Author: Li Qiang
Recently, led by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, in collaboration with the Shanghai Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, the Zhejiang Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, and mainstream enterprises and research institutions such as UBTECH, Yushu Technology, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, and the China Federation of Industrial Economics, the world’s first group standard for “Intelligent Grading of Humanoid Robots” (T/CIE 298-2025) was established and officially released by the China Electronics Society. The new group standard introduces a “Four-Dimensional Five-Level” evaluation framework, constructing a five-level intelligent capability grading system from L1 to L5.
Currently, the development of humanoid robots in China is gradually shifting from a “function-oriented” approach to “intelligent evolution.” The enhancement of intelligent capabilities in humanoid robots can significantly improve their application potential in complex tasks, diverse scenarios, and real-time changing environments. With the continuous emergence of humanoid robot products, the industry lacks corresponding intelligent evaluation standards, leading to pressing issues in technology, product design, and application that need to be addressed.
In fact, as early as 2023, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the “Guiding Opinions on the Innovative Development of Humanoid Robots” (hereinafter referred to as the “Opinions”). The Opinions called for the development of a standardized roadmap for humanoid robots, comprehensively sorting out the standardization needs of the industry chain. It emphasized the establishment and improvement of a standard system for the humanoid robot industry, promoting the formulation of standards in a graded and classified manner. In September of last year, the Ministry also announced the plan for the establishment of a standardization technical committee for humanoid robots, requiring a focus on the development and revision of industry standards related to basic commonalities, safety, complete machines and key technologies, components, and applications.
In February of this year, the China Electronics Society publicly solicited opinions on the group standard for “Technical Requirements for Intelligent Grading of Humanoid Robots.” The release of the new group standard will provide foundational support for the intelligent technology, product development, testing, management, and application scenarios of humanoid robots, effectively unifying the technical language and evaluation system in the humanoid robot market.
According to reports, the new group standard innovatively constructs a “Four-Dimensional Five-Level” evaluation framework by referencing the grading logic of autonomous driving and industrial robots while addressing the uniqueness of humanoid robots. It includes four core capability dimensions: “Perception and Cognition (P), Decision Making and Learning (D), Execution Performance (E), and Collaboration and Interaction (C).” This forms the L1-L5 five-level intelligent capability grading system.
According to the new group standard, the intelligent capability level of humanoid robots increases progressively from L1 to L5. The standard also provides 22 first-level indicators, over 100 technical clauses, a general safety baseline, and typical application scenario mappings, which can serve as intuitive references for enterprises in product design, performance benchmarking, and capability declarations.
Experts believe that the release of the “Intelligent Grading of Humanoid Robots” standard is an important achievement in the collaborative innovation of the humanoid robot industry. “Just as the grading of autonomous driving in smart cars provides the industry with a scientific and unified technical language and evaluation tools, the transparency of technology, controllability of risks, and collaboration within the industry will not only help standardize market order and accurately guide the direction of technological research and development but will also accelerate the application of humanoid robots across various fields, breaking down barriers between technology and scenarios, and promoting the healthy and high-quality development of the entire industrial ecosystem.”
In the future, with the implementation of the grading standards, humanoid robots are expected to break through “demonstrative intelligence” and move towards true “general intelligence,” achieving large-scale applications in various fields such as special operations, logistics handling, industrial manufacturing, education and research, commercial services, and health care, thereby accelerating the empowerment of humanoid robots across industries and into households.