Beijing aims high in robotics

Beijing plans to develop into a global center for robotics by 2025 and has issued an industry blueprint at the ongoing World Robot Conference.

World Robot Conference 2017 kicked off in Beijing, August 22, featuring major areas of robotic research, application and innovation. [Photo: VCG]

The capital aims to receive 12 to 15 billion yuan (1.8 to 2.25 billion U.S. dollars) in revenue from the robotics industry by 2020 and 60 billion yuan by 2025, according to the plan.

The city hopes to have 10 leading robotics companies, 10 R&D headquarters and become a world-leading robotics base by 2020.

Children playing with robots at the 2017 World Robot Conference. [Photo: VCG]

China has seen a boom in industrial robots in recent years, recording average annual sales growth of 35 percent. In 2016, China manufactured 72,000 industrial robots, around a quarter of global output.

Beijing is home to around 240 companies specialized in artificial intelligence, with over 7,800 related patents. Beijing Economic Technological Development Area, which hosted the conference, has about 100 robotics companies.

The city's robotics industry is speeding up its development and prioritizing the integrated application of industrial robots, according to Zhang Boxu, director of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology.