CHENGDU, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Stand still for just 30 seconds with no physical contact, and a new intelligent healthcare robot can measure heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature. It can even identify 13 distinct emotional states, from happiness and tiredness to anxiety.

This is no science fiction. It is the real-world performance of "Kangbao" (Health Baby), a companion healthcare robot set to begin trials in Chengdu, the capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Developed by a research team at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), Kangbao is a companion healthcare robot built on a knowledge hypergraph autonomous decision-making architecture.

The robot made its official debut at the National and Local Joint Engineering Laboratory for Next-Generation Internet Data Processing Technology of the UESTC in Chengdu, and is ready to be piloted in healthcare scenarios.

NON-CONTACT HEALTH CHECKS WITH EMOTIONAL AI

Standing 1.2 meters tall, Kangbao has a round head and a square body, with three touch buttons: "Register," "Start Detection" and "View Results."

Using infrared sensing and microvascular vibration analysis, the robot can complete multi-parameter physiological tests in seconds. All data collected is processed locally through on-device inference, with no cloud uploads required, fully protecting user privacy.

Tian Ling, director of the laboratory, said that after numerous algorithm iterations and data validation, Kangbao has achieved physiological measurement accuracy of over 97 percent and emotion recognition accuracy of more than 92 percent, both industry-leading levels.

"The value of scientific research lies in stepping out of the lab to truly serve society and improve people's lives," Tian said.

With support and matchmaking from local authorities, several elderly care facilities in the area have opened up application scenarios for Kangbao, allowing the robot to soon begin real-world testing with elderly users.

One robot can monitor an entire floor of a care center, while also recording residents' medical histories and medication records to generate electronic health files and issue proactive alerts for potential health risks, according to Tian.

SICHUAN'S BOOMING ROBOTICS INDUSTRY

Kangbao is not an isolated case. Another Chengdu-developed smart healthcare companion robot, "Anzai (Safety Buddy)," has recently joined a pioneering "try-before-you-buy" program, under which users can test the product before purchase.

Developed by Zhongke Yuanma Service Robot Research Institute, Anzai integrates multi-sensor technology to enable multimodal human-robot interaction, covering functions such as health monitoring, emotional companionship and intelligent alerts.

The rise of these "Chengdu-made" healthcare robots is backed by the region's fast-expanding robotics industry. Sichuan has built a comprehensive robotics industrial cluster centered in Chengdu, encompassing industrial, service and specialty robotics.

Under the province's robotics industry action plan, its main business revenue is targeted to exceed 50 billion yuan (about 7.29 billion U.S. dollars) by 2025. In 2024, the core AI and robotics industry in Chengdu surpassed 100 billion yuan in scale, growing approximately 39 percent year-on-year and involving over 1,000 enterprises.

The city has also set an ambitious target: expanding its embodied intelligence industry to 50 billion yuan by 2027. Last year, the Sichuan provincial government released a three-year action plan (2025-2027) to boost emerging and future industries, naming robotics as one of 23 key sectors for breakthrough development.

A "Robotics+" application scenario campaign has also been launched to accelerate the large-scale deployment of robots in healthcare and elderly care services.

China's elderly care robot market is gaining momentum. The market size reached approximately 9.1 billion yuan in 2025 and is projected to hit 10.4 billion yuan in 2026.

In January, the Ministry of Civil Affairs issued guidelines calling for the wide use of humanoid robots, brain-computer interfaces and AI in elderly care, promoting the integrated and scaled application of products for emotional companionship, monitoring and early warning. The document also supports local governments in developing industrial clusters for smart elderly-care service robots.

Beyond developing Kangbao, Tian's team is collaborating with institutions like West China Hospital of Sichuan University in smart senior care. They are advancing intervention research on conditions including mild cognitive impairment, mood disorders and Alzheimer's disease, and plan to develop portable health monitoring devices.

"Our ultimate goal is to turn cutting-edge AI technologies into products that ordinary people can see and use," said Tian. ■