Rock-paper-scissors, chess, science demonstrations, group dances—at Chimelong Spaceship Park in Hengqin, Zhuhai, more than 300 robots from AgiBot have officially been on duty for over ten days at more than 100 interactive experience points, covering seven major scenarios including entertainment performances, science education, guidance and shopping assistance, intelligent companionship, hotel scenarios, and sports competitions.

For the theme park, introducing robots requires consideration of whether they can enrich the visitor experience and continuously attract tourists; for AgiBot, entering the park means the technology must withstand the test of real visitor flows and daily operations. Moving from one-off demonstrations to routine service, both parties are exploring the path to deploying embodied intelligence in the cultural tourism sector, focusing on scenario adaptation, operational maintenance, and cost-benefit analysis.

Robots on Duty During Double Holiday Bring New Interactive Experiences

Since opening, Chimelong Spaceship Park has welcomed over ten million visitors. Its rich array of scenarios and massive visitor flow make Hengqin Chimelong an ideal setting for robots to enter the real world and achieve large-scale application.

During the National Day holiday, the park launched a special robot edition of the "Water of Light Show," a special robot edition of the opening ceremony, and the "China Dream·Robot Splendor Stage Show," setting up more than 100 robot interaction points covering tea art interactions, venue reception and guidance, entrance security guidance, science presentations, and other diverse scenarios.

"During the holiday period, the special robot experiences created a significant traffic-driving effect and were an important force in boosting visitor numbers at the park," said Jin Yong, Executive Deputy General Manager of Hengqin Chimelong Spaceship Park.

Jin Yong explained that at Chimelong Spaceship Park, robots have become intelligent play companions that can accompany, interact with, and provide experiences for visitors, offering a new immersive and fun way to enjoy the park. Among the highlights, robot group dances and parade interactions delivered spectacular performances. During the holiday period, the special robot edition of the Water of Light Show at the Water of Light Theater ran three shows daily, each drawing large crowds.

In terms of interaction, robots can play table tennis, rock-paper-scissors, chess, and build blocks with visitors, as well as perform calligraphy and tea pouring. Visitors can also remotely control robot dogs for a parkour race, or ride a robot dog around the park.

For AgiBot, putting robots into routine operation at a theme park is also an entirely new endeavor. Wang Chuang, Partner and Senior Vice President of AgiBot, said his on-site experience at the park did not entirely match the assumptions made during the R&D phase. "We've seen that visitors are willing to queue up to experience rock-paper-scissors, tic-tac-toe, and other activities. Some technically more challenging functions are not necessarily more popular than simple, highly interactive games that are easy for children and parents to enjoy together."

What new experiences can robots bring to the park in the future? Wang Chuang said the team will continue to monitor the actual utilization rate of each point and each robot, as well as visitor feedback on different functions such as narration, performances, and interactive games, and optimize the experience accordingly. "Our ultimate goal is to keep the project permanently fresh, so that when visitors come back three months later, they can have a new experience."

In the view of Jiang Minling, Vice President of Chimelong Group and General Manager of Hengqin Chimelong Resort, robot applications can also be combined with specific performance products. For example, Chimelong plans to explore the use of quadruped robots and companion robots in the family show "Kaka Tiger Adventure," and envisions adding a robot formation to the grand parade at Chimelong Ocean Kingdom as battery technology improves.

Additionally, Jiang Minling noted that as an international tourism resort, Hengqin Chimelong has seen its overseas visitor numbers grow by nearly 50% over the past year. "For our staff, communicating with visitors from so many different countries is a challenge. We hope that through robots, we can better serve overseas visitors."

Routine Deployment Tests Technology and Operations

What specific issues need to be resolved when robots enter a theme park? It is understood that facing different visitors every day and continuously delivering narration, interactions, and performances places more specific demands on robots. Whether battery life can cover working hours, whether robots can clearly hear visitors in noisy environments, and how to ensure safety during close contact all affect the actual experience.

