2025 Int'l Humanoid Robot Skills Competition to open in Shanghai

More than 60 teams will participate in the 2025 International Humanoid Robot Skills Competition to be held in Shanghai on Thursday, contesting on 28 scenarios such as lifting boxes, garbage disposal, loading and unloading chained boxes, retrieving items from refrigerators and product scanning, the competition organizer said during a press briefing on Wednesday.

Winning teams for the Thursday event will be eligible for the competition to be held during this year's World Artificial Intelligence Conference, which is scheduled from July 26 to 28.

Zhong Junhao, secretary-general for Shanghai AI Industry Association, said during the press briefing that economic profits and application in multiple scenarios are the major focuses of developing the robot industry in Shanghai.

"In other words, robots should hopefully do more jobs, whether it is household chores or jobs in factories," he said.

Embodied intelligence should realize the coordination of software and hardware, while robots should also serve the complementary and coordinate functions for human beings. Robots should not be confined to set programs. They should be able to understand instructions made in natural language while prepared with a certain level of reasoning ability, said Zhong.

"As long as robots can understand human beings' language, they can play a bigger role in businesses, industries and families, especially in terms of smart manufacturing, logistics and domestic services," he said.

While humanoid robots are the ultimate goal, there should not be excessive stress on the human shape now as the industry is still at the development stage, said Zhong. Therefore, transition plans can be considered. Wheels can be integrated to facilitate the movement of robots. When the sensor system is not yet perfect, there should be an intermediary solution so that the dexterous robot hand can safely reach the object, he added.