The 2026 World Robot Conference (WRC) opened in Beijing on Wednesday, with both the exhibition area and the number of exhibitors hitting record highs. Beyond showcases of new technologies from individual companies, this year's conference puts more weight on cases that can be deployed in actual application scenarios.

Themed "Human-Robot Symbiosis, Production Demand Convergence," the conference has drawn more than 300 exhibitors, up 36 percent year-on-year, presenting over 2,000 exhibits that include more than 150 products making their global debut.

The roughly 50,000-square-meter exhibition area is divided into four halls, and for the first time features a dedicated zone for centrally administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs), where 49 central SOEs are jointly displaying 12 application scenarios. The conference agenda is centered around four theme days — a release day, a procurement day, a developer day and a public open day.

A "robot consumption street" is created on site for the first time, selling meals and drinks made on the spot by robot chefs. The organizing committee will also launch a program that provides mass-produced humanoid robots, quadruped robots and dexterous hands free of charge to innovation teams worldwide for trials in real-world settings.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Xin Guobin, vice minister of industry and information technology, said that revenue of Chinese robotics enterprises topped 300 billion yuan ($44.45 billion) in 2025, with average annual growth rate exceeding 20 percent over the past five years. 

Their business revenues reached 165.5 billion yuan in the first half of this year, up 24.5 percent year-on-year. Robotics technologies and products have been widely applied across the national economy and social development, becoming an important force driving high-quality development, Xin said.

Xin called on the scientific and industrial communities of all countries to move forward hand in hand to jointly promote the high-quality development of the robotics industry, so that intelligent robots can better empower economic and social development and deliver greater benefits to the mankind.

The Development Initiative on Intelligent Robots for the Positive and for Good was released at the opening ceremony of the conference, aimed at rallying international efforts to safeguard the healthy growth of robotics. 

The ceremony also unveiled the "Top 10 innovation achievements and top 10 high-value application scenarios" of central SOEs in robotics, along with Application Demands of Embodied Intelligence in Emergency Scenar ios, which will underline the conference's push to move robots into practical use.

Source: Global Times

--Agencies