The AI companion robot sector is heating up.
With breakthroughs in technologies such as emotional computing and multimodal interaction, the AI companion market is experiencing explosive growth. Emotional value is currently a key focus for consumers and serves as the “trademark” of AI companion robots, attracting consumers of all ages and covering scenarios such as children’s education and elderly companionship.
According to Grand View Research, the global smart companion market is expected to reach $28.19 billion (approximately 200 billion RMB) by 2024, with a projected compound annual growth rate of 30.8% from 2025 to 2030.
From the perspective of application scenarios, AI companion robots are currently forming a diversified layout.
Children’s educational companionship is currently the most mature field, with various products emerging for different age groups; elderly companion robots focus on health monitoring, emotional communication, and life assistance functions; emotional companionship and office assistance robots for adults are also beginning to emerge.
This parallel development across multiple scenarios provides differentiated competition opportunities for various listed companies.
Currently, AI companion robots come in various forms, including realistic pets and desktop robots.
Humanoid robots, as one of the potential product forms of AI companion robots in the future, include the world’s first consumer-oriented desktop humanoid figurine robot launched by Lingdong Robotics and the recently released “Carebot” humanoid robot GR-3 by Fourier Intelligence, which is equipped with a full-sensory interaction system. These may become the first to realize new possibilities through more focused application scenarios and technologies.
This article reviews some companies that may achieve breakthroughs in the field of humanoid AI companion robots.
▍UBTECH
Founded in 2012, UBTECH is committed to the mission of “bringing intelligent robots into thousands of households, making human lifestyles more convenient, intelligent, and humane.” UBTECH has developed a full-stack technology for humanoid robots and is engaged in the research, design, intelligent production, and commercialization of intelligent service robot solutions, covering a wide range of enterprise-level and consumer-level application scenarios across multiple industries.
As one of the few companies globally with full-stack technology capabilities for humanoid robots, UBTECH focuses on three main scenarios: industrial manufacturing, commercial services, and home companionship, continuously investing in core technology research and development for humanoid robots. Through partnerships with several automotive companies, UBTECH has been the first to realize the application of humanoid robots, with its industrial humanoid robot Walker S series becoming the most widely used humanoid robot in automotive training worldwide.
For home companionship scenarios, UBTECH has also made corresponding arrangements. Its first “Home Desktop AI Robot,” co-developed with China Telecom Shaanxi Company and Digital Life Company, marks a new stage in the application of humanoid robots in home companionship, opening a new chapter in smart home life. This robot, with its excellent multimodal interaction technology, can provide diverse services in home scenarios, including human-like companionship, dance entertainment, story/encyclopedia interactive Q&A, English speaking practice, family video calls, reading picture books, logical thinking guidance, and home control, creating a “proactive” and “growth-oriented” smart living experience for users.
Additionally, UBTECH has launched a comprehensive smart health and wellness solution aimed at providing high-quality, happy, and healthy lives for the elderly. Leveraging the 5G internet era, UBTECH uses intelligent robots as a carrier and artificial intelligence technology as the core, through the UBTECH Smart Health Cloud platform, to promote coordination between home, community, and institutional elderly care across multiple application scenarios, including institutional operations, life care, safety assurance, memory care, emotional companionship, and medical rehabilitation.
▍Shengshi Technology
Founded in 1997, Shengshi Technology is primarily engaged in research on new-generation information technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and the Internet of Things, dedicated to providing users with intelligent products and “AI + industry” solutions that align with future development, serving the construction of a smart society.
Since its establishment, Shengshi Technology has focused on product research and innovation. The company has been deeply involved in the smart port field for over twenty years, and based on its AI technology accumulation in this area, it has expanded its business to intelligent transportation, smart airports, smart parks, smart city management, and smart firefighting, among other application fields, not only launching intelligent products and forming application cases but also continuously exploring more paths for AI industrialization. Currently, the company has a research team of hundreds in software and hardware development and artificial intelligence algorithms, with R&D personnel accounting for over 50% of the total workforce, and its annual R&D investment accounts for about 10% of its revenue.
In the field of humanoid robot research and development, the company continues to increase its investment in humanoid robots and has made significant progress in core technologies such as gait control and hand-eye coordination. Furthermore, based on the massive scene data and business knowledge accumulated in the port vertical field, the company integrates the core capabilities of humanoid robots with multimodal large model technology, laying a solid foundation for the application of humanoid robots in port scenarios.
In July of this year, Shengshi Technology successfully acquired the core assets of Aldebaran, a well-known company that was one of the earliest to conduct research and commercialization of humanoid robots. The humanoid robots launched by Aldebaran have been widely used in education, research, commercial services, and healthcare. Among them, the Nao humanoid robot, with its advantages of “hardware standardization + software customization” architecture, can meet the lightweight needs of home companionship while also supporting professional application scenarios in schools and research institutions, demonstrating strong adaptability to various scenarios and industry expansion capabilities. This acquisition is expected to significantly accelerate Shengshi Technology’s R&D progress and industrial layout in the field of humanoid robots.
In August, Shengshi Technology announced its plan to use its own funds of 10 million yuan to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary, Shenzhen Feifeite Cultural Innovation Co., Ltd., aimed at combining AI and humanoid robot technology with trendy toy innovation to create AI trendy toy products for intelligent companionship and emotional communication experiences. With its technological advantages and forward-looking layout, Shengshi Technology is expected to stand out in the emerging field of humanoid AI companion robots.
