21-05-2025
Could there be a robot in every home by 2030?
In a suburb of Shanghai, there is a hub for tech companies where they are slowly but surely creating a robot revolution.
We visited what they call the "training centre" of Agibot, where we watched as a team of operators helped put the human into humanoid robots.
Through repetitive tasks, they are generating data which will eventually allow a fleet of robots to be programmed to do everything from making a sandwich to restocking supermarket shelves.
There was also a room where a robot was being guided to make a bed, but unfortunately, it looked like they were not yet close to mastering that mundane task.
It is when you visit companies like Agibot that you get the sense of AI moving from something abstract into the physical realm of our everyday lives.
According to the company's director of testing, Ruan Cheng, the aim is to relieve humans of repetitive, dangerous, and dirty jobs. He believes that by the end of this decade every home, at least in China, will have a robot.
And key to China's rise as a robotics superpower has been its huge manufacturing base, which is switching from traditional machinery and manpower to high-tech automation at breakneck speed.
'We have market capabilities, manufacturing strength, and world-leading AI expertise,' said Ruan. 'We believe the future of robots is in China.'
From the dancing robots featured in the Chinese New Year Gala to robots attempting a half-marathon last month, 2025 has already been a showcase of China's robotic ambitions. UBTECH, one of the country's leading tech firms, recently unveiled what it sees as the factory floor of the future where there is not a human being in sight.
China's ambitions in robotics were laid out as part of a ten year strategy called Made in China 2025. That strategy set out to make the country a global leader in ten different industries, of which robotics was one and it has become one of the hottest technological battlegrounds between China and the United States.
That strategy has been pushed from the very top of China's leadership team. During a recent visit to Shanghai tech hubs, President Xi Jinping urged workers to power China's technological rise, saying the nation's success depends on them.
The continued success of China's AI and robotics industry comes in spite of tech restrictions placed on the country by the US government.
In 2022, the Biden administration effectively banned exports of advanced microchips, and equipment to produce advanced chips by Chinese chipmakers, as part of an effort to stifle China's semiconductor industry and, in turn, the military.
The boss of Nvidia, one of the world's leading chip makers, said on Wednesday that such policies had been a ''failure'' and had only forced Chinese companies to boost investment and develop a supply chain that does not reply on foreign manufacturers, namely the United States.
Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang said the tech restrictions had lost American companies, including his own, billions of dollars.
What China is doing in robotics mirrors the strategy used to dominate electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing — building a new industry from the ground up with heavy investment, strong industrial policy, and global ambition.
The country has become a runaway leader in EV production and has overtaken Japan as the biggest car exporter in the world.
While US President Donald Trump has called for a revival of traditional manufacturing jobs in America, China is instead investing in automated alternatives.
There are hundreds of firms developing AI-powered robotic systems for industries, ranging from healthcare to logistics.
According to Lin Tao from Soft Robot Tech in Beijing, there is one key advantage in China - talent.
Every year, over four million Chinese students graduate with degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
'A large number of engineers majoring in automation and mechanical engineering graduate each year in China,' Lin Tao of Soft Robot Tech told ITV News.
'This provides us with a very rich talent pool and as the technology develops, they are improving their skills, in many different areas to help advance the number of potential uses.'
But while companies like Soft Robot Tech welcome the annual influx of fresh young talent, their products are also being viewed as a solution in a country with an ageing manual workforce.
While automation is being resisted in other parts of the world, where it is seen as a threat to jobs, in China there has been little resistance.
This is partly due to the lack of labour unions and limited space for protest. However, it is also the case that in China there is a more open attitude towards technology.
People here tend to embrace the advancements and accept them as a sign of progress - particularly when they come from Chinese companies.
China and the US may have agreed a ceasefire in their trade war, but when it comes to technology, robotics has become one of the fiercest battlegrounds.
