Humanoid robots come to life in Chinese factory

STORY: Inside this factory in China, Ex-Robots engineers are working on developing humanoid robots…with a focus on enhancing facial expressions and emotions.

So far, the main purpose of these hyper-realistic robots has been for display in museums.

Ex-Robots Chief Executive Li Boyang says humanoid robots are the most complex type of robot to build.

The company uses artificial intelligence to teach robots how to recognize human facial expressions and mimic them.

Like here, a humanoid robot is copying a worker’s movement thanks to tiny motors installed in its head.

::Li Boyang, Ex-Robots CEO

“We have our own software and algorithm teams. In terms of algorithms, we focus more on the part of AI that integrates with the robot. There are many basic models and algorithms that are commonly open source, which everyone uses. However, we concentrate more on how to enable the AI to recognize and express expressions and emotions.”

The company says it takes between two weeks and a month to produce just one humanoid robot.

Prices range from 1.5 to 2 million yuan, or roughly $280,000 dollars.

Looking ahead, Li believes humanoid robots will have a bigger role to play, not just in healthcare and education, but in other industries as well.

“There are a lot of jobs that humanoid robots can actually be competent at. And entering households must be the most massive demand. We also think that every person may have a humanoid robot in the future at home for their service, or even more than one. So when such a large number of demand appear, it is the time of the industry boom.”