China's push to commercialize robots is accelerating. Midea, a major Chinese home appliance manufacturer, has unveiled a humanoid robot with six arms designed for industrial use, claiming it will "dramatically improve operational efficiency."
According to China's Yicai Global on January 7, Wei Chang, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Midea Group, unveiled the company's super humanoid robot "MIRO U" at the "2025 Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area New Economy Development Forum and 21st Century Science and Technology Annual Conference" on January 5.
MIRO U, Midea's third-generation humanoid developed in-house, is the industry's first hybrid humanoid featuring six arms and wheeled legs.
"MIRO U has achieved stable elevation, 360-degree rotation in place, and high-precision flexible control of six biomimetic humanoid robotic arms," Wei said. "The core value of MIRO U goes beyond imitating human form—it dramatically improves on-site operational efficiency, which is the key breakthrough for humanoid robot commercialization."
MIRO U is scheduled to be deployed at Midea's high-end washing machine factory in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, within this year. Midea plans to improve production line changeover efficiency by 30% through humanoid deployment. The company's commercial and household humanoid "Meira series" has also entered final testing and will be placed in Midea's offline retail stores next year to handle product guidance and feature demonstration services.
Midea previously announced in September that it had deployed its MIRO robot at a washing machine factory in Jingzhou, Hubei Province. This marked Midea's first application of humanoids on a mass production line, moving beyond the research stage. MIRO uses artificial intelligence technology to inspect manufacturing defects and monitor the operational status of various production equipment within the factory. Patrol robots and autonomous driving robots were also introduced alongside MIRO.
However, Midea's mass-produced humanoid robots reportedly have battery life of only two to three hours, making 24-hour continuous operation difficult. Experts also point out that additional data accumulation is needed to handle complex manufacturing processes. This is why attention is focused on whether the newly introduced MIRO U can overcome these limitations.
Backed by continued investment in robot business, Midea's stock hit record highs even as China's home appliance market faced demand and cost pressures in the fourth quarter. From January 2 to 4, Midea Group's stock price reached new year-to-date highs for three consecutive days, with the January 4 high reaching 83.17 yuan per share, pushing market capitalization above 630 billion yuan (approximately 130.78 trillion won, or $86.5 billion).
