Editor’s note: This article was written by Lucia, a TechNode reporter.
A robot cooked noodles in about a minute. Another prepared breakfast. Humanoids climbed stairs, crawled across obstacles and sparred inside a fighting cage. Elsewhere, robots sorted packages, fetched medicine and practiced jobs ranging from household chores to emergency rescue.
The scenes at the 2026 World Robot Conference (WRC), held from Aug. 19 to 23 in Beijing, offered a glimpse of an industry trying to answer a bigger question: how can increasingly capable machines fit into the way people live and work?
Under the theme “Human-Robot Symbiosis, Production-Demand Convergence,” the five-day event brought together hundreds of robotics companies and thousands of products. Some 373 companies showcased more than 3,000 products, including 311 debuts, alongside dozens of new technologies and solutions.
Robots get busy — and sometimes creative
On the exhibition floor, the emphasis was not only on what robots could perform, but where they could be useful.
Galaxea AI presented several new models, including the Galbot ET1, G1, and S1. In a simulated home setting, the G1 made breakfast by toasting bread and pouring drinks. When the cup was moved mid-pour, the robot returned the pitcher upright to avoid spilling, relocated the cup, and resumed pouring.
CASBOT brought a different kind of performance to the show floor: a robot rock band complete with an electric guitarist, bassist, keyboard player and drummer.
The four-machine ensemble played Chinese rock favorites, including Beyond’s “Glorious Years” and “Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies,” before performing an original track titled “Heat Dissipation.”
Li-Gong demonstrated two LiDian F1 robots working together in a continuous industrial workflow, disassembling parts, sorting and transporting them, then reassembling and returning them — a showcase of how embodied intelligence could be applied to factory operations.
Unitree’s robots also stepped into the ring for kickboxing matches. In the 40-kilogram final, a team from North China Electric Power University remotely controlled a Unitree G1 to defeat another G1 operated by Unitree’s own team, taking the championship — a result Beijing Daily summed up with the playful headline: “defeat”
The show floor also featured a growing number of biomimetic robots from companies including UBTECH, AheadForm, Noetix Robotics and HokMind. Their designs are becoming increasingly humanlike, with developers refining everything from body proportions and joint movement to facial expressions, skin and hair.
Some of the most memorable moments, however, came when robots behaved in unexpected ways.
At the World Humanoid Robot Games held in Beijing during the same week, the 1.35-meter-tall Tiangong Omni won the small-size 400-meter race in 45.66 seconds. But its running style attracted almost as much attention as its speed: the robot leaned forward with its arms raised close to its face, prompting Chinese internet users to compare it to someone shyly “covering its face” while running.
Its developers had not originally designed the pose. Han Gang, a motion-control algorithm expert at the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, said developed Han said rapid arm swinging could place greater loads on the shoulder joints, increasing heat and energy consumption over the 400-meter race.
Beyond the demonstration
China’s humanoid robot boom is entering a critical test: moving from stage demonstrations and “small-batch trials” to reliable, large-scale use. identified, and said.