Xiaomi has begun supervised trials of a next-generation humanoid robot on the production lines of its Beijing "Black Lighthouse" smart factory — the same facility that produces the company's flagship smartphones through a highly automated process — according to sources with direct knowledge of the program.
The trials represent a significant escalation from Xiaomi's previous humanoid efforts. The company's CyberOne debuted as a showcase product in 2022 and received a second-generation update in 2024, but both were widely understood to be technology demonstrations rather than production-ready systems. The current factory trials indicate a more serious commercial intent.
What's Being Tested
The new platform, which Xiaomi has not yet officially named or announced, has been running on supervised tasks on the smartphone assembly line, including:
- Component transport between workstations
- Visual inspection of assembled units using integrated cameras
- Simple manipulation tasks including cable routing and screw placement
Early assessments from factory personnel suggest the robot requires significant human supervision and occasionally makes errors that a human worker would self-correct. However, sources say the pace of improvement has been rapid, with the AI team pushing model updates weekly.
The CyberOne Evolution
Xiaomi's original CyberOne was impressive in its scale but limited in capability — it could walk bipedally and engage in basic gestures, but its manipulation abilities were minimal. The new generation reportedly features a dramatically improved hand and arm design, with 12 degrees of freedom per hand and integrated tactile sensors.
The company has reportedly hired aggressively from China's top robotics programs at Tsinghua, Zhejiang University, and the Robotics Institute of Beijing, as well as poaching talent from Unitree and Agibot.
Strategic Logic
Xiaomi's entry into serious humanoid robotics production makes strategic sense on multiple levels. The company's smartphone business, while still growing in emerging markets, faces intense price competition and slowing growth in premium segments. Robotics represents a potential diversification into a category where Xiaomi's existing strengths — consumer electronics manufacturing, supply chain management, AI development, and mass-market pricing — are directly applicable.
The "Black Lighthouse" factory itself is a showcase for Xiaomi's manufacturing automation ambitions. If humanoid robots can be demonstrated working reliably within it, the company has a powerful proof of concept for selling or deploying those robots to other manufacturers.
Industry observers note that Xiaomi's potential entry as a serious humanoid manufacturer at scale could do to robot pricing what it did to smartphone pricing — compress margins dramatically and accelerate adoption through sheer volume.
A commercial announcement regarding the new platform is widely expected at Xiaomi's annual product event in the second half of 2026.