Smarter, cheaper humanoid robots showcased at World Robot Conference

Humanoid robots on display at the ongoing 2025 World Robot Conference are showing greater dexterity and intelligence, and are tending to become increasingly affordable.

Opened on Friday in Beijing, the 2025 World Robot Conference has brought together more than 200 robotics companies from around the world to present their latest innovations, including more than 50 companies displaying hundreds of humanoid robots, many equipped with advanced hands capable of mimicking human gestures, grasping objects, and even performing massages. These breakthroughs mark a shift from conception to practical deployment of humanoid robots.

"These actions weren't possible with traditional grippers. Now, with these abilities, robots can help with biological experiments or enter industrial production in a real sense as they can tighten screws and assemble parts. It's all achievable," said Wang Letian, vice president for products with Robotera.

The leap in dexterity is enabled by smarter "brains." Powered by large AI models trained on multimodal data, robots can now autonomously identify and sort objects.

"Last year, everybody was focusing on how to make robots walk stably. This year, we focus more on operational skills. That should be attributed to the development of embodied multimodal models. With dozens or hundreds of real-machine datasets, we can quickly fine-tune skill models," said Ji Chao, chief executive officer of LindenBot.

While robots' capabilities rise, their prices fall. Some compact humanoid robots now retail for as low as 30,000 yuan to 40,000 yuan (about 4,100 U.S. dollars to 5,500 U.S. dollars) apiece, driven by maturing supply chains.

"Traditional industrial robots can't handle point-to-point tasks alone, so we have to add some abilities of humanoid robots. The core components of industrial robots can be shared with humanoid robots. With technical iteration, the development of robots can show results quickly, and costs will drop," said Deng Shihai, vice president of Crobotp.

Co-hosted by the Chinese Institute of Electronics and the World Robot Cooperation Organization, the five-day 2025 World Robot Conference features forums, exhibitions, competitions and networking events.

Smarter, cheaper humanoid robots showcased at World Robot Conference

Russia said on Monday that its armed forces had captured another settlement in the Kharkiv region, while Ukraine reported striking Russian targets and power outages following Russian attacks.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said in its latest report that over the past 24 hours, Russian forces struck 142 areas, including facilities used to transport Western-supplied weapons, as well as ammunition and fuel depots, and temporary deployment sites of Ukrainian forces and foreign mercenaries.

It said Russian forces also destroyed Ukrainian armored vehicles, various types of artillery and other military vehicles, while air defense units shot down 76 Ukrainian drones.

In addition, the ministry said Russian forces had taken control of the settlement of Vilcha in the Kharkiv region.

The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said on the same day that 223 combat engagements took place over the past 24 hours.

The Ukrainian Air Force, together with missile units and artillery, struck Russian personnel concentration areas and one key target.

The Ukrainian side said its forces repelled the Russian army's attacks in the directions of Kursk, Kupyansk, Lyman, and Pokrovsk.

Russian forces launched air strikes on power facilities in Odesa region, Zaporizhzhia region, Dnipropetrovsk region and Donetsk region in the early hours of Monday, according to Ukrainian media reports.

As of Monday morning, some areas in those regions were experiencing power outages.

Ukraine's largest private energy company, DTEK Group, said Russian forces attacked two of its power facilities in the Odesa region in the early hours of Monday, causing severe damage.

The company said repairs would take time, adding that continued air raid sirens have complicated the work. Technicians are working to restore key facilities and power supplies as soon as possible.

The Russian side has not commented on the attacks.

Russia captures one more settlement in Kharkiv, Ukraine reports power outages from Russian attacks