China is seeking to advance humanoid robots beyond basic movements such as walking and jumping toward more sophisticated real-world applications. However, industry leaders acknowledge that significant technical and infrastructure challenges must be overcome before robots can reliably perform complex tasks.
Speaking at a Nov. 5 forum on humanoid robotics and embodied artificial intelligence (AI) during the ninth Hongqiao International Economic Forum, Xin Guobin, Vice Minister of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said humanoid robots are moving toward broader applications in manufacturing, services, and everyday life.
Wang Xingxing, founder and chairman of Unitree Robotics, identified the gap between AI models and the physical world as a major obstacle. Although multimodal models have advanced in understanding and planning, they still struggle to translate digital instructions into precise physical actions. Wang noted that even errors of a few millimeters can create significant problems when robots interact with their physical surroundings.
Wang Dong, co-founder and executive president of Moore Threads, identified three additional bottlenecks: a shortage of real-world physical data, the high cost of computing infrastructure, and fragmented development processes that lead to accuracy losses. He observed that while large language models are advancing rapidly, embodied AI models have yet to keep pace.
Source: People’s Daily, November 7, 2026
http://finance.people.com.cn/n1/2026/1107/c1004-40829521.html