The 2026 International Embodied Intelligence Skills Competition will be held in Shanghai on October 23. With real-machine practical training, it will build a national demonstration platform for real-scene practical combat of embodied intelligence.
To thoroughly implement the deployment of the "2026 Special Action for Real-Scene Practical Training of Humanoid Robots and Embodied Intelligence" issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, and to accelerate the innovative breakthrough and large-scale implementation of China's robotics and embodied intelligence technologies, the International Embodied Intelligence Skills Competition Trial Event will be held in Shanghai from October 23 to 25, 2026. With the slogan "Labor is the Most Glorious, Select the Most Capable Model Worker Robot", the competition adheres to the principle of "industries raise questions, science and technology provide solutions", strives to build a national demonstration platform for real-scene practical operations in the embodied intelligence field, and forms a replicable and promotable Shanghai demonstration model for real-scene practical training.
This event adheres to the concept of driving conferences through competitions, promoting research through conferences, and boosting industrial development through conferences, highlights the orientation of real-scene practical training and down-to-earth implementation, and builds an industrial closed loop of "Training - Competition - Industry - Integration". Based on more than 1,000 embodied intelligence application scenario data collected nationwide by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the competition has set up 9 major tracks including manufacturing, testing and analysis, maintenance, warehousing and logistics, catering and retail, medical care and wellness, work safety, emergency rescue, cultural tourism and education, with 23 competition events in total, and plans to gather more than 1,000 participating teams.
The competition adheres to the principle of "taking real scenarios as the competition venues, real post tasks as competition questions, and real operation data as the basis for scores", and uniformly adopts a 100-point evaluation framework consisting of four modules: task execution, embodied data collection and backflow, autonomous intelligence, and innovation capability. Differential conversion coefficients are set according to the ontology forms such as humanoid, quadruped, wheeled, and the two operation modes of autonomous operation and teleoperation, to ensure that teams with different technical routes can be compared horizontally and compete fairly. In terms of judging, a ternary cross judging system composed of embodied intelligence scientist judging panel, artificial intelligence technology expert panel, and master of skills/real-scene representative judging panel is established to strictly keep the bottom line of safety and ensure authoritative and impartial judging.
The competition sets first, second and third prizes as well as individual awards. For each of the 23 competition events, there is 1 first prize winner (with a bonus of 10,000 RMB), 2 second prize winners (with a bonus of 5,000 RMB each), and 3 third prize winners (with a bonus of 3,000 RMB each). Several individual awards are also set up to focus on rewarding teams with outstanding performance in technological innovation and scenario implementation. The competition simultaneously strengthens the industry-finance linkage, and focuses on inviting research teams from world-renowned universities and overseas embodied intelligence innovation and entrepreneurship teams to participate. Winning teams can obtain tens of millions of RMB in intended investment and full-process professional financing guidance, realizing the goals of "promoting industrial development through competitions, promoting industry-finance integration through competitions, and promoting investment attraction through competitions". By participating in the competition once, teams can connect three key events: the GDPS Autumn Conference in October, the Middle East Artificial Intelligence Exhibition in Dubai in December, and the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in July 2027, forming a complete closed loop of "Debut - Going Global - Implementation".
The competition adopts a phased promotion mechanism: in the first phase, the co-construction of scenario competition questions will be completed before September 30, to promote the transformation of real pain points of enterprises into competition question directions; in the second phase, the construction of the simulated production line will be completed before October 10, and scenario testing and training will be carried out; from October 23 to October 25, the third phase of the official competition will start, to truly test the generalization ability of robots and the implementation value of scenario solutions. After the competition, the event will enter normal operation, and successively hold the National Simulation Competition of Real-Scene Practical Training (November 2026 - February 2027) and the National Real-Scene Practical Training Competition (March 2027 - June 2027). Outstanding teams and solutions will be selected and recommended to the WAIC Embodied Intelligence Exhibition in July 2027, forming a long-term mechanism of "online simulation verification, offline practical training transformation, order implementation and effect, exhibition and promotion".
The competition is guided by the Organizing Committee of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference, hosted by Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Industry Association and China Electronics Standardization Institute, and co-hosted by Shanghai Zhangjiang (Group) Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Lujiazui (Group) Co., Ltd. At present, the registration for the competition is still ongoing, and teams from all over the world are welcome to sign up actively.
Official registration website: https://ieic.gdps.org.cn/
Official WeChat Account: Global Developers Pioneer Summit (GDPS)
Contact: Mr./Ms. Zhang, Contact number: 13301889120 (same number on WeChat)
Elites from teams that intend to sign up, please browse the detailed competition questions quickly!
WAIC "Sees the Future", GDPS "Creates the Future" — The call for participation is in full swing, scan the code to submit your questions right now! October, Shanghai, stay tuned!
