TIANJIN, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- At a private-enterprise investment fair held recently in Tianjin Municipality, north China, two large embodied AI robots furnished with sensors stood center stage, demonstrating how they handle dangerous and repetitive inspections in chemical plants.
Ke Qinlin, who heads the ecosystem collaboration and innovation center at Sevnce Robotics Co., Ltd., said the company has spent the past few years refining its products in real-world settings such as chemical industrial parks and logistics warehouses. In his view, what truly opens up the market is not just a technology, but an ever-growing list of scenarios.
This reflects a national push in China. In November last year, the General Office of the State Council released a guideline to "accelerate the cultivation and openness of scenarios, and promote the large-scale application of new scenarios" -- the first systematic national effort of its kind.
The guideline defines scenarios as specific situations for testing new technologies, products and business models, serving as a bridge between technologies and industries, and between R&D and the market.
It covers emerging sectors such as the digital economy, AI, all-domain unmanned systems, clean energy and ocean development, as well as traditional sectors in transition, including manufacturing, transportation and smart logistics.
The initiative is already taking hold. From AI-powered drugmaking to robot swarms inspecting cross-sea bridges, and from brain-computer interfaces in clinical care to smart management of high-speed drones, China is seeing a steady stream of new applications, as frontline industry needs increasingly serve as proving grounds for new technologies.
For Sevnce Robotics, the scenario list gives it a clearer direction for R&D. Ke said many chemical industrial parks need to constantly screen for hazards. Once such needs are identified, the company can focus its R&D on high-risk, repetitive inspection tasks, making its products better suited to real-world production, whether identifying hazards or reading instrument data.
Sevnce Robotics has already partnered with companies including PetroChina, Sinopec and BASF, as its robots move from standalone products into real-world applications in the energy and chemical sectors.
"The scenario list brings previously fragmented market demand into focus," Ke said. "It gives us greater confidence to expand."
Niu Jianbo, deputy director of the Institute of Modern Management at Nankai University in Tianjin, said opening up scenarios allows private enterprises to "take their technologies to the scenarios and refine their products through real-world use," helping reduce the trial-and-error costs of commercializing innovations and accelerating the shift from concept validation to large-scale application.
Beyond the fair, more private enterprises have embedded scenarios into frontline operations. PaXini AI, an embodied perception company centered on multi-dimensional tactile sensing, has a data collection factory in Tianjin, where a humanoid robot equipped with dexterous hands rapidly performs complex tasks such as grasping and sorting in a logistics area. Its intelligence comes from large volumes of real-world scenario data.
After the Tianjin factory began production in June 2025, PaXini AI made data collection a key link between scenarios and R&D. Inside the data collection workshop, workers wearing self-developed five-finger tactile data gloves perform real-world tasks like grasping, assembly and sorting across 15 scenarios, including automotive manufacturing, healthcare and retail.
"Tianjin's diverse application scenarios across manufacturing, logistics and commercial services allow companies to continuously collect real-world data and validate their products," said Nie Xiangru, co-founder of PaXini AI. "Only when data is sufficiently rich and diverse can robots truly learn to perform tasks autonomously in complex environments."
At this year's fair, Tianjin released its first batch of 10 scenario innovation cases, covering fields including AI, robotics, brain-computer interfaces, life sciences, all-domain unmanned systems, smart factories, aviation equipment manufacturing, low-altitude economy and carbon reduction.
"We have built a scenario innovation service platform, which dynamically updates three lists, namely opportunities, capabilities and released projects, so private enterprises can match their technological strengths with available scenarios in a timely way," said an official with the Tianjin Development and Reform Commission. "We will also build a scenario validation center and a pilot-testing platform to provide testing grounds for private enterprises' new technologies and products."
Niu noted that China's continued efforts to open up scenarios, connect resources, and improve the business environment not only create application opportunities for private enterprises, but also offer them a broad stage for innovation-driven development, helping turn scenario-driven innovation opportunities into growth opportunities for the private economy. ■
