"Made in Hefei" robots accelerate their entry into domestic and overseas markets

China News Service, Hefei, October 13th. Title: "Made in Hefei" robots accelerate their entry into domestic and overseas markets

China News Service reporter Zhang Qiang

On October 12, over a test field in Hefei, a silver-white flying robot slowly took off and hovered next to a 220-kilovolt high-voltage wire. Its robotic arm relaxed and steadily completed the bolt tightening work. From take-off and deployment to completion of the operation, it takes no more than 5 minutes. In the past, the same job required several workers working together for hours.

“UAVs used to only be able to ‘see’, but we need to make them ‘do’.” said Wang Yaping, general manager of Anhui Hangao Intelligent Control Technology Co., Ltd. This Ph.D. from Beihang University has been deeply involved in the research and development of flying cars. In 2023, he founded a contact flying robot company and later settled the industrial base in Hefei. The live-working flying robot developed by his team has completed demonstration applications in the fields of power grids and wind power, and can replace manual labor in contact operations at high altitudes and in high-risk environments.

Wang Yaping believes that with the continuous increase in application scenarios, flying robots have broad room for future development. "It is expected that our revenue will double this year."

In the workshop of Renjie Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. in Shushan District, Hefei City, a batch of photovoltaic cleaning robots are lining up to roll off the assembly line. They will go to work in photovoltaic power stations in 31 countries and regions including the United States, Spain, and Thailand.

"Our robots withstood strong winds of level 16 in the Middle East and completed waterless cleaning in the Chilean desert." Wang Peipei, the person in charge of the company, said that the company has a dual headquarters structure in Hefei and Dubai, and its products have obtained multiple international certifications. "Robots make clean energy more efficient and make China's intelligent manufacturing visible to the world."

In recent years, Hefei, known as the "dark horse of science and technology innovation", has accelerated the deployment of robots and embodied intelligence industries. It has gathered nearly 200 upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain, forming a complete industrial ecosystem covering the entire chain of "brain - cerebellum - core components - complete machine body - scene application".

Behind the breakthrough of the "Made in Hefei" robot is the independent controllability of core components.

In the exhibition hall of Anhui Zhongke Lingxi Technology Co., Ltd., a humanoid five-fingered dexterous hand is preparing chemical reagents, playing the electronic keyboard, and even playing rock-paper-scissors with tourists. "In the past, manipulators could only grasp fixed-shaped objects, but now they can be as flexible as human hands." Hu Hu, deputy general manager of the company, said that this "hand-to-brain" full-stack autonomous and controllable dexterous hand has shipped more than 1,000 sets, covering more than 10 industrial fields.

Technology is tempered in real scenes. Entering a factory to "tighten screws", working as a teacher in a school, opening a shop as a boss... Currently, Hefei has released a list of more than 100 scenario opportunities for robot application in industrial manufacturing, special operations, people's livelihood services and other fields.

In Hefei, the humanoid clerks of the Zero-Power Robot Shop are already on duty; the wheeled two-arm robot is responsible for deep-frame disordered grabbing - the robot is no longer an exhibit on the booth, but a real "laborer".

Xu Yaping, a professor at the School of Economics at Anhui University, said that many places in China are currently intensively deploying embodied intelligence industries, forming a differentiated development boom. Relying on the scientific research foundation of universities such as the University of Science and Technology of China, the local manufacturing foundation and open application scenarios, Hefei has built a complete development logic from scientific research foundation building to scenario feedback. (over)