Beijing Targets 200,000 Robots a Year Under 2028 Plan

BEIJING -- Beijing intends to build up its annual production capacity of 200,000 robots by 2028 as part of an industrial development action plan that includes production targets for humanoid robots, AI training data, and robot performance.

The plan was released by Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology Nov. 11 and includes various initiatives that will help the city in developing its embodied AI and robotics industry until the end of 2028.

As per the target set out, at least five internationally competitive humanoid robot manufacturers and 10 leading domestic manufacturers will be developed by the deadline. As many as 25 percent of China’s robot production capacity will come from the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region while more than 60 percent of its critical components will come from this region.

The number of 200,000 units relates to annual production capacity and does not reflect production, orders or deliveries.

Robot Performance Targets

The document also outlines technical objectives that aim to render the robots suitable for commercial application on an ongoing basis.

Specifically, by 2028 the city aims to have robots able to carry loads exceeding 40 percent of their weight capacity, operate for more than 2,000 hours on average before failing, and run for more than four hours using battery power alone.

Other objectives include a lifespan above five years and annual failure rate of less than 10 percent for motion actuators and end-effectors.

The government also plans to create three to five modular robot platform designs suitable for widespread applications.

More Physical AI Data

Beijing is planning to create the national-scale embodied AI data infrastructure, gathering more than 1 million hours of high-quality training data from no less than 100 actual environments by 2028.

The program will include support for first-person video data collection, simulation-generated data, as well as human motion to robot action conversion methods.

In addition, the authorities are planning to boost computing power of the embodied AI-specific data center and build evaluation centers for actual operation testings of the robot models.

For business purposes, the program will include at least 20 benchmark use cases in industry sector, additional 20 use cases in services sector, and 10 cases for special operations. There is also proposed robot identification and tracking system for all robots along the entire life cycle.

This city level policy follows other initiatives made in China. As was reported by ROBOT24.com earlier, the central government has already promoted the use of robots in retail and logistic activities, and there are six voluntary national standards for humanoid robots set for April 1, 2027.

Beijing claims to implement the program with dedicated policies, government-led investment funds, and collaborations with robot makers and research organizations. No budget estimate