BEIJING, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- High above the ground, a boxy, wall-climbing robot clings securely to the towering steel exterior of a petrochemical storage tank. Navigating the dizzying heights with expert precision, it autonomously maps its route and systematically executes a seamless sequence of rust removal, inspection, and spraying.
These "mechanical spidermen," developed by a Tianjin-based robotics firm, are already hard at work in the shipbuilding and petroleum sectors, redefining how heavy industry tackles extreme environments.
Zhang Minglu, chairman of BingooRobot, said hazardous tasks like welding and spraying are notoriously difficult for staff. "Robots are now critical to solving this chronic labor shortage," he said.
Traditionally, robots have been largely confined to entertainment and display roles, with very limited use in industrial operations. But in China, that dynamic is beginning to change.
Meng Yang, general manager of a robot innovation center in Zhongguancun, Beijing, said the goal is to delegate high-risk and highly repetitive tasks to robots, allowing humans to focus on more creative and value-driven work. "The true vitality of the robotics industry lies in tangible, real-world applications," he said.
That momentum is increasingly visible across China's vast industrial landscape. In Tianjin, quadruped robots have been deployed to conduct hydrological inspections along the Haihe River basin. They autonomously navigate to the riverbank, collect water samples, and return, enabling real-time data uploading and early warning analysis for water quality.
In the desert near the Fengcheng Oilfield in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, explosion-proof inspection robots equipped with high-precision infrared sensors and LiDAR now patrol flammable and explosive refining facilities around the clock. Powered by large language models, these machines can understand voice commands and use sensor fusion to assess hazards, mastering safety protocols in just three minutes, a process that would typically take a human worker about three months to learn.
Beyond hazardous environments, as domestic application scenarios continue to expand, China's industrial robots are accelerating their entry into thousands of industries.
To date, domestically branded industrial robots have expanded into 253 sub-categories of the national economy. From automotive welding to warehouse logistics, their role in empowering diverse industries continues to strengthen.
To facilitate this transition, China is vigorously promoting the "Robot Plus" application initiative, encouraging robots to iterate their technology in real-world settings and form application loops based on genuine needs.
The momentum is reflected in the data. According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China produced 538,000 industrial robots in the first half of 2026, a year-on-year increase of 28 percent. Revenue for large-scale enterprises in the robotics sector reached 165.5 billion yuan (about 24.4 billion U.S. dollars) in the same period, up 24.5 percent, as a batch of competitive emerging companies continues to grow.
Buoyed by this robust domestic momentum, Chinese robotics are rapidly expanding their global footprint. In the first half of 2026, robots were exported to 141 countries and regions, with the total value reaching 6.29 billion yuan, an 18.6 percent increase.
"As Chinese industrial robots penetrate diverse sectors, the shift from standardization to scenario-based applications marks their transition from niche high-end equipment to universal productivity tools," said Zhao Mingguo, an automation researcher at Tsinghua University. "This will empower domestic industries and fuel industrial transformation overseas." ■
