UBTech agrees Airbus deal to expand robot use in aviation manufacturing

HONG KONG, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Chinese robotics firm UBTech said on Wednesday it had signed ​a deal with the world's largest planemaker, ‌Airbus, to supply robots for use in aviation manufacturing.

Airbus has ‌already purchased UBTech's latest industrial humanoid robot, the Walker S2, UBTech said, adding that the "the two parties will jointly expand the application of humanoid robots in ⁠aerospace manufacturing scenarios ‌in the future."

Airbus said in a statement that the cooperation with UBTech was ‍in the early concept-testing stage.

Humanoid robots, that are built to closely resemble human motion and behaviour, have become increasingly ​important to Beijing as it looks for solutions ‌to pressing issues including trade frictions with the United States, population decline and slowing growth.

In recent years, Chinese humanoid robots have demonstrated increasing feats of agility, including performing somersaults, running a half marathon ⁠and even playing football.

UBTech and ​Airbus' partnership comes after a ​deal last year that UBTech inked with U.S. semi conductor maker Texas Instruments.

In 2025 ‍UBTech's total ⁠humanoid robot order value exceeded 1.4 billion yuan, the company said. Production capacity for its industrial ⁠humanoid robots is expected to exceed 10,000 units in 2026.

(Reporting ‌by Farah Master and the Beijing newsroom; ‌Editing by Louise Heavens)