Prices drop to the hundreds-yuan level, demand surges 11-fold, and humanoid robots drive a "blistering rise" in sensors.

Recently, humanoid robots have become the focus of many exhibitions.

For example, the 2025 Chengdu Auto Show and the 2025 Guizhou Big Data Expo have specifically built a stage for robot technology display. At these exhibitions, the flexibility and precise operation demonstrated by robots cannot be achieved without the coordinated cooperation of various sensors. They are like the "nervous system" and "five senses" of robots, providing strong support for the excellent performance of robots.

Meanwhile, reporters from Star Market Daily noticed that a prominent trend is emerging in recent robot industry competitions and exhibitions: not only do products exhibited by many robot body enterprises generally come equipped with various sensors to improve performance, but also many sensor enterprises have actively participated. By displaying core sensing technologies and solutions, they have strengthened cooperation with complete machine manufacturers.

Many industry insiders said that in the next few years, the market for humanoid robot sensors will not only expand rapidly in scale but also form a mainstream trend in areas such as touch, torque, and vision. Judging from the application hotspots, tactile sensors and electronic skin are most likely to become mainstream configurations.

At the capital level, sensors have received support from both policy-based funds and market-oriented capital. Tang Jincao, the chairman of Shimura Capital, told reporters from Star Market Daily that leading projects can often complete financing in the hundreds of millions of yuan in a short period. Most of the investors behind them are industrial funds, leading enterprises in the industry chain, and top venture capital institutions. Small and medium-sized enterprises, on the other hand, rely more on the support of government-guided funds and regional industrial funds.

However, although the sensor industry is developing rapidly, it still faces multiple challenges when meeting the needs of humanoid robots. For example, in terms of cost and mass production, engineering of tactile sensors, multi-sensor fusion and synchronization, etc. In the future, it is necessary to focus on reducing costs, improving reliability, strengthening system-level integration, and establishing unified certification and testing standards to meet the strict requirements of humanoid robots.

The "Tactile Nerves" of Humanoid Robots

Sensors are an important bridge for humanoid robots to interact with the outside world. Among them, force sensors are of high importance. Force sensors are divided into one to six dimensions according to the measurement dimension. Six-dimensional force can provide the most comprehensive force sense information and is the core for robots to achieve dynamic balance and fine operation. In key parts such as the wrists and ankles of humanoid robots, six-dimensional force sensors collect mechanical data in real-time, enabling robots to adjust their gaits to avoid falling and control the grasping force to avoid damaging objects.

A humanoid robot manufacturer told reporters from Star Market Daily that the four types of perception sensors commonly used in humanoid robots include vision, force/torque, touch, and IMU. A humanoid robot usually needs to be equipped with 4 six-dimensional force sensors (wrists and ankles) and 28 joint torque sensors. These "tactile nerves" account for about 15% of the total BOM cost of the whole machine. "Without force sensors, the fine operation of robots is almost impossible. Physical interaction ability is the core."

Sensors support various difficult actions of humanoid robots. Reporters from Star Market Daily observed on-site that in the 2025 World Humanoid Robot Games, many participating robots achieved precise motion control and complex task execution with the help of sensors.

For example, there is the Tianguang Ultra developed by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center (hereinafter referred to as Beijing Humanoid).

Guo Yijie, the person in charge of motion control at Beijing Humanoid, told reporters from Star Market Daily that behind the full autonomy of the embodied Tianguang Ultra lies a full autonomous navigation system. This system is equipped with multiple sensors: RGB cameras, IMUs, and lidars, as well as some supporting sensors. He further said that these components are all supplied by specialized sensor manufacturers.

At the previous World Robot Games, Tianguang Ultra won the championship in the 100-meter sprint event with a time of 21.50 seconds. In addition, it was the only contestant in the 1500-meter race of this Games to run fully autonomously without manual remote control throughout the whole process.

At the Chengdu Auto Show, embodied intelligent robots, as "smart" volunteers, undertook tasks such as guiding visitors, delivering items, and cleaning. Among them, the capabilities of XPeng AI Robot Iron are also thanks to the assistance of vision sensors.

It is reported that the vision sensors in its Eagle Eye Vision System endow Iron with the ability to perceive the surrounding environment without blind spots in a 720° range, enabling it to accurately identify objects such as vehicles, luggage, and charging piles.

