China humanoid robots seek commercial breakthrough

China's humanoid robot industry is trying to turn investor enthusiasm and technical demonstrations into commercial use, as hundreds of companies take part in the World Robot Conference in Beijing.

The conference opened on August 19, the same day Unitree made its Shanghai stock market debut and its shares jumped over 600 percent at the open. The excitement remains largely a bet on future use, because commercial applications for even advanced humanoid robots are still limited.

At Hangzhou Robot School in eastern China, a customised Unitree robot named Wuji welcomes visitors and describes training for robot jobs. The school is run by Zhejiang University with local government support and aims to help companies move robots toward real-world application.

Zhao Han, deputy director of the Zhejiang University institute behind the school, said companies enrol robots, which are evaluated and trained for future workplace roles. The school plans to issue qualifications confirming a robot's ability to perform specific tasks.

Experts said the technical challenge remains large. Zhu Tianle, an engineer at the robot school, said enabling robots to understand the world remains a global challenge. Lian Jye Su of Omdia said adding AI to a robot is not enough and that consumer expectations for care robots are far ahead of what current machines can do.

Morningstar equity analyst Kangyuxiao Li said the next phase for the industry is less about proving that a robot can walk and more about proving that it can perform economically useful tasks.

Robots are being tested in China in roles including directing traffic, cleaning houses and working on factory floors. Companies also need large amounts of real-world training data. At one training company, people using controllers repeated tasks such as folding clothes, moving blocks and spraying a canister while humanoid robots mirrored the actions.

The sector has become part of the US-China technology race. In July, Washington banned imports of foreign humanoid and quadruped robots on national security grounds. Ethan Qi of Counterpoint Research said China's advantages are manufacturing scale, supply chain integration and cost competitiveness, while the United States is stronger in software and cutting-edge research.

Su warned that many companies' valuations depend on humanoid robots eventually becoming general-purpose and human-like. Failing to deliver that, he said, would be a major blow.