At the testing ground in Jinan Software Park, a robot that has just completed a half-marathon halts firmly in place. 21-year-old Yao Jingwen quickly steps forward, holding a temperature gun to precisely record the motor's residual heat. As a test engineer at Shandong Youbaote Intelligent Robot Co., Ltd., Yao and her team are known as "robot trainers," a title that carries both sci-fi flair and a touch of humanity.
With the explosive growth of the artificial intelligence and robotics industry, this emerging profession is making its way into public awareness. They are both the "first teachers" of robots and the "chief inspectors" who ensure robots move from the lab into real-world applications.
The work of a robot trainer goes far beyond simply "pressing the start button." After each run, trainers must record data such as motor temperature, and if problems are found, they need to collaborate with the R&D team to adjust hardware or optimize code immediately. To test the robots' waterproofing, the trainers braved heavy rain outdoors to conduct uphill simulations. To recreate a flooded environment, they pumped lake water into inflatable pools. And to build muddy test grounds, they even collected bricks from construction sites and yellow sand from fire hydrants. Perfecting a robot can take months of testing. Once, to solve a walking malfunction, the team worked overtime without a single day off for a month before discovering the issue was just a single line of delayed code.
As the youngest "Provincial Technical Expert" in Shandong, Yao Jingwen's keen observation and extensive experience with robot dogs helped her detect subtle joint looseness in a batch of robots about to be delivered. She identified inconsistent component thickness as the cause of screw misfits, thereby preventing a potential failure. In another case, before a Jining Spring Festival Gala performance, signal interference caused a robot to fall. Yao and her colleagues urgently adjusted program parameters, enabling the robot to complete the show smoothly. "Just like parents teaching their children, we accompany robots as they grow step by step," she says.
(Reporters: Ding Chunli, Hu Wolong, Hu Ping [Intern], Zhang Rui [Intern]; Camerapeople: Hu Wolong, Hu Ping [Intern], Zhang Rui [Intern]; Editors: Anna Li, Hu Wolong, Hu Ping [Intern], Zhang Rui [Intern]; English Editor: Darius)
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