China robot makers flock to Beijing show, seek path to mass adoption

China's robot manufacturers gathered in Beijing on Wednesday for the World Robot Conference to showcase their latest creations and push for wider commercial adoption of the technology. Over 300 companies displayed more than 2,000 exhibits and launched more than 150 products, according to Beijing authorities.

The conference comes at a time when robotics is increasingly seen as a new battleground in the U.S.-China rivalry, with investor enthusiasm for the sector reaching record levels in China. Shares in Unitree, a leading Chinese maker of humanoid robots, surged nearly six-fold in their debut on the Shanghai stock market on Wednesday.

Robotics is considered an important force in China's economic and social development, according to Xin Guobin, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Robotics is already being used for tasks such as hotel food deliveries and some assembly line work, but large-scale adoption remains limited.

Startup Robotera demonstrated a humanoid robot torso that can sort parcels for up to 1,000 hours continuously, achieving 85% of the efficiency of a human worker. The company's founder told Reuters that the competition in the industry mirrors that of China's electric vehicle sector a few years ago, where many startups emerged rapidly and competed fiercely.

However, Zhang Guibing, head of AiMOGA Robotics, Chery's robotics division, believes this intense competition ultimately benefits the industry by fostering technological advancement.

Despite the promising growth, analysts estimate that around half to two-thirds of the humanoid robots produced this year may end up in data centers, where they are primarily used for collecting training data instead of performing productive work for customers. The future of the Chinese robotics market could be intense, particularly in terms of cost, with experts suggesting it may take about a decade for humanoid robots to become widely adopted.