Xiaomi says humanoid robots to be deployed across its factories within five years

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun said the company expects large-scale deployment of humanoid robots in its factories within the next five years, as the electronics maker accelerates efforts to upgrade manufacturing with artificial intelligence. In a recent interview, Lei cited Xiaomi’s automobile plant as an example, noting that inspection of large die-cast components can be completed in two seconds using an X-ray machine paired with an AI vision model — ten times faster and more than five times more precise than manual checks. Lei said humanoid robots will play a key role in boosting automation and intelligence across production lines. Xiaomi also plans to extend such robots into household settings in the future, which he said could open a new trillion-yuan market. [Icsmart, in Chinese]