China opens new humanoid factory where robots build new robot every 10 minutes

China has just opened a new humanoid robot smart factory that can produce one industrial robot every 10 minutes. And here, the robots are being built by humanoid robots.

Robots are now helping build other robots. And no, this is not some sci-fi horror coming to life. It is happening in China, where Ubetech Robotics has opened a new humanoid robot factory designed to produce robots at a much larger scale. Located in Liuzhou, in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the factory uses robots to handle parts of the manufacturing process and can produce one industrial humanoid robot every 10 minutes.

According to the company, the new factory has an annual production capacity of 10,000 robots. The 14,000-square-metre facility, which stands 13.8 metres high, mainly produces Ubetech’s Walker S and Cruzr series of industrial humanoid robots.

The factory was built by UBTECH and Siemens Digital Industries Software and is run by a digital system that UBTECH calls its “smart brain”. This system, according to the company, helps manage the factory — from deciding what needs to be built and moving parts around to checking the quality of finished robots. Each robot also gets its own serial number, so UBTECH can track it through the entire manufacturing process.

So what jobs do these robots have inside the factory? Ubetch says its Cruzr Y1 and Cruzr S2 robots are used for tasks such as unloading materials, stacking them, loading them and moving them around the production floor. So, in a way, some robots are helping prepare the parts needed to make more robots.

And these humanoid robots are not working alone, either. The factory also uses collaborative robotic arms, unmanned logistics vehicles, power-assist manipulators and rotating worktables during final assembly. This the company says allows the facility to produce different robot models on the same production line, instead of needing completely separate assembly systems. It's all machines smart and not, working together with minimal to no human supervision.

And before any humanoid robot leaves the factory, it has to go through a fairly serious health check. Ubetch says every completed robot made by the humanoids undergoes more than four hours of whole-machine testing. After that, it goes through a 360-degree visual inspection designed to check its appearance from every angle.

The automation continues even after the robots are built. Ubetch says its automated warehouse can store 112 humanoid robots in just 65 square metres. Automated guided vehicles, unmanned forklifts and other logistics machines move robots and components between assembly, testing and storage areas.

Meanwhile the factory establishment comes at a time when China is heavily expanding its robotics industry and moving robots from research labs into real-world manufacturing. According to China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the country produced 98,677 industrial robots in July, up 30.2 per cent year-on-year. In the first seven months of the year, industrial robot output reached 635,056 units, up 28.5 per cent.