In Hefei Zero Dimension Robot Co., Ltd., located in Baohe District, Hefei, Anhui Province, robotics engineering technician Han Jiahe inputs commands into a computer. The robot's mechanical arm slowly lifts, grabs a cup from the table, places it under a self-service beverage machine, waits for the cup to fill, and then returns it to the table—the entire process takes less than a minute.

"There's still a gap from what the client requires; the gripping force needs to be adjusted lower, and the overall motion needs to be smoother." After the action completes, Han Jiahe records the areas that need improvement. "My job is to identify and solve problems, translating client needs into language that the technical department can understand, making robots smarter and more useful."

Han Jiahe, 27, graduated with a degree in network engineering and has since worked on image-based AI algorithms and large language models. In August last year, Zero Dimension, a company less than a year old, extended an interview invitation to him. Company General Manager Assistant Huang Rui said, "Embodied intelligence is a rapidly iterating field, and Jiahe's ability to learn and adapt across different roles impressed us." A month later, Han Jiahe officially joined the company. "The embodied intelligence field has enormous potential, and I was very excited to join such an excellent team."

At first, Han Jiahe found it challenging to adapt. "Robots combine software and hardware; I previously worked on software algorithms and didn't understand components or circuits. Fortunately, everyone is young and willing to teach me." When he had hardware questions, he would turn to colleagues in production and after-sales departments. Gradually, he became an expert in robot hardware.

"The average age of our R&D staff is just 26, and the team is very young and dynamic. We learn from each other, complement each other's strengths, and grow together," said Huang Rui. Several founding members are post-2000s, and the team has grown to over 90 people. This year, Zero Dimension publicly released its self-developed robot store, an "unmanned retail" model where robot staff handle sales. It has already launched in cities like Shanghai and Hefei, with Han Jiahe among the key participants.

"Initially, the robot's movement trajectory was inaccurate, which affected product retrieval. After trying multiple solutions, we installed radar at the robot's base and worked with the design team to reconfigure the store space for better robot mobility." Han Jiahe still clearly remembers the various obstacles encountered during testing. After more than a month of debugging, the store robot's stable operation time increased from one hour to a full day. "Seeing the robot get smarter and smarter excites me, and it makes me love this job even more," he said.

With the growth of the digital economy, a wave of technical professionals has entered the embodied intelligence industry. In 2022, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security released 18 new professions, including robotics engineering technicians. In July this year, 12 additional new professions, including embodied intelligence robot application technicians, were announced for public feedback. "The release of new professions is significant for standardizing industry development and establishing industry benchmarks. Recently, our company also submitted application materials to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security for new professions related to embodied intelligence," said Huang Rui.

According to the "15th Five-Year Plan" outline, China is targeting key areas for future development, building a full-chain cultivation system for future industries, and driving embodied intelligence to become a new economic growth point. "Embodied intelligence is a new field; a technology path used one day might become outdated the next," Han Jiahe said. "Our young team is growing alongside the future industry. We will continue to do every debug and every communication well, pushing more robots from merely functional to truly user-friendly. I believe embodied intelligence will eventually reach its explosive moment."