▍Softcom Power
Founded in 2005, Softcom Power is guided by the strategy of “intelligent, autonomous, green, and international,” steadily advancing its three main businesses: software and digital technology services, computing products and intelligent electronics, and digital energy and intelligent computing services. The company fully leverages the advantages of software and hardware collaboration to build full-stack AI product and service capabilities, aiming to become a leading provider of full-stack intelligent products and services in China.
The development of artificial intelligence has brought significant market opportunities, and Softcom Power is seizing this trend to become a leader in AI innovative products and technology services. The company focuses on the forefront of AI, empowering industry intelligence and scenario intelligence, and collaborates with research institutions and industry leaders in computing power, algorithms, frameworks, and scenarios.
Softcom Power considers embodied intelligent robots as one of the strategic cores of intelligent terminals, conducting cutting-edge exploration in the field of humanoid robots, and has established the humanoid robot business headquarters and a subsidiary focused on the design and development of robot series products, Softcom Tianqing Robot Technology Co., Ltd. Through independent research and development and ecological cooperation, Softcom Power has established a full-chain technical capability from core components to complete machines, from operating systems to scenario implementation.
Currently, Softcom Power has launched several humanoid robot products, including the bipedal humanoid robot Tianqing S1 and Tianhe C1. Among them, Tianhe C1, as Softcom’s first interactive and educational bipedal robot, is designed around research education and interactive service scenarios, fully considering the rapid access needs of industry intelligent agents. It is equipped with Softcom’s self-developed Nebula embodied intelligent computing platform, which supports integrated joints, dexterous hands, voice and visual perception peripherals, and open standard API access, providing an atomic action algorithm platform that supports rapid access to cloud-based large models and edge models for intelligent agent applications. With capabilities such as multimodal perception, autonomous learning, planning and decision-making, and emotional interaction, Tianhe C1 can achieve precise perception, spatial reasoning, and actively participate in various tasks in the physical world.
▍Fenda Technology
Founded in 1993, Fenda Technology specializes in the research, design, production, and sales of consumer electronics and their core components, serving as a vertically integrated solution provider in the smart hardware field.
Fenda Technology drives its development through technology, and after more than thirty years of technological refinement and industrial iteration, it has established five core competitive advantages: leading technological barriers, a stable global customer ecosystem, efficient integration capabilities for the entire chain of smart hardware, rapid order delivery capabilities, and advanced quality management and testing capabilities in the industry, relying on four core technological pillars: electroacoustics, wireless, software, and precision manufacturing.
In the context of the deep integration of artificial intelligence and the real economy, Fenda Technology is deeply involved in the current wave of transformation brought about by artificial intelligence and the real economy, actively exploring strategic emerging industries such as new material motors, new energy storage, automotive electronics, and humanoid robots, continuously expanding its business boundaries and building a more competitive industrial landscape.
With the advantages of its intelligent manufacturing platform and product positioning in the broad AI sector, Fenda Technology continues to explore the application possibilities of AI hardware in education, health care, and home services, actively developing new intelligent hardware products related to robotics, some of which have already been commercialized. For example, the first consumer-grade AI chess robot “Yuanluobo,” produced in collaboration with SenseTime, has achieved an innovative coupling of AI visual recognition technology and precision mechanical structure, ranking first in sales for several consecutive years in the smart robot category on mainstream e-commerce platforms. The AI desktop robot developed in collaboration with clients has achieved excellent adaptation of emotional interaction algorithms and hardware carriers, raising over 60 times its funding target on Kickstarter, with related videos garnering millions of views on mainstream overseas social media.
Additionally, Fenda Technology is extending its reach into upstream areas of the robotics industry chain, such as servo motors and bionic dexterous hands. It has signed a technology development contract with Tsinghua University to jointly promote the research and industrial application of key components for humanoid robots. Recently, Fenda Technology signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Tom Cat and Fulei New Materials, where the three parties will leverage their respective advantages in “content + manufacturing + materials” to jointly enter the consumer-grade AI intelligent companion robot field, accelerating their layout in the robotics industry.
▍Fourier Intelligence
Fourier Intelligence was founded in 2015 and continues to explore the integration of cutting-edge technologies and application scenarios. The company started with exoskeleton rehabilitation robots and has always adhered to a “human-centered” approach, dedicated to creating interactive and warm robot products.
After years of technological accumulation, Fourier has gradually built a product system centered on the GRx series humanoid robots, supported by intelligent rehabilitation ports, the Galileo system, and an open-source platform, providing products and services to approximately 2,000 institutions and hospitals in over 40 countries and regions, continuously promoting the application of embodied intelligent technology in real scenarios.
Fourier is actively engaged in building an embodied intelligent ecosystem, creating the Fourier Nexus universal robot ecosystem, and promoting collaborative innovation across industries and scenarios. Currently, Fourier Intelligence has launched several humanoid robot products, including the GR-3, which is Fourier’s newly released humanoid robot equipped with a full-sensory interaction system, set to launch and start delivery in October. This humanoid robot, based on modular design, efficiently integrates various sensing and computing modules, ensuring both aesthetics and practicality while providing a foundation for human-robot interaction in more scenarios. The GR-3’s interaction system employs a “dual-path response mechanism,” integrating hard programming and large model inference engines, capable of triggering “fast thinking” and “slow thinking” modes based on different interaction scenarios, simulating human reflexes and communication logic to generate more natural and context-adapted composite responses. It can be said that the GR-3 is a humanoid robot designed for interactive companionship, centered on friendliness and safety.
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