In addition, reporters learned that different types of sensors enable the "smart" volunteers at the auto show to achieve multi-dimensional capabilities. Among them, lidar sensors are like their "navigation devices". By emitting laser beams and receiving reflected signals, they can quickly construct a three-dimensional map of the surrounding environment. This allows robots to flexibly avoid pedestrians and obstacles and accurately lead visitors to various exhibition areas even in the crowded and complex layout of the auto show site.

In the process of delivering items, tactile sensors play a key role. Their highly sensitive perception ability enables robots to accurately grasp the weight, shape, and grasping force of items, ensuring that the items are safely delivered to visitors intact during the delivery process.

Turning our attention to the Guizhou Big Data Expo, the second-generation humanoid robot VersaBot 2.0 of Weimaier Technology Co., Ltd. in Guian New Area has attracted much attention. Its self-developed high-precision RGBD vision system can achieve 360-degree panoramic visual perception, allowing the robot to achieve autonomous positioning and obstacle avoidance in a three-dimensional environment, thus walking autonomously without remote control.

Six-Dimensional Force Sensors and Joint Torque Sensors Will Become the Market Mainstream

The year 2025 is regarded as the first year of mass production of humanoid robots. The order volumes of many manufacturers have increased significantly, which has correspondingly driven a simultaneous surge in the demand for sensors, one of the core components.

"This year, the orders from humanoid robot manufacturers have achieved 'leapfrog growth'. Taking the core product, the six-dimensional force sensor, as an example, the current shipment volume has exceeded that of the whole of last year. The growth of joint torque sensors is even more significant. The annual shipment volume last year was about 50,000 sets, while in the first half of this year, it has reached 70,000 sets, exceeding the level of the whole of last year. This reflects that the industry is rapidly moving from the laboratory stage to large-scale mass production." Liu Wuyue, the founder of BlueDot Touch, told reporters from Star Market Daily. It is reported that currently, BlueDot Touch's customers include leading embodied intelligent robot manufacturers such as Xiaomi Robotics, Zhipu Robotics, Qianxun Intelligence, Yuejiang Robotics, and ABB.

When talking about future production capacity planning, Liu Wuyue said that the company's current production capacity is running at full load, which can strongly support the needs of market growth. "The company will continue to plan for production capacity expansion according to market development in the future to meet the continuously growing demand."

Nie Xiangru, the co-founder of Pacini Sensing Technology, told reporters from Star Market Daily that since the company was established in 2021, Pacini sensors have achieved large-scale shipments and commercial deliveries and currently occupy a leading position in the market share of the robot tactile sensor segment. In addition, through technological architecture optimization and large-scale production, the cost has been significantly reduced: compared with similar solutions on the market that used to cost hundreds of thousands of yuan, its unit price has even dropped to about a few hundred yuan.

The core product of Kunwei Technology is the six-dimensional force sensor. Gu Huixin, the deputy general manager of the company, also told reporters from Star Market Daily before that in the past two years, the company has established business cooperation with all the leading enterprises in the domestic humanoid robot track, and some force perception sensor products suitable for humanoid robots have been mass-produced.

Gu Huixin expects that sensor enterprises can achieve profitability this year or in 2026. Especially this year is a critical year. If many leading humanoid robot enterprises can achieve mass production smoothly, it will quickly promote the sensor industry to achieve profitability.

It can be seen that among various sensors, the demand for six-dimensional force sensors and joint torque sensors has increased most prominently.

Among them, six-dimensional force sensors are the key to achieving dynamic balance and fine operation. Usually, 4 are required per unit, and it is estimated that they will account for more than 40% of the overall sensor market in 2030. Joint torque sensors, as the core of joint force control, their technological breakthroughs will significantly improve the motion control ability of robots.

In terms of the industrial pattern, domestic substitution is accelerating. Many industry insiders in the sensor industry chain analyzed for reporters from Star Market Daily that in 2024, the shipment volume of domestic six-dimensional force sensors exceeded 10,000 units, and the price is only about half of that of imported products.

According to the 2025 China Humanoid Robot Six-Dimensional Force Sensor Market Research Report released by MIR Rui Industry in July, in 2024, the shipment volume of six-dimensional force sensors in the field of Chinese humanoid robots increased by 1100% year-on-year, and the localization rate increased from 19% four years ago to 57.8%.

Song Chang, a partner of Qifu Capital, told reporters from Star Market Daily that from the overall perspective of the industry, the development of humanoid robots has promoted the sensor industry to be more integrated and miniaturized.

"In the next few years, the market scale of humanoid robot sensors will increase with the increase in the shipment volume of robots, and domestic sensor enterprises will fully enter the technology realization period. Among them, tactile sensors will be the most important market hotspot."

