Anhui's Hefei&Wuhu as Robot Industry Trailblazers

On December 6, during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Anhui Province Intelligent Robot Industry Development Conference and (Wuhu) Production and Demand Matching Session, the "Anhui Province Humanoid Robot Industry Development Action Plan (2024-2027)" drafted by the Anhui Province Department of Industry and Informatization was officially released. The action plan clearly states the goal of establishing Hefei and Wuhu as two industrial leading areas.

According to the objectives and tasks, by 2027, Anhui Province will build a "23456" innovation system and industrial ecology for the humanoid robot industry, creating a development highland for the humanoid robot industry with significant influence in China. This includes the establishment of two industrial leading areas in Hefei and Wuhu; the construction of three major platforms: a provincial-level humanoid robot innovation platform, a pilot verification platform, and an incubation platform for attracting investment; and the creation of no less than four types of domestically representative humanoid robot models. At the same time, efforts will be made to develop advantageous component parts such as controllers, high-power-density, high-performance servo drivers and servo motors, integrated joints, lightweight and dexterous hands, and electronic skin; and to launch multi-type humanoid robot products for six major field scenarios including manufacturing, emergency response, commerce and trade logistics, medical health, family services, and cultural tourism services.

Targeting new fields and tracks in the humanoid robot industry, Wuhu is accelerating its layout — at this conference, the plan for the Wuhu Humanoid Robot and Intelligent Robot Leading Area was also officially released to the public.

Wuhu has a solid industrial foundation for the development of the humanoid robot industry. It is introduced that, with Jiujiang at its core, Wuhu's comprehensive strength in the robot industry ranks seventh nationwide, approved as one of the first batch of national-level robot industry development cluster pilot projects, the first batch of major emerging industrial bases in Anhui Province, and the first batch of future industry leading areas in Anhui Province. The city has now gathered 220 upstream and downstream enterprises, achieving an output value of approximately 300 billion yuan in the first 10 months of this year, with the annual shipment of six-joint robots led by Efort reaching 20,000 units.

In terms of humanoid robots, Wuhu has been approved as a future industry leading area for humanoid robots and intelligent robots in Anhui Province. Qizhi Robot Company, in collaboration with Tsinghua University and the University of Science and Technology of China, is jointly tackling the general technology base project for intelligent robots, with the humanoid robot prototype expected to be released later this year.

According to the leading area plan, the city will focus on breakthroughs in key common technologies for the humanoid robot and intelligent robot industry, such as the "smart brain", "agile cerebellum", "strong limbs", and "intelligent senses". By promoting the deep integration of innovation chains, industrial chains, capital chains, and talent chains, the leading area aims to become the birthplace of cutting-edge technologies, the innovation ground for common technologies, a gathering place for high-level talents, a bearer of technology transformation, a demonstration area for scenario applications, a new highland for enterprise cultivation, and an industrial development cluster in China's humanoid robot and intelligent robot industry field.

To achieve these goals, Wuhu will carry out ten major actions, including future technology breakthroughs, technological innovation strategy sources, leading enterprise cultivation, major project implementation, important platform construction, high-end talent gathering, application scenario creation, industrial cluster development, planning and construction of the bearing area, and institutional innovation. These actions aim to build the humanoid robot and intelligent robot industry into a new engine for the city's economic growth.