WEARING a VR headset and a motion capture suit, 23-year-old Chen Wenhai raises his arm while a humanoid robot of similar height beside him mirrors the movement in sync.
Chen gently closes his hand, and the robot’s five fingers curl inward. Moments later, the robot grinds coffee beans, lifts a cup and pours hot water, replicating Chen’s every movement with precision.
Soon, a steaming cup of Americano is ready. Scenes like this play out daily at the Hubei Humanoid Robot Innovation Centre, where Chen works as a robot trainer, a new profession born from efforts to integrate humanoid robots into everyday life and work.
The innovation centre, one of China’s largest humanoid robot training platforms, hosts more than 20 simulated settings, including hospitals, supermarkets, kitchens and offices. There, human trainers work one-on-one with robots, repeatedly practising tasks such as grasping, walking and delivery. Of his eight-hour workday, only about three and half hours yield usable training data, with the rest spent correcting movements and repeating trials.
Even simple motions often require hundreds or thousands of repetitions. Zhou Mengkun, an engineer at Hubei Optics Valley Dongzhi Embodied Intelligence Technology, the company where Chen works, said robot trainers play a key role in bridging technology and real-world applications. — Xinhua
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