Tech Observation | How much longer until embodied intelligent robots enter homes?

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, March 24 - A cute panda-shaped robotic dog flipped over and steadily “stood” up, extending its round “paws” to ask for a hug; next to it, another one obediently cooperated with the audience’s head-patting actions, its head turning flexibly, and its “enjoying” appearance made the crowd unable to stop taking pictures.

Xinhua News reporter Zhao Qiuyue, produced

This scene was a real moment at the China Household Appliances and Consumer Electronics Expo (AWE2026). AWE2026 could be described as the “most robotic” edition, where traditional home appliance and specialized embodied intelligence companies staged a visual feast of smart technology, with various robot products covering diverse scenarios such as home services, educational companionship, industrial inspection, and logistics handling, making the future of smart living seem within reach.

The “most robotic” edition of AWE

The dual drives of policies and markets laid the foundation for this “robotic feast.” In August 2025, the State Council released the “Opinions on Deepening the Implementation of the ‘Artificial Intelligence+’ Action,” clarifying the phased goals for China’s implementation of the “Artificial Intelligence+” action. The Development Research Center of the State Council predicted in the “China Development Report 2025” that the embodied intelligence market is expected to surpass one trillion yuan by 2035, and during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China’s embodied intelligence industry will complete a leap from a scale of hundreds of billions to trillions. At the same time, the improvement in residents’ quality of life has driven a surge in demand for home scenarios, thereby promoting the home applianceization of robots and the robotization of home appliances.

At AWE2026, held from March 12 to 15, Haier Smart Home concentrated on releasing the “Haiwa” series of three family service robots. Organizer’s photo

At the exhibition site, traditional home appliance companies “crossed boundaries” to give home appliances “brains” and “limbs”: Haier Smart Home released the “Haiwa” series of three family service robots, covering cleaning, companionship, and household chores; Roborock’s first wheeled robotic vacuum cleaner G-Rover made its domestic debut, breaking the mobility limitations of traditional vacuum cleaners; Duzhimi’s second-generation bionic robotic arm vacuum cleaner, with its high degree of freedom and dynamic fitting capability, focuses on deep cleaning in complex areas and low spaces at home; the MOVA Z70 Pro robotic vacuum cleaner achieves 9cm obstacle crossing with its bionic mechanical wheels to adapt to various home environments; Hisense’s first commercial humanoid robot Harley focuses on reception and professional sales, becoming a “new helper” in commercial scenarios.

At AWE2026, held from March 12 to 15, Magic Atom’s MagicDog was on display. Company’s photo

In contrast to the “cross-border transformation” of home appliance companies, specialized embodied intelligence companies focused on applications such as companionship and entertainment. Yushu’s quadruped robot completed high-difficulty actions such as climbing, overcoming obstacles, and fighting on site; Magic Atom’s panda-shaped robotic dog, with its modified motor, attracted numerous fans with its agile interactive performance; Lexiang Technology’s new collaborative robot N1 (Xiao’en) occupies only 0.2 square meters, covering high-frequency space areas for daily chores like bar counters and kitchen worktops.

Different companies seek their own paths, highlighting differentiated development

Currently, the technical routes for embodied intelligent robots mainly fall into three categories: focusing on “brain + body,” focusing on “small brain + body,” and “brain + small brain + body” full-stack development, each with its own emphasis and strengths.

The “body” is akin to a human trunk, serving as the hardware foundation of robots, with some companies focusing solely on body development, resulting in relatively weak motion control capabilities; the “small brain” is responsible for the robot’s movement and balance abilities, determining its agility and ability to perform complex actions; the “brain” has decision-making capabilities, which is the core of a robot’s realization of “autonomous intelligence,” and in the future, it is expected to enable robots to autonomously complete various tasks like humans.

Many interviewees indicated that China has a strong competitive edge in the fields of “body” and “small brain,” backed by its robust manufacturing base, hardware advantages, and complete supply chain, but there is still significant room for improvement in the decision-making intelligence field of the “brain.”

Chen Chunyu, CTO of Magic Atom, introduced that the company follows a distinctive route of “full-stack self-research technology + commercialization first,” focusing on both the “body” development of robots and the algorithms and data in the “brain” field, with over 90% of its self-developed hardware, including joint modules and dexterous hands. “The panda-shaped robotic dog that can cooperate with the audience’s head-patting is able to perform flexible interactions due to the innovative upgrade of its three degrees of freedom head drive on the body,” said Chen Chunyu.

