(Yicai) Aug. 28 -- More than 70 embodied intelligence training centers have been put into operation across 18 provincial-level regions in China as of the end of June amid the industry's rapid development, according to a new report.

Zhejiang province leads with 14 embodied intelligence training centers, followed by Shandong, Jiangsu, and Guangdong provinces and Beijing, each with eight, according to a report jointly released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, Humanoid Robot Shanghai, and the Embodied Intelligence Testing Laboratory. An additional 46 facilities are under construction or in the planning phase.

The multimodal interactive data required for embodied intelligence, including visual, motion, joint torque, and haptic feedback, has never been systematically recorded before and cannot be directly obtained from the internet, making "the facilities a key pathway for promoting practical training in embodied intelligence at this stage," the report said.

About 86 percent of the centers have facilities for industrial manufacturing scenarios and encompass various sub-scenarios, including automotive, home appliances, batteries, 3C (computers, communications, and consumer) electronics, and semiconductor manufacturing, the report noted. The training content includes operational capabilities in material sorting, handling, assembly, and quality inspection.

"Training demand for logistics warehousing and material handling is the highest, accounting for nearly 40 percent of the disclosed industrial manufacturing training scenarios," according to the report. “This has become an important entry point for training facilities to conduct data collection and capability training in industrial manufacturing scenarios.”

Medical rehabilitation and specialized emergency scenarios are also part of the work conducted at some embodied intelligence training facilities. About 30 percent of centers have dedicated modules for medical rehabilitation training and 25 percent for specialized emergency scenarios.

Establishing the training centers is just the first step, the report said. More importantly, the facilities need to be operational and truly serve as data hubs and practical training platforms for embodied intelligence, supporting scaled development across the entire industry.

China's broad-sense embodied intelligence market, which includes intelligent robotic systems, core components, embodied intelligence software, and system integration, will likely exceed CNY1 trillion (USD148.8 billion) this year, according to an annual white paper on the development of the industry released by AskCI Consulting earlier this month.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev