BeijingMay 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — In 2026, the “15th Five-Year Plan” officially begins, with “embodied intelligence” included as a future industry direction. The “Artificial Intelligence+” initiative continues to advance, and the robotics industry is shifting from “demonstrating capabilities” to “industrial implementation.”
Recently, Zhejiang Shihe Technology Co., Ltd. independently developed China’s first professional-grade embodied intelligent special robot, which has achieved engineering deployment in high-risk scenarios such as chemical storage tank maintenance, shipbuilding and repair, and energy facility inspection. This marks the transition of embodied intelligence from experimental feasibility to practical usability.
Unlike humanoid robots designed for consumer and service scenarios, this robot directly tackles complex industrial environments involving heights, confined spaces, and toxic conditions. It can replace human workers in high-risk tasks such as rust removal, grinding, spraying, welding, inspection, and flaw detection. From a practical demand perspective, high-risk industrial scenarios feature rigid demand, high frequency, high labor costs, and short return on investment periods, making them a promising area for the first commercial breakthroughs in embodied intelligence.
On-site operation of Shihe’s professional-grade embodied intelligent special robot
From “Moving” to “Working”
Scenarios such as chemical storage tanks, ship hulls, and energy facilities have long faced issues like high labor costs, significant safety risks, and unstable construction efficiency.
Taking large industrial storage tanks as an example, traditional construction requires workers to erect scaffolding and enter confined spaces for high-altitude operations, exposing them to risks like dust, high temperatures, and oxygen deficiency, while also occupying extensive project timelines.
Shihe’s professional-grade embodied intelligent special robot aims to solve this problem through “machine substitution.”
This robot is not a simple combination of traditional wall-climbing robots and humanoid structures but features systematic upgrades in mobility, manipulation, and coordination capabilities. In terms of mobility, the robot uses a wheeled magnetic chassis, weighing approximately 90 kilograms, allowing stable movement on vertical metal surfaces. Even with an additional 150-kilogram payload, it maintains stable operation, making it suitable for complex conditions like chemical storage tanks and ship hulls.
In terms of manipulation, the robot’s upper body is equipped with 15-degree-of-freedom dual arms, capable of performing complex tasks such as grinding, welding, and flaw detection. By swapping end effectors, it can switch between different tasks like rust removal, spraying, and inspection, achieving “multi-functionality and process closure.” Its application boundaries far exceed traditional single-function equipment, offering clearer ROI calculations.
More importantly, the robot can perform tasks remotely, eliminating the need for operators to enter hazardous areas. Operators can use VR devices and master-slave teleoperation terminals to achieve millisecond-level response and 1:1 motion replication from a safe zone. With continuous power supply via cables, the robot can operate for extended periods, fundamentally reducing risks such as falls from heights, poisoning, and dust exposure, ensuring intrinsic safety. High-risk operations in high-altitude, confined, and toxic environments are gradually moving toward “intelligence” and “unmanned” execution.
On-site operation of Shihe’s professional-grade embodied intelligent special robot
Large Model-Driven: An Industrial Intelligent Brain That Gets Smarter with Use
For embodied intelligence, the true driver of industrialization is often not the hardware alone, but the high-quality data and model capabilities behind it. This data does not come from simulated environments but from long-term real-world industrial operations.
Leveraging real-scenario data, the robot can autonomously identify the work environment, plan operational paths, and adjust actions in real time. With a specialized vertical large model for high-risk operations as its decision-making core, the robot can perform end-to-end tasks from positioning and navigation to dual-arm coordination and grinding inspection, achieving more stable precision and consistency compared to traditional manual methods. Unlike traditional automation equipment reliant on fixed programs, this robot excels in scenario generalization and task transfer capabilities, continuously learning and optimizing in complex industrial environments. As the company emphasizes, every high-altitude operation serves as a data sample, and each batch of accumulated data directly feeds into model iteration.
On-site operation of Shihe’s professional-grade embodied intelligent special robot
Accumulated Strength: Industrial Experience and Market Validation
The launch of this professional-grade embodied intelligent special robot is not Shihe’s first foray into high-risk industrial scenarios. Before introducing the embodied intelligence product, the company had long focused on fields such as shipbuilding, chemicals, and energy, building industrial expertise around high-altitude robots. For example, in the shipbuilding sector, the company’s previously launched rust removal robots have been used in over 100 large shipyards domestically and internationally, with a market share exceeding 70%. In petrochemical scenarios, products like tank rust removal and spraying robots, spherical tank grinding robots, and wall-climbing inspection robots have been deployed in key projects under China National Petroleum Corporation, Sinopec, and CNOOC. Through nearly a decade of deep engagement in industrial sites, Shihe has accumulated a solid foundation of customer needs understanding, operational process experience, and real-scenario data, providing a robust base for the next-generation embodied intelligent special robot.
On-site operation of Shihe’s professional-grade embodied intelligent special robot
Meanwhile, the company’s industrialization capabilities are steadily improving. Currently, Shihe has secured multi-million yuan orders from globally renowned ship repair industry benchmarks, including China State Shipbuilding Corporation, COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry, China Merchants Industry, Zhoushan Xinya, Zhoushan Huafeng, Dubai Drydocks World (DDW), and Singapore ST Marine. Its products are exported to regions including Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe, the Americas, Oceania, and Africa. The company’s Zhoushan base is ramping up production capacity, with a compound annual revenue growth rate exceeding 50% over the past three years. The company expects to maintain a high growth rate of 80% to 100% over the next four to five years. In terms of R&D and intellectual property, the company has established significant technical barriers. As of April 2026, it has filed a total of 473 patent applications, including 215 invention patents, and has been granted 281 patents, including 69 domestic invention patents. Over the past three years, R&D investment has accounted for more than 20% of revenue, with R&D personnel comprising over 60% of the workforce.
Overall, industries such as shipbuilding, chemicals, and energy have extremely high safety requirements, with high-risk positions facing persistent issues like “recruitment difficulties,” “high labor costs,” and “significant risks.” At the same time, industrial scenarios have clear quantitative demands for efficiency, stability, and cost improvement. These rigid needs provide a clear path for the commercial deployment of embodied intelligent special robots.
From “Safety Substitute” to Industrial Productivity
In addition to high-altitude operation robots, Shihe has also launched ground-based special inspection and operation robots capable of replacing humans in hazardous environments such as petrochemical plants, fires, and toxic gas areas for inspection and response tasks. These robots use a “long-range vision” system to monitor and alert for faults within a 2-kilometer range. With the coordinated application of high-altitude and ground-based special inspection robots, a “high-altitude + ground” three-dimensional intelligent operation system is gradually taking shape in hazardous industrial scenarios.
On-site operation of Shihe’s professional-grade embodied intelligent special robot
“Relying on China’s largest embodied special robot large model and massive real-world operational data, the robot continuously evolves. Embodied intelligence is redefining the boundaries of high-risk operations, driving the gradual unmanned execution of hazardous scenarios,” said Pu Xiao, Executive President of Shihe Robot.
Founded in 2015 by a team of PhDs from Tsinghua University, Shihe Robot is a national high-tech enterprise and a national-level specialized and new “Little Giant” enterprise. From “safety substitute” to “intelligent workmate,” the way high-risk industrial scenarios are operated is being redefined. As the “Artificial Intelligence+” initiative continues to advance, meeting the needs of strategies for a maritime power, energy power, and digital China, and promoting intelligent upgrades in industries such as energy, chemicals, and marine engineering, high-risk industrial scenarios are becoming a key direction for the early deployment of embodied intelligence.