China Debuts First Humanoid Robot “Swarm” in Car Factory
China Debuts First Humanoid Robot “Swarm” in Car Factory
China's UBTech has recently achieved a major milestone: deploying a coordinated fleet of its Walker S1 humanoid robots at Zeekr’s 5G-enabled smart factory in Ningbo, Zhejiang province. This marks the world’s first multi-task, multi-scenario training of humanoid robots collaboratively performing real industrial workflows.
Swarm Intelligence in Action
UBTech’s BrainNet system links a central AI “super-brain” with distributed “mini-brains” embedded in each Walker S1. The super-brain handles high-level planning using DeepSeek-R1’s reasoning model, while the mini-brains execute vision-based perception, trajectory planning, and adaptive grip on the ground.
Tasks on the Factory Floor
The robots take on a variety of critical factory tasks, including:
Sorting and logistics, feeding and unloading components
Precision assembly of delicate car parts
Quality inspection, using VSLAM (visual SLAM) and reinforcement learning
Collaborative load handling, dynamically balancing force and position
Scaling Up: From Pilot to Production
UBTech plans to mass-produce between 500–1,000 Walker S units this year, with initial deployments already active not only at Zeekr but also with partners including BYD, Foxconn, Midea, Dongfeng, and SF Express.
The Chinese government is backing advanced “embodied AI” heavily, allocating over $20 billion and aiming for global dominance in humanoid robotics by 2027.
Cost, Capability & Competition
With China’s deep manufacturing supply chains and government subsidies, humanoid production costs are projected at around $12,000 per unit—significantly cheaper than Western counterparts. The broad real-world deployment data is fueling rapid improvements: “a problem can be solved in a month in the lab, but it may only take days in a real environment”.
Still, hurdles remain: performance consistency, integration with legacy systems, and workforce displacement are key challenges. Chinese officials are exploring unemployment-insurance schemes to ease labor transitions .
Why It Matters
Industrial humanoids are crossing the threshold from niche prototypes to scalable deployments in manufacturing.
Swarm robotics introduces a new automation paradigm with collaborative bipedal agents.
China’s leadership in this space hints at the future of global industrial labor and the evolving relationship between humans and robots.
