Huawei Technologies and UBTech Robotics reportedly inked an agreement designed to accelerate adoption of humanoid robots both in domestic and industrial settings.
Both South China Morning Post (SCMP) and Chinese state-owned financial news outlet Securities Times (ST) detailed the pact, which the latter described as a comprehensive cooperation agreement signed in Shenzhen.
ST noted the pair plan to create an “embodied intelligence” innovation centre and undertake R&D around both industrial applications and creation of home service machines. These are expected to take various forms including bipedal and wheeled humanoid robots.
SCMP reported the two ultimately aimed to accelerate the transition of robots from labs to large scale adoption in factories and within households.
The partnership brings together Huawei’s AI and cloud capabilities with robotics-specific expertise from UBTech, which is a specialist in smart service robots and related technologies.
On its website, UBTech claims its self-developed Walker is China’s first commercialised biped life-sized humanoid robot. The company has the ambition to bring “intelligent robots into every family” and make “everyday life more convenient and intelligent”.