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Source: People's Republic of China in Russian – People's Republic of China in Russian –
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Source: People's Republic of China – State Council News
BEIJING, March 23 (Xinhua) — Last year marked China's first year of mass production of humanoid robots, with over 140 domestic manufacturers unveiling over 330 different models. However, behind the optimism lies a harsh reality: a lack of data remains the main obstacle to the mass commercialization of such robotics.
To address this shortage, China is actively building a comprehensive national network of multimodal data collection centers, which is becoming an important part of the country's strategy to move from "robot manufacturing" to "robotic intelligence."
A prime example of such infrastructure is the multifunctional center for collecting and testing multimodal data for humanoid robots in Zigong, Sichuan Province, southwest China. The 6,000-square-meter facility officially opened on January 8 of this year and is scheduled to reach full capacity in March. The center is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment, including torque sensors in the robots' joints, high-precision RGB-D vision systems, and lidars, enabling data collection with maximum precision at all stages of task execution.
At full capacity, the center will generate 15,000 data records per day and up to 3 million high-quality records per year. The collected data is used to train robots in real-world industrial scenarios: sorting cargo, grasping objects, moving and precisely placing objects—the basic operations for integrating robots into factories, warehouses, logistics centers, and more.
The development of data collection centers is supported at the highest government level. China has already introduced its first national standards system, covering the entire production chain and lifecycle of humanoid robots and embodied artificial intelligence. These standards unify technical specifications, evaluation criteria, and interaction protocols, eliminating fragmentation in the rapidly developing industry.
Thanks to government support, similar infrastructure projects are rapidly emerging across the country. In addition to Zigong, embodied AI data collection centers or large robot training facilities have been established in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou (Guangdong Province), Liuzhou (Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region), Jiujiang (Jiangxi Province), Wuxi (Jiangsu Province), Wuhan (Hubei Province), Shaoxing (Zhejiang Province), and Zhengzhou (Henan Province).
Major corporate projects in this area include the Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com, which aims to build the world's largest embodied intelligence data center based on its super supply chain and real-world scenarios in retail, logistics, healthcare, manufacturing, delivery, and home services. The company plans to accumulate over 10 million hours of real-world video data of human activity within two years, while simultaneously collecting 1 million hours of data on robots. All data collection is carried out in strict compliance with the law.
The global humanoid robot industry faces a common challenge: a lack of data for training robots in real-world conditions. As industry experts note, unlike autonomous driving, which relies on billions of kilometers of test data, operational datasets for humanoid robots in complex environments are extremely scarce. Collecting data in complex industrial environments is extremely expensive and time-consuming. A single data collection session can cost over 1,000 yuan (approximately $145), and training a robot to sort even batteries requires tens of thousands of grasping operations.
Chinese centers are using a combined approach: remote human control via VR devices, combined with autonomous data collection. This enables the creation of comprehensive multimodal datasets for training AI models, accelerating algorithm optimization, and enhancing robot resilience to challenging situations.
As of the end of February this year, a total of 1,138 robotics-related enterprises were registered in Sichuan Province. The launch of the Zigong Center creates a solid foundation for Sichuan to achieve breakthroughs in AI and provides a successful experience that can be replicated by other Chinese regions and international partners.
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