According to Wang Chuang, to adapt to the park's needs, AgiBot optimized battery life, interaction, and safety in the design of its Expedition series products, with the relevant robots achieving up to 10 hours of battery life. For crowded and noisy environments, the team adjusted acoustic front-ends, algorithm-based noise reduction, multi-person recognition, and lip-reading recognition, and supports the selection of built-in or external microphones depending on the environment.

Safety assurance needs to cover every detail of robot-visitor contact. Taking the narration scenario as an example, Wang Chuang explained that robots use 360-degree omnidirectional perception to identify their surroundings and stop moving when someone suddenly enters the arm's range of motion; the arms use compliant control to reduce force during accidental contact. During the initial deployment phase, dedicated personnel are also assigned to monitor on site.

Network connectivity is also a key element in daily operations. Wang Chuang stated that due to current limitations in computing power and algorithm capabilities, robot interactions cannot yet be fully completed on-device and still require cloud connectivity. According to the project, the park has adopted 5G network slicing, local deployment of edge devices, and security isolation solutions, along with a supporting robot operations and maintenance management platform.

In terms of performance organization, Wang Chuang explained that the park can already coordinate different models of robots and robot dogs for group performances through a single system, enabling autonomous entry and exit from the stage and multiple performances according to schedules, reducing the need for individual robot control.

Crunching the Numbers and Keeping the Novelty Alive

When robots enter a theme park, the ultimate consideration returns to the business level. Xiong Yan, Partner and Co-President of AgiBot, explained that this collaboration adopts a purchase model. AgiBot will pay attention to how much cost the robots add to the park and how much revenue they generate. "Truly creating value for customers—that is what makes a sustainable business."

"We want to achieve routine deployment of robots—making them operable, routine, and replicable: after being put into use, robots can continuously improve their capabilities, provide services every day, and proven capabilities can be applied to more robots, positions, and parks," Xiong Yan said.

It is understood that the park's robot interactions currently still require a large number of staff members to assist on site. On-site personnel investment is a significant expense. Xiong Yan explained that in the initial deployment phase, the ratio of robots to personnel was approximately 3:1. "It varies across different scenarios—group performances require fewer operators, while some narration points are basically staffed with personnel to assist in improving the visitor experience. In the future, we hope to gradually achieve one staff member per 10 robots, with an ideal target of one per 20."

Beyond personnel investment, costs also involve equipment lifespan, network connectivity, large model API calls, and spare parts wear and tear. Wang Chuang stated that at the same purchase price, using equipment for two years versus three years results in different amortized costs. AgiBot hopes to reduce customers' overall usage costs by improving autonomous operating capabilities and extending service life.

On the revenue side, returns are directly tied to visitor experience. Robots can initially attract visitors through novelty, but as visitors become familiar with these play companions, how to maintain appeal through continuously updated content becomes a challenge for long-term operations.

"Ultimately, a theme park still relies on the quality of its program planning and creation to attract visitors—it cannot depart from the rules of the traditional cultural tourism industry," Wang Chuang said. The team hopes to continuously develop more fun and more interactive games, allowing robots to deliver a better parent-child experience, and through rapid product iteration, increase visitor loyalty and repeat visit rates.

"We place greater emphasis on content innovation," Jiang Minling said. Innovation includes both program content and performance experience content. For the theme park, beyond the novel appearance of robots, continuously updated interactive and performance content is the key focus for attracting visitors to return.

Supporting the continuous updating of content and technology is a joint research and development arrangement between the two parties. Xiong Yan explained that both sides have confirmed a 10-year long-term cooperation contract and will jointly establish the Chimelong AgiBot Embodied Intelligence Joint Research Institute, conducting cooperation around technological breakthroughs, cultural tourism IP and content creation, scenario validation and demonstration, as well as standards and achievement transformation. In the initial phase, relatively mature capabilities will be adapted for IP, operations, and safety, with deeper R&D advancing in conjunction with scenarios later.

From visitors willing to try something new to the park being able to use robots long-term, the cultural tourism application of embodied intelligence still needs to find a balance between content updates, operational reliability, and overall costs. This is also the question both parties must continue to answer in daily operations after robots take on routine roles.