At this robot conference, everyone made their desire to "make money" quite obvious.

From August 8th to 11th, the annual World Robot Conference was held in Beijing.

As a WeChat official account that has long been concerned about the robot industry, "Bounded UnKnown" has participated in this grand event for four consecutive years, and this year's experience is particularly different.

From this year's conference, we can clearly feel the booming vitality of the entire robot industry and also sense its increasingly close connection with our daily lives.

At the end of the World Robot Conference, we'd like to share with you what we saw and felt this year. These are completely subjective experiences and just our personal opinions. If there are any inaccuracies, please feel free to leave your comments in the comment section.

One keyword: "Many"

Compared with previous World Robot Conferences, the most direct feeling this year is "many". This "many" mainly refers to two aspects. One is the large number of people, and the other is the large number of participating enterprises.

The large number of people is reflected in the enthusiasm of the exhibition visitors.

We didn't arrive at the venue until noon on August 9th. Although it was lunchtime, people getting off the subway and various vehicles kept coming in an endless stream, and there was a long queue at the traffic light intersection beside the convention center.

Inside the venue, the crowd was even denser. It was almost shoulder to shoulder, and it was difficult to move forward. Intuitively, this year's congestion was more than twice as bad as last year's.

Here, we are talking about the degree of congestion. The cause could be an increase in the number of people or that people stayed in the venue for a longer time. In any case, it reflects the popularity of the robot exhibition to some extent.

And this popularity is largely brought by parents and children. We can feel that there are significantly more "young visitors" this year than in previous years. I remember that at the end of July, I heard a mother on the subway asking a friend about the robot conference and wanting to take her child there.

I'm saying all this because I think humanoid robots have now become a popular topic among the public. They have shed the mystery of high - tech and have become something that most people can see and touch in a more friendly and intuitive way.

Two years ago, most of the exhibitors we saw at the robot conference venue were still professional people in suits, looking for suppliers and partners here. But now, it has become a parent - child activity place for Beijing citizens on weekends. It has to be said that this is a earth - shattering change.

And this change is often the first step for technology to move from the laboratory to people's lives, integrate into society, and find real application scenarios.

The "many" of participating enterprises is reflected in the changes of the venue.

The exhibition halls of the World Robot Conference are fixed every year. Besides the conference area for professional visitors, there are two main exhibition halls, A and B, and a separate and lower C hall beside them.

In previous years, there were still many small booths of a few square meters at the edges of Halls A and B. Now, these booths have basically disappeared, replaced by specially - designed and large booths of generally more than ten square meters.

Hall C has always been the loneliest hall because of its independent location, and its content has been relatively marginal. For example, the year before last, it mainly displayed military drones, fire - fighting robots, and component enterprises such as those for drives, bearings, and reducers; last year, there were more exhibitors selling telescopes, occupying many good positions. In addition, Hall C has always been a fixed venue for children's science and technology exchanges, such as drone racing performances every year.

All in all, Hall C has long been a marginal venue. But this year, the scene in Hall C is completely different. Various humanoid robot enterprises stand side by side. Although their booths are smaller than those in Halls A and B, their professionalism is no less than that of the enterprises in Halls A and B. This has also led to a bustling crowd in Hall C this year, which was very quiet in previous years.

From the changes in the audience and the increase in participating enterprises, it actually shows that the development space of the robot industry has been continuously expanding in the past two years, the industrial chain has been gradually improved, the application scenarios have become more abundant, and more and more emerging enterprises have begun to invest in it.

And this change also shows that the entire robot industry has completed an upgrade.

I still remember that four years ago, when I first visited the robot conference, the entire venue was divided by application scenarios. There were exclusive exhibition areas for construction robots, agricultural robots, industrial robots, flexible robotic arms, etc.

Now, these traditional classification models have been completely broken. Many of the enterprises that participated in previous exhibitions have gradually disappeared in the past two years, and only a few leading enterprises are still insisting in the exhibition area.

In the past two years, the industry around humanoid robots has almost completely renewed and recreated the entire robot conference.

One keyword: "Entertainment"

When entering the exhibition area, besides the "crowdedness", the second intuitive feeling this year is the "noise". It feels more like Universal Studios or Happy Valley rather than an industry exhibition.

"Noise" here is not a derogatory term. On the contrary, it is a manifestation of the lively atmosphere of the entire conference. And the source of the "noise" comes from the full - scale efforts of several robot enterprises.

JD.com became the exclusive global strategic partner of the World Robot Conference this year and moved the entire live - streaming e - commerce venue to the robot conference site, shouting the slogan "Buy robots on JD.com". Next to JD.com, Unitree Technology set up a ring on the spot, and the humanoid robot confrontations were intense;

Opposite Unitree Technology, Zhongqing Robot started "group live - streaming" and danced and walked the catwalk with human actors. Further on, Acceleration Evolution organized a football game on the spot. The professional host constantly mobilized the audience's emotions, and even from a distance, you could hear the young audience cheering for the robots in unison.

Entertainment has become an important keyword for this year's World Robot Conference. Of course, it has also been the most important keyword for the entire humanoid robot industry in the past two years.

Since last year, in order to gain more attention, humanoid robot enterprises have started various forms of "show - off". From Unitree's appearance on the Spring Festival Gala to become well - known, to the first humanoid robot half - marathon in Beijing Yizhuang, to Acceleration Evolution's football game, and Unitree's robot boxing match...

