Striving Forward in the 15th Five-Year Plan: Taking Action to Open New Prospects | Robots "On the Job"! Embodied Intelligence Accelerates into Daily Life

(Source: Qianlong.com)

This year marks the beginning of the “14th Five-Year Plan,” and all regions are focusing their efforts on achieving the goals outlined in the plan, seizing opportunities, and accelerating high-quality development. Starting today, CCTV News Channel is launching a series called “Striving for the ‘14th Five-Year’ and Opening a New Chapter through Practical Action.” Correspondents are dispatched nationwide to explore new developments across various fields—visiting research frontlines, factories, and vast farmlands—to showcase the new spirit of hard work and innovation. The first episode visits Hangzhou, home to many embodied intelligence companies, to see how new products like humanoid robots are accelerating their application in daily life.

Embodied Intelligence Accelerates Deployment

Robots as Caregivers in Nursing Homes

In a community nursing home in Xihu District, Hangzhou, a special rehabilitation activity is underway. Instead of caregivers, a flexible humanoid robot is leading the elderly in stretching exercises.

Cheng Juan, Nursing Supervisor at Xialing Interactive Smart Elderly Care Home, Xihu District, Hangzhou: This robot is called “Rongqing,” and the elderly really like it. Every morning, it helps them do finger exercises and fitness routines. Having “Rongqing” accompany them every day feels very novel.

The supervisor told reporters that the nursing home has 13 residents with an average age of 86, most of whom have cognitive impairments, and about 70% require 24-hour care due to disabilities. Despite staffing levels meeting the national standard of 1 caregiver for every 5 residents, achieving one-on-one precise care remains difficult.

Cheng Juan: For example, turning residents over requires assistance from caregivers. If a resident is quite heavy and only one caregiver is on night shift, it’s impossible to do.

Some districts in Hangzhou have a high aging population, and such caregiving challenges are common in elderly care facilities. This year, Hangzhou has accelerated the development of intelligent elderly care service robots, piloting their pairing with care scenarios and applications. A newly deployed robot can assist with caregiving and autonomous patrols.

Algorithm Engineer Zhu Qi from Hangzhou Xialing Interactive Smart Service Robot Co.: This arm can adjust its stiffness based on the inflation level of its air pressure. If danger occurs, it can instantly reduce air pressure to prevent collisions. With two 6-degree-of-freedom arms and an 11-degree-of-freedom dexterous hand, it can meet most daily needs.

The robot’s head is equipped with high-precision cameras and millimeter-wave radar, enabling real-time perception and assessment of residents’ physical states during routine patrols. If a fall or other abnormality is detected, the system issues an immediate alert, providing more detailed and stable care.

Cheng Juan: It’s a very effective assistant. Every day, it patrols with us, and we set up programs to deliver medication to residents, improving care efficiency.

In the nursing home, reporters also saw various types of intelligent health and wellness robots—some resembling dolls that can chat and interact with residents, others being smart wheelchairs equipped with mechanical arms.

CCTV Reporter Yan Su: An intelligent wheelchair can help residents with mobility issues pick up objects, operate elevators, and more. It can be controlled via voice, screen, or mouse, accommodating different habits and physical conditions. Currently, this robot can recognize and grasp 17 common items like remote controls, water bottles, and glasses. The development team is continuously updating the database to include over 100 items, better meeting home-based elderly care needs.

Resident Huang Ranhua: It’s really convenient. It can deliver things to your door or right to your hand. Elderly people fear loneliness and being unable to do certain tasks, so the future of elderly care robots is very promising.

A “Post-95” Team Refines Robots That Better Understand Life

The team developing products like “Rongqing” is a young group born after 1995. They are continuously iterating their technology to bring intelligent robots into more aspects of daily life.

When the reporter visited the robot R&D company, engineers were outdoors testing a new inspection robot, evaluating its autonomous navigation and problem recognition capabilities.

Zhu Qi, Algorithm Engineer at Hangzhou Xialing Interactive Smart Service Robot Co.: The algorithm box is like the robot’s eyes for recognition, and the processor acts as its brain to detect objects. Data is transmitted to our platform through various means.

Zhu Qi’s team has over ten members, with an average age of just 27. He mainly handles algorithm design, which involves enabling robots to perceive their environment and execute tasks accurately.

Zhu Qi: We’re essentially creating a link between the eyes and the brain. We want the robot to understand what the customer needs and how to retrieve it. We use neural networks to train the system.

However, objects vary greatly in shape and environment, making precise recognition and stable control challenging. The engineers are constantly optimizing their solutions.

Zhu Qi: We’re currently only using traditional sensors on “Rongqing,” but in the future, we aim to turn it into a smart home manager through IoT, connecting all information to it. That’s one of our future goals.

This young team has already developed and tested multiple robots—from cooking noodles, stir-frying, making coffee, to city inspections—and some are already in practical use. During the interview, many clients came specifically to discuss customization needs.

CEO of Hangzhou Xialing Interactive Smart Service Robot Co., Guo Yucheng: Our plan this year is to solve over 300 types of problems, and we aim to reduce robot prices to under 10,000 yuan so that more people can access advanced technology products.

Open Scenarios

Accelerating Embodied Intelligence into Thousands of Homes

Currently, Hangzhou has over 780 core AI companies, with many R&D teams eager to validate their results. To support industry growth and market demand, various departments are building platforms, opening up scenarios, and promoting the rapid integration of embodied intelligence into everyday life.

Recently, Hangzhou’s embodied intelligence pilot base officially opened to the public. It provides one-stop public services to help companies accelerate the transformation of technology into industry applications.

Li Xingteng, Deputy General Manager of Hangzhou Embodied Intelligence Pilot Base Tech Co.: We offer data openness, computing power, scenario validation, and testing services to reduce R&D costs for companies. Our goal is to create the first co-governance community for human-machine collaboration. We will deploy mature embodied intelligence solutions trained here into communities, discovering and solving problems along the way.

The base’s leader told reporters that during the trial phase, nearly 40 embodied intelligence companies, over ten universities, and research institutes are involved, conducting R&D and training. Many companies have also found partners. Recently, a motion capture company and a dexterous hand training company spontaneously formed a technical collaboration, sharing resources.

Zhitong (Hangzhou) Robot Technology Co., General Manager Zhang Haiwei: When they have new product iterations, we can immediately use them. If there’s an issue with yesterday’s data collection, we can re-collect today, enabling rapid iteration for both sides.

Zhejiang Dexterous Intelligent Technology Co., CEO Zhou Chen: We’re connected through the entire process—up and down the supply chain. Our neighboring companies are our partners. We’ve built a joint laboratory, which is a great place for small-scale trial and error. It gathers many companies, helping them make initial judgments. For businesses, this greatly reduces decision-making costs.

Beyond the pilot base, Hangzhou is also speeding up the construction of a humanoid robot testing and application center and an innovation center for embodied intelligent robot manufacturing, fostering collaboration among robot companies, AI firms, and research institutes.

To better match supply and demand, Hangzhou has established an embodied intelligence scenario innovation center, releasing two lists: the “Scenario Opportunity List” with 402 needs from government and enterprises, and the “Scenario Capability List” with 685 new technologies and products. This year, 200 benchmark AI scenarios will be open to promote more embodied intelligence products from labs into homes, bringing cutting-edge technology closer to everyday life.