On November 23, according to the Chengdu Municipal Science and Technology Bureau, the Chengdu Humanoid Robot Innovation Center achieved a breakthrough in technological innovation, and recently launched the first high-speed inference model R-DDIRM (Denoising) for humanoid robots based on diffusion architecture in the country Diffusion Implicit Robot Model）。
This is the following launch of China's first humanoid robot task generative model based on diffusion architecture, R-DDPRM (Denoising), in May this year Diffusion Probability Robot Model), the center has made a further breakthrough in the field of diffusion architecture.
Since the fourth quarter, the concept of humanoid robots has continued to be popular in the capital market, and some companies have been investigated by institutions, and large-scale financing in the industry has appeared frequently. A number of listed companies such as EFORT-U, Zhaowei Electromechanical, Shuanglin Co., Ltd., and Changan Automobile have disclosed their progress or plans in the humanoid robot business. On the whole, listed companies have achieved phased results, and most of the corresponding parts are in the stage of developing samples and customer verification.
|Spoiler product progress of listed companies
Shuanglin Co., Ltd. entered the field of humanoid robot roller screw
On November 22, Shuanglin Co., Ltd. announced that it would enter the field of planetary roller screws for humanoid robots to create new performance growth points. With the rapid development of the humanoid robot industry, roller screw products have ushered in huge opportunities. At present, Shuanglin Co., Ltd. has developed roller screw samples, which are in the customer verification stage. The company said that it will actively enhance the core competitiveness of roller screw products and strive to enter the supply chain system of first-line customers at home and abroad.
Zhaowei Electromechanical focuses on robot dexterous hand products
On November 21, Zhaowei Electromechanical said in the research minutes that the company has long been optimistic about the future of the robot industry and has established it as one of the important business directions. The company has set up a technical and sales team covering structure, transmission, motor, electronic control and other fields, focusing on the research and development of robot-related products. At present, Zhaowei Electromechanical has achieved phased results, relying on the advantages of precision reducer, high-performance motor and electronic control system, successfully developed and launched bionic robot dexterous hand products.
EFORT-U advances the development of humanoid robots
On the same day, EFORT-U revealed in the research minutes that the company's humanoid robot prototype is still under development and is expected to be released in the first half of 2025. The company's dexterous hand project is testing the relevant components. In the first half of 2024, EFORT-U, the National Advanced Manufacturing Industry Investment Fund and the Wuhu Science and Technology Innovation Fund jointly funded the establishment of Qizhi (Wuhu) Intelligent Robot Co., Ltd. Qizhi Robotics is committed to the intelligence and openness of robot systems, and its research and development includes the development of autonomous humanoid robots, dexterous hand projects, IDE projects, EBOX projects, etc.
Changan Automobile lays out humanoid robots
On November 15, Changan Automobile announced that it will share the latest intelligent achievements and plans at the 2024 Guangzhou International Automobile Exhibition, including Changan Intelligent Driving, Tianshu Large Model, Flying Car and Humanoid Robot and other technical layouts. The company plans to invest more than 50 billion yuan in the next five years to lay out the three-dimensional transportation solutions and humanoid robots of land, sea and air. In the field of robotics, Changan Automobile will carry out the industrial layout of humanoid robots and automotive ecological robots, and is expected to release humanoid robot products by 2027 to accelerate the transformation into an intelligent low-carbon travel technology company.
Although the humanoid robot industry is still in the exploratory period, a number of listed companies have clarified their follow-up research and development plans. Zhaowei Electromechanical said that the company will continue to focus on dexterous hand products and their key components, strengthen R&D investment in key technologies and platform products, and promote product iteration and upgrading. The company will also strengthen cooperation with scientific research institutions and outstanding enterprises in the fields of sensing, algorithms, artificial intelligence, etc., and unite upstream and downstream resources to expand the application scenarios of robots in intelligent manufacturing.
The important nodes of the industry continue to advance
Judging from the financing situation in the primary market, humanoid robot ontology enterprises are still the darlings of capital. Recently, Galaxy General announced the completion of a strategic round of financing of 500 million yuan, plus an angel round of financing of 700 million yuan in June this year, the company's cumulative financing has reached 1.2 billion yuan during the year, setting a financing record for the track.
In addition to Galaxy General, since the beginning of this year, a number of humanoid robot ontology manufacturers such as Unitree Technology, Xingdong Era, Accelerated Evolution, Progressive Power, and Dome Intelligence have also completed a new round of financing. According to IT orange data, as of November 20, there have been 49 investment and financing cases in the field of humanoid robots this year, far exceeding the 32 cases last year.
At the same time, the construction of ecological alliances around the humanoid robot industry is also accelerating. Recently, Huawei (Shenzhen) Global Embodied Intelligence Industry Innovation Center was officially put into operation and signed a memorandum of cooperation with 16 companies, including Zhaowei Electromechanical, Topstar, Zhongjian Technology, EFORT-U, and Zhejiang HCFA Humanoid Robot Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of HCFA Technology. The Innovation Center was jointly established by Huawei and the Shenzhen Qianhai Cooperation Zone Administration, aiming to build a world-class embodied intelligent industry innovation center by targeting international cutting-edge technologies and driving industrial demonstration application scenarios.
The investment and financing of the humanoid robot track continues to be hot
On November 18, Beijing Galaxy General Robot Co., Ltd., a humanoid robot start-up, announced the completion of a strategic round of financing of 500 million yuan. Investors in this round include Hengxu Capital, Hong Kong investment company HKIC, Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Industry Fund, Beijing Robot Industry Fund, Shenzhen Capital Group, CCB International, Zhiyou Scientist Fund, Rongyi Investment, Jinjing Capital, etc. At the same time, the old shareholders IDG, Jingwei, Lanchi, Beijing Artificial Intelligence Industry Fund, etc. have also made additional investments.
Previously, the embodied intelligence company Xingdong Era announced on October 16 that it had completed a Pre-A round of financing of nearly 300 million yuan, co-led by Crystal Stream Capital, Yuanjing Capital, and Alibaba, and other investors include Ceyuan Capital, Lenovo Venture Capital, Century Jinyuan, etc. The financing will be used mainly to accelerate the native and breakthrough research and development of embodied intelligence technology, as well as the commercialization of general-purpose humanoid robots.
The field of humanoid robots is warmly sought after by capital, and the market is generally optimistic about the ability to achieve highly intelligent human-machine multi-round interaction by stacking artificial intelligence (AI) computing power, and apply it to embodied intelligence. With the improvement of the generality and generalization of robots, the speed of commercial landing will also be greatly accelerated. This trend not only promotes the rapid development of technology, but also brings more business opportunities and application scenarios to the industry.
