The 2025 World Robot Conference (WRC) was held in Beijing from August 8-12, bringing together global players across the robotics industry value chain, from OEMs to core component suppliers, all showcasing their latest achievements. JPMorgan's on-site observations revealed that the humanoid robot industry is rapidly heating up, with commercial deployment steps drawing increasingly closer.

Conference Highlights: Humanoid Robots Take Center Stage

Unlike previous years, humanoid robots became the absolute focal point of this year's conference for the first time. From robot OEMs to core component companies specializing in hand modules, reducers, motors, sensors, and LiDAR, the entire industry value chain made collective appearances, attracting significant attention from corporate clients, government officials, and general audiences.

Domestic automation and robotics companies including Estun, HCFA, Dobot, Siasun, and Keenon have all entered the field, viewing the humanoid robot boom as an irreversible trend and increasing strategic investments accordingly. While international brands like ABB and Kuka also participated, they focused more on traditional businesses such as collaborative robots and industrial robots.

Star Companies Showcase Capabilities: UBTECH ROBOTICS and Unitree Become Conference Highlights

UBTECH ROBOTICS: The "24-Hour Workers" in Factories

UBTECH ROBOTICS' booth attracted the largest crowds. Their newly released Walker S2 robots formed a "production team," demonstrating sorting operations on a simulated production line. These robots support automatic charging and can operate continuously for 24 hours. On-site staff revealed that the actual sorting speed in real factory scenarios is twice the demonstration speed.

More exciting is their commercialization progress: UBTECH ROBOTICS management disclosed that the Walker S series plans to ship 500 units in 2025, with BYD having confirmed the purchase of 50 units. The order delivery cycle is 2-3 months, with gradual volume ramp-up starting in September.

Unitree: Robot Boxing? Balance Capabilities Amaze the Audience

Unitree's on-site performance was truly eye-catching. Their robots engaged in a "boxing match," maintaining steady balance when subjected to external impacts, with smooth and precise punching and kicking movements, demonstrating exceptional motion control capabilities.

Unitree CEO Wang Xingxing mentioned in his speech that the current development stage of the humanoid robot industry resembles the AI industry before its explosion—the technical roadmap is clear, and a "breakthrough moment" similar to ChatGPT may only be 1-3 years away. He optimistically predicted that general-purpose humanoid robots could be realized within 3-5 years, much faster than the industry's commonly believed 8-10 years.

Technology Gaps Emerge: Some Have Achieved Implementation, Others Still in "Prototype Stage"

After visiting over 30 booths, JPMorgan found significant differences in technological maturity among different companies. UBTECH ROBOTICS and Unitree can already conduct real-time demonstrations, with robots capable of performing complex actions such as walking, grasping static objects, repetitive tasks (like making coffee, moving boxes), and posture transitions, covering multiple scenarios including industrial, retail, security, medical, and R&D applications.

However, most companies remain in the prototype demonstration stage. There are exceptions though: Galbot focuses on developing general-purpose robots for retail and logistics scenarios; Spirit AI showcased a clothes-folding robot trained on VLA (Vision-Language-Action) models; Robotera has developed its own VLA model, with hand modules capable of flexible operations at 10 clicks per second.

Core Component Breakthroughs: "Black Technology" Down to Fingertips

Core components are crucial to robot performance. Leader Drive showcased multiple harmonic reducers suitable for industrial and humanoid robots, including the world's smallest harmonic reducer for robot fingers, which is already commercially available, while their actuator modules also attracted attention.

Hand dexterity is a critical capability for humanoid robots. Besides Robotera, OEMs like Unitree also demonstrated self-developed dexterous hand modules, laying the foundation for robots' fine operations such as grasping and assembly.

China vs. Global: Vastly Different Development Paths

Notably, Chinese and international companies show distinct differences in R&D focus. American companies primarily concentrate on general-purpose robot control technologies, while Chinese players tend toward application breakthroughs in specific scenarios, such as industrial sorting and retail services.

JPMorgan's analysis suggests this difference stems from market demand: domestic manufacturing and service industries have urgent needs for "scenario-customized" robots, driving companies to rapidly deploy solutions in segmented sectors.

Industry Outlook: Commercial Deployment Just Around the Corner?

Based on conference outcomes, technical bottlenecks in humanoid robots are gradually being overcome. UBTECH ROBOTICS, with its vertical integration model (covering the entire chain of motion execution, control, and reasoning models) and first-mover advantage, has already taken the lead in commercialization; Unitree demonstrates strong capabilities in motion stability.

As core components mature and scenario demands are released, humanoid robots may indeed be getting closer to us.