The style of humanoid robots has gradually changed from "going to work in factories" last year to "performing on stage" this year.

Some people may say that humanoid robots doing these things are a bit "off - track". But in fact, "show - off" has indeed become the survival way for most humanoid robot enterprises nowadays.

Firstly, "show - off" can intuitively reflect the technical strength of humanoid robots.

For example, a half - marathon can test the comprehensive abilities of humanoid robots in continuous environmental perception, real - time dynamic balance, environmental adaptation, energy management, gait planning, etc.; while folding clothes can demonstrate its high - precision and adaptive control abilities in handling flexible objects.

I still remember that last year, humanoid robots were basically mainly for walking demonstrations, and during the walking process, they not only needed engineers to support them, but most robots could only be briefly displayed and then hung on the rack like "a vase", operating for 5 minutes and charging for 2 hours.

But this year, the "tricks" of humanoid robots are completely different - catwalk shows, dancing, boxing, playing football, grabbing objects, making coffee and other scenarios all reflect the great progress of humanoid robots in human - machine motion control, adaptability, energy management and other aspects in the past year or so.

Secondly, "show - off" is also a necessary means for humanoid robot enterprises to maintain popularity and public attention.

After all, at present when commercialization has not been fully implemented, most robot enterprises still need to rely on financing to survive, and the huge public attention is the confidence for robot enterprises to continuously increase their valuations and promote financing.

And finally, and most importantly, "show - off" is also an important way for robot enterprises to achieve commercialization.

This matter is quite interesting. When humanoid robots first emerged, people's imagination of them was as family nannies, porters in automobile factories, or part transporters on an assembly line. Whether it was Elon Musk's bold prediction that everyone would have a robot in the future or the eagerness of star robot enterprises to go to work in factories, it all shows this problem.

But from the technological development in the past two years, robots are not more flexible than my 80 - year - old grandmother whether they are moving and selecting parts in factories or folding clothes and cleaning at home.

But just when people were about to question humanoid robots, some unintended jobs have become the life - saving straw for humanoid robots.

In the past two years, the most profitable scenarios for humanoid robots are not working in factories or being nannies at home, but performing shows in scenic spots by renting, playing the role of NPCs, taking photos with tourists, etc.

A more professional example is Optimus Prime and Megatron in Universal Studios, which are currently the most important application scenarios for humanoid robots. And now, emerging robot enterprises are also starting to pour into this field.

One thought: Everyone has "wanting to make money" written on their faces

Besides entertainment, the more obvious feeling this year is that everyone wants to make money more.

For example, a dexterous hand company put a huge price poster in the most prominent position of its booth: the single dexterous hand is only sold for 18,000 yuan. Some enterprises placed a row of roll - up banners saying "Recruiting agents nationwide" and left QR codes, expecting people to contact them privately. Some enterprises were sincerely recruiting salespeople and sales partners at the conference site, and some even pasted the purchase link on the chest of the robot, saying bluntly: Scan the code to own me in advance!

If last year and the year before last, everyone generally focused on technology and hid their "desire to make money", trying to be reserved and restrained, then this year, major enterprises have almost written "wanting to make money" on their faces.

The more subtle part of this change is reflected in the position of EX Robot.

EX is a bionic robot company. In the past few years, due to the simulated and anthropomorphic forms of its robots, it has always been the most - watched focus at the World Robot Conference. Maybe for this reason, EX's booth was always placed in the most prominent position of the conference hall every year before, so that visitors could see it as soon as they entered.

And EX has lived up to expectations and almost single - handedly supported the most attractive and interesting programs at the conference every year. But this year, EX Robot did not participate in the exhibition. Instead, it quietly moved its position to a robot restaurant two kilometers away.

This is a robot - themed restaurant that opened at the end of July this year, located downstairs of the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center. After the conference, we specially went there to experience and visit.

When entering the restaurant, two bartender - looking robots from EX were at the front desk to receive guests. Diners could have a voice conversation with the robots through buttons.

Around the restaurant, robots dressed as Su Dongpo, Newton and other characters were on display. And in the corner beside, an employee was operating a robotic dog from DeepRobotics. It was wearing a dinosaur skin and waddling towards the diners, "seeking hugs".

Robots have become the most important selling point of this restaurant. Coinciding with the humanoid robot conference, although the food in this restaurant is not very good, the business is extremely booming. We arrived at the restaurant around four o'clock in the afternoon, but were told that all the staple foods for the day had been pre - ordered by group meals at noon, and only some snacks were left.

So, although "receiving customers" may not be the initial setting of the industry for humanoid robots, at least for now, it is indeed the most mature commercial application of humanoid robots and is really profitable.

From spending money on exhibitions to making money from business operations, the change of EX may show some trends in the robot industry.

In fact, the implementation of similar applications like robot restaurants is also extending from restaurants to more and broader scenarios, attracting more and more enterprises to invest in it.

For example, at the robot conference site this time, we also saw many similar enterprises, which faintly have the trend of becoming the mainstream application scenarios for current humanoid robots. They focus on cultural and tourism scenarios and provide one - to - one bionic robots. There are little Zhuoma in Tibetan robes, salespeople in professional suits, and even well - known historical figures like Qu Yuan and Emperor Taizong of Tang, which can be suitable for positions such as waiters, museum docents, and scenic - spot tour guides.