Beijing Aims High in Robotics

August 23, Beijing: A robot pianist plays at the opening ceremony of the World Robot Conference 2017 (WRC2017). The conference, known as the “Robot Olympics,” was held at the Etrong International Exhibition and Convention Center from August 23 to 26. More than 150 global robotics companies, research organizations and universities attended the event to showcase their cutting-edge achievements and products.
Beijing plans to become a global center for robotics by 2025 and issued an industry blueprint at the conference. The capital hopes to host 10 leading robotics companies and 10 R&D headquarters and serve as a world-leading robotics base by 2020. In recent years, China has seen a boom in industrial robots, recording average annual sales growth of 35 percent. In 2016, China manufactured 72,000 industrial robots, around a quarter of global output.