Hubei Humanoid Robot Innovation Center in the Optics Valley of China (OVC) has announced its "Open Competition" project list, inviting global innovation teams to engage with six key humanoid robot application scenarios, with each project offering a reward of up to 500,000 yuan ($75,000).

The "Open Competition" humanoid robot project list is released. [Photo/WeChat account of Optics Valley of China]

The six scenarios are industrial manufacturing, commercial services, healthcare and public services, home and community services, specialized inspection and emergency rescue, and municipal sanitation and property environment services.

These scenarios are provided by the center in collaboration with various industry stakeholders. The requirements are highly specific. For example, in the commercial services category, robots must manage the entire process of preparing Wuhan's famous hot dry noodles, from ingredient preparation to cooking and serving.

According to Liu Chuanhou, the center's chief operating officer, Hubei province has strategically positioned embodied intelligence as a forward-looking industry. The release of this project list aims to accelerate product development for startups through "scenario-driven" initiatives, and to discover and attract more outstanding startups to settle in OVC.

Since its inauguration in June 2025, the Hubei Humanoid Robot Innovation Center has established an embodied intelligence training data factory and amassed 50,000 hours of effective training data. It regularly supports enterprises across the industry chain with scenario development, real-world training, pilot testing, and data services, and has attracted over 20 industry chain enterprises, including GigaAI and Dirac Robotics, to establish a presence in OVC.