Xiaomi said its humanoid robot has entered live production at its electric vehicle factory, completing complex component assembly tasks in what the company described as a step forward in embodied intelligence.
According to a post on Xiaomi's official Weibo account, the robot operated autonomously for three consecutive hours at a self-tapping nut installation workstation in the die-casting workshop of Xiaomi EV. Test data showed a 90.2% success rate for simultaneous installations on both sides of the station, meeting the production line's fastest cycle time requirement of 76 seconds.
The task involves picking self-tapping nuts from an automatic feeder, placing them onto positioning fixtures, and coordinating with slide conveyors and automated systems to complete tightening operations on floor components after integrated die-casting.
Xiaomi said the main technical challenge was ensuring precise alignment and reliable engagement of the nuts, given their internal spline structure, variable gripping posture and magnetic interference. To address this, the company adopted an end-to-end, data-driven control approach based on its in-house 4.7-billion-parameter Vision-Language-Action (VLA) model, Xiaomi-Robotics-0, combined with reinforcement learning.
The system integrates multimodal inputs, including visual, tactile and joint feedback, to improve stability and reduce misjudgment in complex industrial scenarios. Xiaomi said its hybrid motion control architecture combines optimization control - solving each iteration in under one millisecond - with reinforcement learning trained on hundreds of millions of simulated perturbations to enhance balance and real-world adaptability.
The self-tapping nut station represents the first stage of broader deployment. Xiaomi said it is conducting validation at additional workstations, including bin-picking and front badge installation, as it seeks to improve production cycle time and yield rates.
Founder and Chief Executive Lei Jun wrote separately that large numbers of humanoid robots could begin working in Xiaomi factories within five years.
Xiaomi's progress comes amid increasing investment in robotics by global technology and automotive companies. Tesla has outlined plans to advance its Optimus humanoid robot, while Xpeng has announced plans to build a dedicated humanoid robot production base in Guangzhou, targeting large-scale manufacturing by late 2026.