Humanoid robots will reach "mass market” popularity within a decade, after manufacturers solve problems that hold back their current usefulness, the founder of China’s Unitree Robotics said.
The market will take off once robots can handle 80% of tasks given to them via voice instructions in unfamiliar surroundings, Wang Xingxing said in a speech at the World Robot Conference in Beijing on Aug 20. That will take two to 10 years, he said.
Robots already perform well in test conditions, but their execution collapses once objects or surroundings shift even slightly, Wang said. That means robots still lag behind human workers and suffer from weak versatility in terms of the tasks they can handle, he said.
Shares of Unitree soared this week in their Shanghai trading debut, which made the firm the first listed humanoid robot maker in mainland China.
Embodied artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as one of the most closely watched frontiers in the global AI race as Beijing steps up support for strategic technologies ranging from semiconductors to humanoid robots.
JPMorgan forecasts global humanoid robot shipments will rise to 60,000 this year and 1.75 million units by 2030, compared with 18,000 units in 2025. The bank sees China accounting for more than half of global demand.
Unitree is among the companies that are expected to benefit if such growth materialises. The company shipped more than 5,500 humanoid robots last year, ranking first globally, according to its prospectus. – Bloomberg
