The robotics sector is experiencing a period of great excitement, especially regarding the development of humanoid robots. Two companies, in particular, are leading the race for artificial intelligence: Chinese startup Agibot and US electric car giant Tesla.
Agibot, launched in February 2023, caused a stir in the industry by announcing the start of mass production of multipurpose robots. According to the tech blog mikekalil.com“As 2024 draws to a close, Silicon Valley startup Figure AI delivers its first AI-powered robots, a Chinese startup aiming straight for the Tesla Optimus is already mass-producing advanced humanoid robots“.
The Chinese newspaper “21st Century Business Herald” explained in an article how it began the mass production era of Agibot Robots with nearly 1,000 multipurpose robots delivered by the end of the year964 at the time, underscoring the industry’s excitement over Agibot’s announcement.
On its official website, Agibot, also known as Zhiyuan Robotics, shared footage of its manufacturing facilitywhich has so far reportedly produced at least 964 humanoid robots. The video in question shows the various phases of the robotic production line at the Lingang Fengxian factory in Shanghaiincluding inventory racking, component assembly, component testing, aging testing and performance testing. The production line features self-made humanoid robots that work in collaboration with human workers for tasks such as stocking inventory and testing components. There is no written commentary on the film nor any official surrounding statement.
Furthermore, the company has created a “data collection factory” for collecting data from the real world. This includes training scenarios such as folding clothes, organizing, cleaning and doing laundry.
In July, Elon Musk, founder and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, said in a post that “Tesla will have truly useful humanoid robots in limited production for Tesla’s internal use next year and hopefully in high production for other companies in 2026“.
Agibot’s mass production of robots has instilled confidence in its investors about high revenue forecasts for next year and marks an exciting development for the market, industry watcher Hong Shaodun told Global Times on Thursday.
“Robot hardware has reached a remarkable level of standardization”, according to Hong, who explained that from Tesla or other brands, more products have been presented since the second half of the year. “There are no significant differences in hardware between them. The only notable feature may be the prehensile hand.”
Although Chinese robotics companies announced mass production before companies like Tesla, essentially both nations, which are making the most significant advances in humanoid robotics, are advancing simultaneously, National and Local’s Wei Jiaxing told the Global Times Co-built Embodied AI Robotics Innovation Center in Beijing.
“US technology companies, such as Tesla and NVIDIA, have some advantages in areas such as precise upper limb manipulation and operational capabilities, as well as in high-end chip manufacturing and cloud computing services
. In the meantime, Chinese companies particularly excel in motion control and the exploration of advanced artificial intelligence modelsas well as in a variety of application scenarios,” Wei noted.
