Embodied AI training facility drives intelligent robot development in Hefei

A data collector trains a robot inside the Yangtze River Delta digital technology demonstration park in Yaohai district, Hefei, east China's Anhui Province. (People's Daily Online/Miao Zijian)

Inside the Yangtze River Delta Digital Technology Demonstration Park in Yaohai district, Hefei, east China's Anhui Province, there is no clatter of factory machinery. Instead, young data collectors are training robots by teaching them new skills.

The site is Hefei's training venue for the embodied AI robots data collection, which forms the core of the city's public service platform for intelligent robots. Embodied AI is one of the six future industries the city has prioritized. Hefei has brought together 190 enterprises across the EAI robot industry chain.

Covering over 6,000 square meters, the training venue is divided into nearly 30 simulated scenarios, including retail, household and kitchen settings, as well as industrial manufacturing and logistics.

In one area, a robot repeatedly grips and releases beverage bottles on a mock supermarket shelf; nearby, others practice cooking, washing dishes, making beds, or fastening bolts on a car chassis.

A robot practices sorting delivery packages inside the Yangtze River Delta digital technology demonstration park in Yaohai district, Hefei, east China's Anhui Province. (People's Daily Online/Miao Zijian)

"Robots need repeated practice to recognize and grasp items like pens, cups and storage boxes," said Du Wenhe, technical director at Hefei Embodied Data Operation and Management Co., Ltd. He explained that the site records visual data, command text and wrist movement data to build standardized datasets.

Currently, 79 robots from several companies are training at the training venue, guided by more than 80 data collectors.

Built around the Hefei branch of the International Advanced Technology Application Promotion Center, the platform integrates component manufacturing, training across a range of scenarios, product testing, competitions and AI, enabling companies to produce, train and test robots all within the park.

Robots trained at the training venue have already entered supermarkets, auto plants and delivery warehouses to carry out a variety of tasks.

A robot learns to arrange items on a shelf inside the Yangtze River Delta digital technology demonstration park in Yaohai district, Hefei, east China's Anhui Province. (People's Daily Online/Miao Zijian)

On July 18, a multimodal robotic-grasping dataset compiled by Hefei Embodied Data Operation and Management Co., Ltd. completed intellectual property registration at the Anhui Data Exchange — the first registered intellectual property for a multimodal robotic-grasping dataset designed for embodied intelligent robots in Anhui Province. The company is capable of generating 2 million compliant data entries annually.

A robot learns to "cook" inside the Yangtze River Delta digital technology demonstration park in Yaohai district, Hefei, east China's Anhui Province. (People's Daily Online/Miao Zijian)