Recently, according to the information of the Trademark Office of the State Intellectual Property Office, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. submitted an application for the registration of the trademark "MATEROBOT" on February 13.
In terms of the scope of goods and services covered by this application, Huawei's layout is very forward-looking and diversified. These include remote on-site robots, which can play a key role in remote operation scenarios, such as hazardous environment operations and telemedical assistance. The chatbot software for simulated dialogue reflects Huawei's deep experience in the field of artificial intelligence interaction, and is expected to provide humanoid robots with more intelligent and natural dialogue capabilities. The user-programmable unconfigured humanoid robot gives developers full freedom to customize according to different application scenarios and needs. It is worth mentioning that smartphones are also among them, which is not a simple list of categories, but hints that HUAWEI may build an ecosystem that uses smartphones as control terminals and deeply collaborates with "MATEROBOT" robots, allowing users to easily control robots and achieve richer functional experiences. In addition, anthropomorphic robots, security monitoring robots, teaching robots, laboratory robots, etc., which have communication and learning functions, cover many important fields such as family, security, education, and scientific research in an all-round way.
Looking back on the past, we can find that Huawei's exploration in the field of robotics has already been foreshadowed and gradually deepened. At the HUAWEI Developer Conference held in June 2024, HUAWEI CLOUD released Pangu Model 5.0 and Pangu Embodied Intelligent Model. The Pangu embodied intelligent model can be called the "smart brain" of humanoid robots, giving the robot powerful task planning capabilities, enabling it to achieve generalization and multi-tasking in complex and changeable scenarios. At that time, the "KUAVO" humanoid robot equipped with this model of Leju Company displayed at the conference attracted a lot of attention with its outstanding performance, which fully verified Huawei's technical strength and innovation achievements in the field of humanoid robots.
Pictured: KUAVO, who is equipped with a large model of Pangu, stir-frying in the kitchen (Source: IT House).
At present, the humanoid robot market is showing explosive growth. According to the report data of Fortune Business Insights, the global humanoid robot market size was valued at USD 2.43 billion in 2023, while this figure is expected to soar to USD 66 billion by 2032, registering a CAGR of 45.5% during the forecast period. Behind this rapid growth are multiple drivers. On the one hand, the rapid development of technology, such as the optimization of artificial intelligence algorithms, the improvement of sensor performance, and the progress of material science, has provided solid technical support for the development of humanoid robots, so that their performance has been continuously improved and their functions have become increasingly rich. On the other hand, the gradual reduction of hardware costs has allowed humanoid robots to gradually move from the once unattainable laboratory products to a broader market and enter more enterprises and families; In addition, the problem of labor shortage in developed countries is becoming increasingly severe, and humanoid robots, as an effective supplement to labor, have shown great application potential in industrial manufacturing, logistics and distribution, elderly care and other fields, and the market demand continues to rise.
Not only that, Goldman Sachs' forecast also pointed out the direction for the development of the industry. Goldman Sachs predicts that humanoid robots will be the first to be applied on a large scale in factory scenarios between 2024 and 2027, helping companies improve production efficiency and reduce labor costs with their precision, efficiency, and tireless characteristics. Subsequently, between 2028 and 2031, humanoid robots will gradually penetrate the consumer market, bringing more convenience and surprises to people's daily lives, such as family services, child companionship, intelligent security and other fields will become a stage for them to display their skills. This series of predictions shows that humanoid robots contain unlimited development opportunities and broad application prospects in both industrial and consumer fields.
Huawei's deep experience in the communications field, especially its leading position in 5G and 5G-A technologies, can provide low-latency, high-bandwidth, and high-reliability communication for humanoid robots, enabling real-time and stable data transmission between robots, the cloud, and terminal devices, making remote control and intelligent interaction smoother and more efficient. At the same time, artificial intelligence technologies such as HUAWEI CLOUD's Pangu model empowers robots with powerful cognition, learning, and decision-making capabilities, enabling them to better understand human instructions, adapt to complex environments, and complete diverse tasks.
Huawei applied for the registration of the "MATEROBOT" trademark and plans to launch humanoid robot products, demonstrating its strategic layout and technical strength in the field of embodied intelligence. This will not only help Huawei expand its business footprint in the field of artificial intelligence and robotics, but may also have a profound impact on the development of the entire industry. As more and more companies enter this field, the competition in the humanoid robot market will become more and more fierce, and technological innovation and product differentiation will become the key to success.
