took on the role of librarians. In addition, the world's first humanoid robot 4S store, which opened in the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone, has achieved cumulative sales exceeding 60 million yuan (approximately 12.55 billion won), showcasing the visible progress in commercializing robots.

A Chinese humanoid robot is organizing books. Baidu, China.

A Chinese humanoid robot is organizing books. Baidu, China.

The humanoid robots participating in this competition performed book searches, book placement and organization, as well as error checking and correction in a real library within 30 minutes. This evaluates the robots' accuracy, visual recognition ability, and logical thinking skills. The robots lifted five books at a time, placed them in a cart, and then shelved them in designated spots. They also located books that were not in their proper place and repositioned them correctly.

Main judge Chi Zhangfei emphasized, "When taking out books, they must not be dropped, and when organizing them, force must be controlled to avoid tearing the books, making it a difficult task," adding, "Robots need to operate naturally in this way if they are to be used in our daily lives in the future."

Participants from the development teams also commented, "Finding designated books among countless volumes and reshelving them in the correct place is extremely challenging in terms of the robot's control precision and recognition speed. There are still many areas to develop before robots can be widely used in real life."

The media highlighted the rapid evolution of humanoid robots, saying, "Robots are quickly moving from exhibition halls into everyday life." In fact, a supply chain has now been established in Beijing's Yizhuang area that enables robot components to be delivered within 48 hours. Various robots are active in real-life settings, such as a "robot chef" capable of precisely preparing more than 50 types of Chinese dishes and a "stand-up comedy robot" that can banter with the audience.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.