At the 2026 World Robot Conference Forum, held in Beijing from August 19 to 22, Xiong Rong, Chief Scientist of the Zhejiang Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, outlined significant challenges facing the deployment of robots across diverse real-world scenarios.

She noted that while the overall market potential for the industry is enormous, the demand for any single application scenario remains relatively small, and the landscape is highly fragmented. The types of objects and operational methods differ greatly between scenarios, and these requirements are themselves undergoing rapid iteration alongside changes in production and daily life.

A second major hurdle lies in the extended task chains and the wide variety of actions required. Many jobs demand a continuous sequence of operations, such as retrieving materials, aligning parts, using tools, and returning items to their proper place. Following the traditional approach of assigning a dedicated robot to each specific task often necessitates more physical space and incurs substantial costs for modifying the environment. Consequently, enabling a single robot to complete a full suite of diverse tasks represents a core challenge.

Thirdly, tasks are characterized by strong flexibility demands and unstructured environments. The manufacturing sector is shifting towards flexible and personalized production, requiring production lines to adapt quickly and frequently. Everyday life scenarios are replete with unexpected events, constantly changing needs, and dynamic environments. Relying on conventional methods, where professionals develop fixed, bespoke solutions for each setting, is increasingly unable to cope with such complex conditions.

"Our chosen path is to leverage embodied intelligence to address the realities of scenario diversity and task flexibility," Xiong Rong explained. "By pairing general-purpose behavioral intelligence with the humanoid robot as a universal hardware platform, we can better adapt to the existing human working and living environments and solve these pain points. When the capabilities of both are combined, robots can unlock an exceptionally broad market space," she concluded.