Reporters from Star Market Daily also learned from multiple parties in the industry chain that the application hotspots of humanoid robot sensors are clear. Tactile sensors and electronic skin are related to the safety of human-machine interaction and fine operation. Torque and six-dimensional force sensors support the compliant control and assembly of joints and other parts. Vision/depth perception modules are the core of environmental cognition. Inertial sensors such as IMUs will become popular due to the demand for attitude control. In the next few years, its market scale will expand rapidly, and areas such as touch, torque, and vision will become mainstream. Industrial competition will focus on cost reduction, efficiency improvement, reliability, and system integration ability.

Although the sensor industry is developing rapidly, it still faces many challenges when meeting the needs of humanoid robots. Tang Jincao analyzed for reporters from Star Market Daily that the first is the problem of cost and mass production. High-precision torque, tactile, and vision sensors are still expensive and have complex processes, making it difficult to achieve low-cost large-scale production in a short period.

Secondly, there are engineering bottlenecks in tactile sensors. Electronic skin and array tactile sensors have deficiencies in durability, anti-interference, batch consistency, and calibration stability and have not fully reached the industrial-grade application standards.

Thirdly, there are difficulties in multi-sensor fusion and time synchronization. Humanoid robots require dozens to hundreds of sensors to work together. Without a unified clock and low-latency communication, it will lead to control deviations and unstable actions.

Meanwhile, there are still short boards in the high-end links of the industrial chain. The capabilities of high-consistency sensing materials, precision machining processes, and special chips still need to be broken through. The future development direction should focus on reducing costs, improving reliability, strengthening system-level integration, and establishing unified certification and testing standards to fully meet the strict requirements of humanoid robots for sensors.

Capital Influx, Many Companies Conduct Intensive Financing

As the pace of industrial development accelerates, the enthusiasm of capital is also rising.

According to the statistics of reporters from Star Market Daily, as of August 2025, the financing rhythm of the domestic six-dimensional force sensor track has significantly accelerated. The most active enterprises are concentrated in a few companies such as BlueDot Touch, Kunwei, and Yuli.

BlueDot Touch completed a nearly 100 million yuan Series B financing in July, jointly funded by four institutions: GF Xinde, Fosun Capital, Hefei Innovation Investment, and Huacang Capital. Kunwei Technology completed its Series B financing in February, also in the scale of hundreds of millions of yuan. Xiaomi Industrial Investment, Sunny Optical Industry Fund, Shenzhen Capital Group, Hillhouse Capital, etc. have all participated.

In terms of listed companies, Donghua Testing raised 150 million yuan through a private placement in May for the small-batch trial production of six-dimensional force sensors and the intelligent measurement and control industry upgrade. Listed PE Jiuding Investment announced the acquisition of 53.29% of the equity of Nanjing Shenyuansheng, a six-dimensional force sensor manufacturer, for 213 million yuan.

Tang Jincao, the chairman of Shimura Capital, told reporters from Star Market Daily that the current financing situation of the sensor industry shows the characteristics of high activity and structural differentiation coexisting.

On the one hand, when local governments set up intelligent robot industry funds, they often list sensors as key investment areas. For example, Hefei's 10 billion future industry fund, Shenzhen's 10 billion robot fund, and the first intelligent robot industry fund in Ganzhou, Jiangxi, all clearly support the core components of robots and the upstream sensor links. This means that policy-based funds play a "bottoming out" and "diversion" role in sensor financing.

On the other hand, market-oriented funds are also accelerating their layout. Industrial capitals such as mother funds, industrial funds, and leading enterprises are actively entering, especially focusing on start-up companies or specialized and new enterprises in tracks such as electronic skin, 6D torque sensors, high-performance IMUs, and vision modules.

Reporters from Star Market Daily noticed that overall, the financing concentration of sensor enterprises is increasing. In terms of capital preference, investors are more inclined to invest in enterprises that have original technologies in the early stage and can solve engineering pain points, such as teams with the ability to produce low-cost large-scale tactile arrays or high-reliability torque sensing technologies.

It can be judged that in the next few years, with the mass production of humanoid robots, the financing enthusiasm of sensor enterprises will continue to rise, and financing cases will further concentrate on the "policy + capital" dual-driven model. This will also accelerate industry integration, and some leading enterprises will take the lead in forming scale advantages and obtaining standard-setting power with the help of capital.

This article is from the WeChat public account "Caixin Press", author: Li Mingming, published by 36Kr with authorization.