NetEase to develop robots with China's construction conglomerate - PingWest

NetEase to develop robots with China's construction conglomerate

NetEase to develop robots with China's construction conglomerate

10 hours ago

NetEase and China Construction Eighth Engineering Division(CCEED) have signed a strategic cooperation agreement, which will see the two firms use their R&D capabilities and industrial planning to promote the commercialization of digital and intelligent construction machinery, including excavation robots, loading robots, road rolling robots and paving robots.

Excavation robots jointly developed by the two have already been utilized on key infrastructure projects in southwest China, according to Chinese local media Securities Times. Through handles and remote control, the robots can operate in low-temperature environments of minus 20 degrees Celsius and at an altitude of 4,000 meters.

This collaboration is set to bring significant advancements to the construction industry, with NetEase CEO Ding Lei stating that excavator efficiency is an important indicator of economic development. By the end of 2021, the number of excavators in China exceeded 2 million units, which is more than the sum of excavators in other countries and regions in the world, according to Securities Times.

NetEase will work with CCEED to continue empowering traditional machinery with intelligent capabilities, and make “one person controlling hundreds of machines at the same time and working continuously for 24 hours" a reality, according to Ding.

NetEase's vision for construction machinery is to use technology to achieve the “leap of China's construction industry efficiency”, and establish more "black light factories”(meaning factories would be entirely operated by remote-controlled robots, making lighting obsolete).

According to NetEase, it only took the company eight months to develop the excavation robots from scratch. NetEase expects its partnership with  CCEED will yield a range of intelligent construction robots in the next three years.

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