BEIJING, March 3 (Xinhua) -- China has taken a significant step toward regulating its rapidly growing humanoid robotics sector with the release of its first-ever national standard system, a move that industry experts say will accelerate technological iteration, reduce production costs and pave the way for mass commercialization.
The standard system, which was unveiled at the annual meeting of Humanoid Robots and Embodied Intelligence Standardization (HEIS) in Beijing on Saturday, is China's first comprehensive, top-level design covering the entire industrial chain and full lifecycle of humanoid robotics and embodied intelligence.
It was developed collaboratively by over 120 research institutions, enterprises and industry users, and organized by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's (MIIT) HEIS technical committee.
Experts from the committee say the introduction of the standard system will accelerate the technological iteration and industrial application of humanoid robots, promoting their integration into households while maintaining the safety bottom line.
SIX PILLARS OF A COMPREHENSIVE INDUSTRY
The new system is structured on six pillars: foundational and common standards, neuromorphic and intelligent computing, limbs and components, full-system integration, application, and safety and ethics.
This architecture aims to unify technical specifications, evaluation criteria and interface protocols across a fragmented but fast-evolving industry.
According to the standard system, common foundational standards provide universal guidance for technological development. Neuromorphic computing standards address the "cerebrum and cerebellum" architecture of embodied intelligence, governing data lifecycle management and model training pipelines. Limb and component specifications cover everything from torsos and dexterous hands to actuation and perception modules, facilitating modular development across the sector.
Industry executives at the annual meeting emphasized that standardization is crucial to moving humanoid robots forward from demonstration stages to practical, large-scale deployment.
Wang Xingxing, founder and CEO of Unitree Robotics and one of the technical committee's deputy directors, presented footage of robots performing assembly tasks in factories in his address to the meeting. "To enable humanoid robots to genuinely work, particularly on long-sequence tasks, industry-wide standards are absolutely essential," he said.
Peng Zhihui, co-founder of Shanghai-based AGIBOT and another deputy director of the committee, highlighted the bottleneck caused by non-standardized technological pathways.
"When we analyzed industrial scenarios, we found that nearly 80 percent of tasks where humans excel but traditional automation struggles are strongly related to tactile sensing. The bottleneck results from the absence of standardized technological pathways for tactile sensors," Peng explained.
Liang Liang, secretary-general of the technical committee and deputy secretary-general of the Chinese Institute of Electronics, noted that the new system is expected to address these concerns.
The release of this standard system can unify industrial technical specifications and evaluation criteria, reduce coordination and adaptation costs across the industrial chain, and promote the modularization and generalization development of upstream components, Liang said. It can also guide R&D resources to concentrate on core and key areas, avoiding low-level redundant work, he added.
To reduce supply chain coordination costs, for example, the standard system promotes the modularization and generalization of components, breaks down compatibility barriers between manufacturers' products, enhances supply chain coordination efficiency, and solidifies the foundations for large-scale production by unifying interface, performance and testing specifications for upstream core components, he said.
In addition, by establishing application standards for particular scenarios and clarifying functional, adaptation and safety specifications for each scenario, the standard system resolves the lack of rules to follow during deployment, facilitating the transition of products from the technical pilot stage to the commercial penetration stage, according to the official.
Notably, safety and ethical considerations feature prominently in the framework. The large-scale application of intelligent products will inevitably raise numerous issues of social ethics, and this consideration has been fully incorporated into the drafting process of the system's framework, Liang said.
MASS PRODUCTION CHALLENGES
The standard system comes as China's humanoid robotics industry is at a critical juncture. Last year is considered to have been China's first year of humanoid robot mass production, with over 140 domestic manufacturers releasing more than 330 different models within the 12 months, according to the MIIT.
With application scenarios expanding across industrial manufacturing, household services, health care and senior care, China's humanoid robotics industry has officially crossed the line between storytelling and execution, with clear regulatory lane markings now in place to guide the race ahead.
However, challenges remain.
Jiang Lei, another deputy director of the technical committee, observed that while the sector has progressed "from zero to one," it now faces the challenge of scaling "from one to 10."
Zhao Tongyang, founder of the Shenzhen-based ENGINEAI Robotics Technology Co. Ltd, has drawn comparisons with the automotive industry.
"After nearly a century of development, every auto component has dozens or even hundreds of mature suppliers. For humanoid robotics, which has only recently accelerated, the supplier base remains limited," Zhao noted.
According to Jiang, the humanoid robotics industry overall remains in its infancy, and the sector still faces bottlenecks such as scenario fragmentation, high costs, the insufficient generalization capabilities of AI models and partial reliance on imported core components.
Among these concerns, addressing the issue of data scarcity is a critical challenge for the ongoing development of the industry. The sector needs more of its own large language models designed specifically for humanoid robots, and the key to solving these problems is interconnectivity, he said.
Furthermore, efforts should be accelerated to unlock high-value, scalable potential in scenarios like semi-structured industrial settings, mixed sorting in logistics, and inspection and security, according to experts at the meeting.
Looking ahead, the technical committee plans to collaborate with government agencies, industry enterprises, research institutions and universities to advance the development of standards.
Jiang noted that the committee aims to complete standards-setting cycles within six months, emphasizing that these standards "must be usable standards" with strong implementation mechanisms. ■
