At Hefei Zero Gravity Robotics Co., Ltd. in Baohe District, Hefei, Anhui Province, robotics engineering technician Han Jiahe inputs commands into a computer. The robot's mechanical arm slowly lifts, grasps a cup from the table, positions it under a self-service beverage dispenser, waits for it to fill, and then returns the cup to its original spot—the entire process takes under a minute.

“It still falls short of client requirements—the grip strength needs to be reduced, and the overall motion needs to be smoother,” Han notes after recording the areas for improvement. “My job is to identify and solve problems, translating customer needs into language the technical team can understand, making robots smarter and more user-friendly.”

At 27, Han graduated in network engineering and has since worked on image-based AI algorithms and large language models. Last August, Zero Gravity—a company less than a year old—invited him for an interview. Huang Rui, assistant to the company's general manager, explains: “Embodied intelligence is a fast-iterating field, and Jiahe’s ability to learn and adapt across different roles impressed us.” A month later, Han officially joined. “Embodied intelligence has enormous potential—I was genuinely excited to join such an outstanding team.”

Initially, Han struggled. “Robots combine software and hardware; my background was software algorithms, so I didn’t understand components or circuits.” “Fortunately, everyone is young and willing to teach.” For hardware questions, he turned to colleagues in production and after-sales, gradually becoming the team’s hardware expert. “Our R&D team averages just 26 years old—very young and energetic. We learn from each other, complementing strengths and covering weaknesses,” Huang says. Several founding members are post-2000s, and the team now exceeds 90 people.

This year, Zero Gravity launched its self-developed robotic store. Using an “unmanned retail” model with robotic clerks, it has been deployed in cities like Shanghai and Hefei—Han was part of that project. “Initially, the robot’s movement path was imprecise, affecting item retrieval. After several attempts, we installed a radar at the base and worked with the design team to better adapt the store layout for robot navigation.” Han clearly recalls the obstacles encountered during testing. After over a month of debugging, the store robot’s stable operation time improved from one hour to a full day. “Watching the robot get ‘smarter’ is thrilling—it makes me love this job even more,” he says.

With the growth of the digital economy, a wave of technical professionals is entering the embodied intelligence field. In 2022, China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security released 18 new occupations, including robotics engineering technicians; this July, 12 more new occupations—including embodied intelligence robot application technicians—were publicly announced. “Publishing new occupations is crucial for standardizing industry practices and setting benchmarks. Recently, our company also submitted application materials for new embodied intelligence-related occupations to the ministry,” Huang adds.

According to the “15th Five-Year Plan” outline, China is targeting key future-oriented sectors, building a full-chain incubation system for future industries to make embodied intelligence a new economic growth point. “Embodied intelligence is a brand-new field—a technical path used one day can become obsolete the next,” Han says. “Our young team is growing alongside this future industry. We’ll keep refining every test and every communication, moving robots from functional to truly user-friendly. I believe embodied intelligence will eventually reach its breakout moment.”