Itstone focuses on the full-stack technology direction of embodied intelligence, extending from “data” to “brain,” and then to “body.” The company’s chief scientist Ding Wenchao expressed the aim to form core competitiveness in decision-making intelligence and achieve differentiated breakthroughs.

At AWE2026, held from March 12 to 15, Lexiang Technology showcased the tracked robot W1 and small Wall-E robots. Company’s photo

“With the overlap of mobility and interaction capabilities, current robots exhibit three core values: first, integration of hardware terminals, where more product functions will be realized on robots; second, they can better understand human emotions; third, they possess long-term memory and proactive interaction capabilities,” said Guo Renjie, founder and CEO of Lexiang Technology.

Bringing robots into homes still requires overcoming multiple hurdles

Since 2025, financing in the field of embodied intelligence has continued to heat up. CITIC Securities Research Department predicts that 2026 is expected to be the “mass production year” for the robot industry, with capital levels innovating IPO systems in A-shares and Hong Kong stocks to accommodate the wave of asset securitization in the industrial chain.

Despite the positive momentum in industry development, truly bringing embodied intelligent robots into homes still requires overcoming multiple hurdles. Many industry insiders indicate that the current industry data and models are still in the exploratory stage, with differing judgments within the industry on whether it will take 5 or 10 years for the explosive entry into homes.

During AWE2026, the official establishment of the Household Service Robots Committee of the China Household Electrical Appliances Association injected new momentum into industry development, becoming an important platform for addressing industry pain points and promoting industrial collaboration.

It is reported that the first batch of 50 members of the committee covers the entire industrial chain, including home appliances, embodied intelligence, core components, and AI technology, with companies like Haier Smart Home, Midea Group, and Magic Atom gathering, including 23 listed companies and 12 companies preparing for listing, with the annual total revenue of the 50 member units’ parent companies exceeding 1 trillion yuan, gathering strong technical research and development capabilities and market operation experience in the industry. Shu Hai, vice president of Haier Group and director of the committee, stated that the establishment of the committee achieved coordinated gathering of the entire industrial chain, and in the future, it will focus on topics such as standard unification, scenario exploration, and data collection to promote the gradual integration of robots into family scenarios.

Wan Chunhui, deputy secretary-general of the China Household Electrical Appliances Association, introduced that family scenarios have become the ultimate goal recognized by all robot companies, with more and more enterprises investing significant resources to explore data collection, real scene training, etc., around family scenarios. However, the complexity of family scenarios also poses common challenges such as repeated data collection, lack of unified technical paths, and missing standards, where collaboration between home appliance companies and robot companies has many topics that need breakthroughs. The committee hopes to promote deep integration of industry, academia, and research by building an industrial ecosystem platform, facilitating technological collaboration and achievement transformation, and advancing the formulation and revision of standards, enabling robots to enter thousands of households as soon as possible.

Zhang Chong, president of the China Light Industry Federation, proposed three expectations: first, to build a strong service platform that promotes the formation of a modern industrial chain with upstream and downstream interaction and industry-academic-research collaboration; second, to guide companies to closely align with public needs, integrate into the silver economy, and develop more age-friendly and inclusive household service robots; third, to strengthen normative operations to safeguard the healthy and sustainable development of the industry.

Guo Renjie believes that for robots to truly enter homes, three prerequisites must be met: safety, full automation, and addressing specific needs. “We must go to the users, refine, trial and error, and validate in real scenarios, iterating rapidly; only by finding true value on the user end can consumer-grade embodied intelligence transform from vision to reality.”

Chen Chunyu believes that current home interactions of embodied intelligent robots are undergoing a transformation, evolving from “passive understanding” at the perception level to “active understanding,” and from “passive response” in interaction methods to “active service,” which requires reconstructing the technical architecture to achieve collaborative innovation in perception, decision-making, and interaction.

At AWE2026, held from March 12 to 15, the Itstone A1 robot is challenging the Guinness World Record. Company’s photo

Ding Wenchao forecasts that between 2026 and 2027, robots will see rapid development in the industrial field, taking on multi-role tasks; by around 2027, early application opportunities may emerge in the household sector, mainly focusing on emotional companionship and educational services. “Traditional home appliance companies integrate upward from home appliances, while embodied intelligence companies extend downward; these two paths will ultimately converge. Traditional companies understand families and users better, and the fusion learning between both sides will accelerate the process of integrating into family scenarios.”

Source: Xinhua News Agency

Author: Zhao Qiuyue