An unusual educational platform has started operating in Beijing, where the students are not people, but humanoid robots. The new Beijing Humanoid Robot Training Center, launched in the second phase of the project, is designed to prepare machines for real-world use, from factory lines to residential apartments and public spaces. This is reported by People’s Daily.

Factory and apartment under one roof

The center is located in the Shijingshan district and occupies two floors. The space is organized to replicate the everyday environment as closely as possible. There are simulations of production lines, warehouses, kitchens, bedrooms and smart home areas.

Robots learn to sort rolls of materials, collect and pack parcels, cook simple meals, put things away and clean up the room. All these actions are divided into separate training modules, which are called “cells” in the center. Their design is modular, so scenarios can be quickly rebuilt to suit new tasks.

Who is studying at school

The centerpiece of the learning process was a robot named Kuafu, a 165-centimeter-tall robot developed by Leju Robotics from Shenzhen. His name refers to the hero of Chinese mythology who tried to catch up with the Sun. The developers call this model the world’s first humanoid robot adapted to 5G-A communication standards.

According to the head of the center, Zhu Kai, two instructors are assigned to each robot.

“Just as children need repeated practice to learn to walk, robots need thousands of repetitions in different environments to develop functional intelligence,” he explains.

Practice instead of theory

One of the main goals of the center is to eliminate the shortage of high-quality data, which today hinders the development of humanoid robots. Modern artificial intelligence algorithms do not generalize skills well without a large array of real-world examples.

At the center, the learning process is arranged as practically as possible. One instructor can remotely control the robot, showing it the necessary actions, and the second one records the operating parameters, errors and successful attempts. The roles are then reversed to avoid data drift.

It is expected that several million pieces of standardized data will be collected here each year. The center has already been integrated into a network of similar sites in Suzhou, Jinan, Hefei and Zhengzhou.

What do robots learn?

The training programs are divided into four major areas. These are industrial production, smart home systems, care for the elderly and scenarios related to the introduction of 5G networks. Within these areas, 16 narrower disciplines have been identified.

So far, the robots have mastered than 20 practical skills, including cargo carrying, inspection, delivery and basic household operations. Task accuracy in training scenarios is reported to be greater than 95%.

Instructor Shi Xuanyu notes that progress requires patience.

“It may take about 1,250 repetitions for the robot to confidently place the pan on the stove,” he says.

In total, the center employs about 110 employees, most of whom are young professionals, under 30 years old.

From the classroom to the real world

Some school graduates have already left the training grounds. Some humanoids are employed at the factories of the automobile corporation China FAW Group, others work as couriers in the structures of Shenzhen Capital Group or participate in the inspection of power grids of the China Southern Power Grid company.

The project’s creators believe that such centers will become a key element in the transition of humanoid robots from spectacular demonstrations to everyday and economically useful work.