How this Chinese-American entrepreneur has created ‘cloud robots’ with potential to access unlimited data

CloudMinds Inc. may be a late entrant to the field of robotics but the Chinese robotics and artificial intelligence start-up has grabbed attention since its inception in 2015 as it provides the “brains” and not just the mechanical arms for its products.

The four-year-old firm, established by Huang Xiao Qing, a Chinese-American telecoms industry veteran, has developed a cloud-based platform capable of operating intelligent consumer service robots simultaneously.

Born in 1962, Huang was the one of the very first young mainland Chinese to attend graduate school in the US after diplomatic relations between the two countries were resumed 40 years ago. He studied at the University of Illinois at Chicago after receiving a bachelor’s degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in 1982.

CloudMinds’ robots are different to the traditional approach where robots have self-contained “brains”, with data-processing capacity constrained by the chips that they are equipped with.

Santa Clara, California-based CloudMinds enables its robots to potentially access infinite computing power and data by building their brains in the cloud, hence their name – cloud robots.

The operating platform consists of three main parts – a cloud brain, a nerve network and robot controllers. The platform is scalable and allows partners to customise the robots, which can be used in shopping malls, hotels, banks and even hospitals to answer customer queries or make coffee.