China's robots move from the stage to the production line
Beijing (ANTARA) - A robotic hand picks up a calligraphy brush, dips it in ink and writes the Chinese character “fu”, meaning good fortune, on a square piece of red paper. The performance captivates onlookers.
Robots like these in China are no longer merely entertainers at events. They are increasingly being used to carry out real work, and a new industry is taking shape to teach them how to do so.
At the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), which concluded on Sunday (13 September) in Beijing, the Galbot G1 robot served in an unmanned all-in-one pod. It had previously gone viral after demonstrating clothes-folding skills in a video clip for this year’s globally broadcast Spring Festival Gala.
Pods of this kind are already operating at various locations, including the Summer Palace in Beijing, the former imperial garden, where each pod is expected to serve more than 1,000 visitors a day. The first such outlet outside mainland China opened in Hong Kong on 1 September.
Robots are also being used in a variety of other jobs. At an “unmanned post office” stand, a robot stamps postcards, posts them in a letterbox, then picks a mystery-box toy for the customer.
A few metres away, a pancake-making robot flips crepes to order, while a coffee-making robot pours latte art into a freshly brewed cup.
“We have coffee-making robots on campus, but these robots are more advanced,” said Olga, a visitor who is also a professor from Belarus at Beijing International Studies University.
Creating latte art takes considerable effort for humans, she added, but the robot does it with ease.
Despite all the novelty, a wide gap remains between demonstration and deployment, namely training.
“Deliveries of humanoid robots in China’s domestic market reached 23,000 units in the first half (H1) of this year, but fewer than 5 percent of them have worked stably on real production lines,” said Zhu Kai, head of the Shijingshan Embodied Intelligence Training Center.
A production line is far more complicated than a stage. “High-quality multimodal real-robot data suitable for industrial training does not even reach 1 percent of actual demand,” Zhu said. This shortage, he added, is the main obstacle to moving robots “from merely performing to genuinely working”.
Efforts to close that gap begin at a “vocational school” for robots. The training centre, located not far from the CIFTIS exhibition site at Shougang Park, is where much of this “homework” is done.
Nearly 270 robots work there at full capacity on household tasks, care exercises and factory duties such as automatically placing circuit boards onto production lines, generating nearly 20 million high-quality data entries every year.
The “school” opened to visitors during the fair. Training there is applied as human-like movements. Rows of robots practise picking up and putting down boxes or ironing trousers, each following movements demonstrated by a human mentor.
Those mentors now have official titles. On the opening day of the fair, 9 September 2026, China officially recognised a new profession, the embodied-intelligence robot application technician, encompassing two new specialisations: robot data collector and robot trainer.
The equipment has evolved as well. Previously, data collectors controlled machines from fixed laboratory consoles. With new recording devices, however, they can now easily enter real-world work scenarios, recording human hand movements as people work.
At one stand, virtual reality (VR) device maker NOLO displayed EgoCapture, a head-mounted device that records real human movement across 360 degrees.
When worn during cross-country running, the device produces precise data that robots need to estimate turns in long-distance running. Clients can purchase this service rather than buying a full set of equipment.
Other stands complemented other parts of the robot training process. Tactile sensors from Tashan Technology capture sensations and grip strength, while the dexterous robotic hands of CasiaHand Robotics, equipped with a built-in “brain” model, learn to act autonomously.
The output of this training was visible directly in the exhibition area. Zhu said most of the training data used to operate the various robots on display at the fair came from the centre.
Market data
That data itself is increasingly becoming a commodity, and this year’s CIFTIS paved the way for it to cross national borders.
At a forum, the fair launched China’s first industry-level platform aimed at providing international services for embodied-intelligence data, developed by the Beijing Shijingshan Science and Technology Innovation Group in partnership with China Telecom’s Beijing branch.
The groundwork has been laid in Beijing’s Shijingshan District. China’s first high-quality three-dimensional (3D) dataset for large-scale model training has been registered, four data service stations have opened and more than 200 data products have been listed, while Beijing as a whole is targeting 100 high-quality industrial datasets by 2028.
“The government sets the stage, and the companies perform. CIFTIS acts as an amplifier, turning Beijing’s industrial strength into opportunities for international cooperation,” Zhu said.
The robots have already begun generating revenue through overseas placements. Anyverse Dynamics, a Beijing-based embodied-AI start-up participating in the fair, has signed a deal worth 500 million yuan (1 yuan = Rp2,629) with green technology group Envision, and the first batch of its semi-humanoid K15 robots arrived at Envision’s gigafactory battery plant in France this month to carry out autonomous loading and unloading work.
The machines, however, are only part of the business. The training and services that keep these robots running abroad are becoming an increasing focus of China’s future trade in services.
The exhibition area reflected this as well. In the information and communication technology (ICT) hall alone, more than 30 new products were launched, ranging from robots that can jump high and cook to robots that can climb walls and holographic cabins.
“Visitors can experience a smart economy where carbon-based figures (humans) and silicon-based figures (robots) live side by side,” said He Qionghua, head of the ICT exhibition area.
Back at the calligraphy stand, the character “fu” serves as a symbol of wishes for good fortune among visitors. Meanwhile, the good fortune it symbolises is now increasingly realised through robotics technology.