From September 17 to 19, the 9th China Robot Summit opened at Hangzhou's Future Sci-Tech City under the theme "Smart-linked New Ecosystem, Empowering All Scenarios—the智变 and质变 of the Robot+ Era." Industry leaders said 2026 has become the "first year of humanoid robot mass production," with the sector accelerating from technology showcase to scaled application.
The summit released several key outcomes: launch of a health-care robot collaborative innovation platform, a university robot creative-contest agent track, the "2026 China Embodied Intelligence Industry Going-Global Report" (a five-layer framework and four-stage roadmap), and a unified embodied-intelligence capability evaluation framework. About 50 associations, 500 experts and 2,000 industry representatives attended, with 35 exhibitors across industrial, service, humanoid, components and infrastructure zones.
China MEI Technology Association president Qu Daokui noted first-half embodied-intelligence financing exceeded 90 billion yuan, but warned of bottlenecks—core components, low real-scenario share and no unified standards—as the industry crosses "from capital frenzy to value realization."
Source: Economic Daily / China Business Journal / Securities Times
