The Chinese University of Hong Kong has opened the city’s first full-stack interactive robotics lab, partnering with 24 tech firms, mainly from mainland China, to train talent and develop humanoid robots over the next five years.

The Hong Kong Embodied AI Lab, established by CUHK’s Hong Kong Centre for Logistics Robotics under the government’s InnoHK initiative, has already introduced upgraded versions of the city’s first locally developed artificial intelligence (AI)-powered robotic arms and a quadruped robot, with improved stability.

The partnerships, announced Monday, primarily involve mainland firms, including Shanghai-based AGIBOT and Hangzhou-based Deep Robotics and Yushu Technology. Six partners are Hong Kong-based, including Lenovo’s Capital and Incubator Group, and one – VinMotion – is from Vietnam.

Professor Li Zhongyu, the lab’s co-director, said embodied AI marked a shift from traditional AI, which only processes information, as it can “perceive its surroundings, act and interact with the environment”.

He said the partners would provide funding and low-cost robotic hardware to support the lab’s research and its long-term humanoid design goals.

“Hong Kong’s advantage lies in its access to international talent pools, the low-cost mainland supply chain and worldwide large language models,” he said. “Currently, enterprises are producing robotics for industrial automation. The lab can provide innovation for the humanoid development.”