Omni-Mani, a team led by Professor Jia PAN, has claimed the top prize in the “Daily Life” track at the second Zhuhai International Dexterous Manipulation Challenge and Embodied Intelligence Industry Conference. Competing against 20 elite international teams, Omni-Mani secured the championship title along with RMB 500,000 in prize money and attracted RMB 6 million in follow-up investment interest, which is set to fuel further technological iteration and prototype development.

This year’s competition track was modeled around a kitchen environment, requiring robots to perform human-robot handovers to test core capabilities in human-robot interaction and dexterous manipulation.

To address industry challenges in real-time high-dimensional configuration modelling of deformable objects, the team applied novel ‘low-dimensional manifold skill representation’ and a highly responsive real-time teleoperation system UniBiDex. These innovations enabled precise human-robot collaboration throughout the kitchen scenario, from tool recognition and grasping to smooth handover, with force feedback preventing object damage.

Looking ahead, Professor Pan’s team aims to leverage the Greater Bay Area’s dynamic ecosystem to scale up general-purpose robotic manipulation technology. “We will focus next on applications like domestic service robots and elderly care assistive devices, enabling robots to perform complex tasks such as folding clothes or organizing tableware – meeting critical needs in an ageing society,” Professor Pan shared.

Omni-Mani Team:

Professor Peng ZHOU of the Greater Bay University College of Advanced Engineering; Professor Jiaming QI of Northeast Forestry University; Dr. Zeqing ZHANG of Nanyang Technological University; HKU PhD candidate Zhongxuan LI

Media coverage: IFENG, Science and Technology Daily, China.com, Nan Fang Daily, and Zongguancun Online (ZOL)