Robot school in China: Hefei facility training modern machines like humans

In a quiet industrial lab in Hefei, the capital of eastern China’s Anhui Province, a robot slowly extends its mechanical arm toward a wrench. It pauses, adjusts its grip, and carefully tightens a screw—each movement steady, precise, and almost thoughtful. But it’s not just repeating pre-coded commands. It’s learning. Watching. Practicing. This isn’t automation. It’s education.

Welcome to China’s first-ever “robot school,” a training ground not for people, but for intelligent machines. Launched in the Yangtze River Delta Digital Technology Demonstration Park, this school is a groundbreaking experiment in embodied AI, where robots are trained through real-world physical tasks under human guidance, preparing them for complex jobs in logistics, service, retail, and domestic environments.

The robots here aren’t left to self-learn in simulations or through lines of code alone. Instead, they’re taught like human apprentices. Trainers like Wu Meiling wear virtual reality (VR) headsets and motion-sensing gloves, demonstrating physical actions in a digital space. As she performs a screwing motion, the robot in front of her mirrors it exactly, learning not just the motion, but the intention behind it.

Each day, Wu and her team input nearly 200 action sequences into every robot. These include simple but crucial tasks like picking up parts, turning knobs, or lifting packages. Over time, the robots begin to move from imitation to independent action, gradually building internal models that help them decide what to do next without constant supervision.

This school, officially known as the Embodied Intelligent Robot Data Acquisition Pre-Training Field, is the first of its kind in China. The initial cohort includes over ten robots from different Chinese robotics companies, all here for one reason: to learn how to function in unpredictable, real-world environments where the rules aren’t always perfect and the tasks aren’t always clean.

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“The idea is to give them not just precision, but adaptability,” says Wu. “Fastening a screw is easy. But choosing the right screw, handling it in an awkward position, or adapting if the angle is wrong—that’s where human-like intelligence matters.”

What makes this facility especially powerful is its physical environment. Unlike many robotics labs, which rely on virtual simulations or clean, controlled spaces, this training floor is designed to reflect the messiness of real-life workplaces—factories, warehouses, even homes. There are shadows, uneven surfaces, and unexpected objects. And that’s exactly the point.

Wang Shuai, an executive at the Hefei branch of Leju Robotics, explains why this matters: “When robots are trained only in digital environments, they’re often unprepared for reality. This kind of hands-on exposure makes them more reliable when deployed in actual working scenarios.”

Of course, learning doesn’t come without mistakes. Robots sometimes fumble or freeze. They might drop tools or bump into walls. But to the developers here, every failure is part of the journey. “We want robots to generalize,” says Ji Chao, founder of a local robotics company. “That means being able to apply one learned action across different settings. And for that, real-world trial and error is essential.”

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Beyond training, the school is also a shared innovation platform for the broader robotics industry. Managed by the International Advanced Technology Application Promotion Center, it’s currently the only public robot training facility of its kind in China. It offers standardized data interfaces, meaning a wide range of robots—whether for industry, service, or consumer use—can be trained using a common system.

The school also provides support for companies outside Hefei, including startups with limited resources. To serve these diverse needs, the center has developed three operating models: joint operation (in collaboration with the company), independent operation (run by the company’s own team), and service-based support.

The service model is particularly significant for small developers. Instead of building their own labs, they can access professional-grade facilities, computing power, and curated datasets at the robot school. “It’s an efficient way to support algorithm updates and hardware testing without heavy investment,” says Sun Dandan, who leads the center’s robotics division.

The school isn’t just a space—it’s an ecosystem. It supports rapid iteration, faster time-to-market, and above all, safer and smarter robots. Developers can test their robots on complex tasks, refine them with each session, and return to the market with products that are more robust and reliable.

Ultimately, the goal here isn’t to create perfectly programmed machines. It’s to create machines that can learn like people do—through experience. This school doesn’t teach robots what to think. It teaches them how to think through doing. reported People's Daily

That’s a subtle but powerful shift. It’s the difference between a tool and a co-worker. And it may well define how robotics evolves in the years to come—not just in China, but around the world.

As the robots in Hefei turn their screws and lift their boxes, they’re doing more than completing tasks. They’re gaining the intuition and resilience that future workplaces will demand. And in the process, they’re reshaping the very idea of what it means to learn.