蒙面唱将猜猜猜

China Industry Close-up: How long does it take to build a robot in China? In Shenzhen’s Robot Valley, it can be done in half an hour_我的网站

一 | 　　打开你家厨房看看——空气炸锅的烤篮、电蒸锅的蒸层、养生壶的胶圈……这些每天与高温饮食直接接触的部件，很多使用了食品接触用塑料或涂层材料。不可否认，这些材料在出厂时都经过了国家标准的严格检验，在正常使用周期内是安全可靠的。　　但一个容易被忽视的问题是：这些材料，都有它们的使用年限。　　当塑料和涂层在厨房高温、酸碱、反复使用的环境下“超期服役”，它们是否还能维持出厂时的安全标准？答案可能并不乐观。

A display of humanoid fighting robots at robotic firm EngineAI's intelligent manufacturing base in Robot Valley in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province on August 5. Photo: Li Xuanmin/GT
Editor's Note:
The outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan called for building a modern industrial system, consolidating the foundation of the real economy, and accelerating high-level technological self-reliance and self-strength to lead the development of new quality productive forces. These goals have provided clear direction for industrial transformation and upgrading across various sectors, while injecting strong momentum into high-quality development.
The Global Times has launched a new column titled "China Industry Close-up." Focusing on the creation of a new development pattern, the column will delve deeply into vivid examples of industrial transformation and upgrading across various sectors, aiming to showcase China's innovation-driven and high-quality development. This is the first half of the second installment of the series
Cao Jing, a truck driver based in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, carefully secured a humanoid robot at the research and development center of a local robotics company on Friday. With steady hands, he and other technical staff first folded the robot and placed it into a black box filled with cushioning pads, then moved the box into the back of his 4.2-meter-long truck, adjusting the straps and padding to keep it steady for the journey. Once everything was firmly in place, he climbed into the cab and set off along the Liuxian Road in Shenzhen's Nanshan district.
Half an hour later, he arrived at the Shenzhen Nursing Home, where the robot would soon begin its new role -serving as a cheerful companion for the elderly while continuously improving itself through daily real-scenario applications.
Cao, a driver for freight company Huolala's enterprise service, told the Global Times that since March and April, he can get four or five such delivery orders a day during peak times, mostly around Liuxian Road, a sharp increase from last year. "The robots I transport have also become much more diverse — from company R&D prototypes and household robots being delivered to customers' homes for testing, to robots designed for all kinds of competition, and even those fighting robots that compete in the octagon," Cao said as he waited at a traffic light on Liuxian Road.
The Liuxian Road is located within the 30-minute supporting circle in Shenzhen's "Robot Valley," an idea that Chinese official highlighted at the 2026 Summer Davos in June.
Just a decade ago, some of this area was little more than old industrial zones, construction sites and urban villages. Today, the Robot Valley — stretching about 10 kilometers along Liuxian Road and covering an area of approximately 28 square kilometers — has transformed into a thriving hub. The corridor is lined on both sides with robot makers, component suppliers, software algorithm firms, as well as universities and research institutions.
The area is now home to over 200 companies across the robotics industrial chain, including more than 25 humanoid robot complete-machine manufacturers, 32 specialized and sophisticated "little giant" enterprises, and 15 listed companies, according to local authorities.
Walking through parts of the valley now feels like stepping into a sci-fi film, where it is common to encounter a "blinking" humanoid robot waving hands around the corner, watch a lively parade of dancing robot dogs and sip a coffee made by humanoid robot, or enjoy a dish prepared by robotic arms.
The rise of this high-tech futuristic valley offers a glimpse into the prowess of China's embodied artificial intelligence (AI) industry, one of the industries of the future identified in China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) that has drawn intensive global limelight. The valley also epitomizes China's homegrown innovation capabilities, where milestone technological breakthroughs, coupled with rapid iteration, complete industrial chains, and real-world application scenarios converge to turn cutting-edge research into tangible products at remarkable "Chinese speed."
'Half-hour circle'

When Global Times reporters visited Shenzhen robotic firm EngineAI's intelligent manufacturing base in the Robot Valley, several humanoid robots were effortlessly demonstrating high-difficulty moves such as front flips. Some of the T800robots, just backed from the Ultimate Robot Knock-out Legend (URKL), or what organizers billed as the world's first free humanoid robot fighting competition in July, were "battered and bruised."
"In robot combat, we must always be prepared for high-intensity real-world testing," Li Hao, a motion control algorithm engineer at EngineAI, told the Global Times. "Real combat takes place in a continuous, highly uncertain environment full of interference. The real challenge is ensuring that humanoid robots can continuously maintain stability under complex conditions such as moving, turning, punching, absorbing force, and shifts in the center of gravity. In this context, the pace of research and development (R&D), testing, and adjustment is particularly fast — which is why the half-hour industrial circle matters so much to us."
Li gave a vivid example of how his daily routine fully leverages the valley's tight integration of R&D, testing, and manufacturing.
"In the morning, I finish modifying the algorithm at the R&D center. A 25-minute drive then takes me to the production line at the valley's Honghualing manufacturing base for real-machine testing. By the afternoon, I can rush back to the R&D center to upgrade and optimize the algorithm again," he explained.
Since March, Li has been taking Muay Thai lessons together with other core engineers. While he has grown into something of a "Muay Thai master," this proximity of the Robot Valley also allows him to "communicate with robots" every day, optimizing intelligent recognition algorithms and motion strategies based on their performance in real combat. "This is like teaching a baby, and we're training the robots to grow stronger while becoming smarter, day by day," he noted.
Throughout the robot manufacturing, another critical step — robot prototyping — further highlights the unique strength of China's robotics industry.
Pang Jianxin, vice president of UBTECH, a Hong Kong-listed humanoid robot company also headquartered at the Robot Valley, told the Global Times that the valley holds a clear advantage in rapid prototyping and fast product iteration — an edge that "leads the world."
"During prototyping, the volume for production is usually very small, and many companies are reluctant to take on such orders. However, in Shenzhen and the broader Pearl River Delta, there are a large number of supply chain enterprises that are willing to accompany start-ups on new tracks and new products. Based on the design, they can leverage their experience to select suitable materials or processes, quickly complete sample manufacturing, and then rapidly verify the results. This is crucial for hardware R&D, especially for innovative hardware and intelligent robots," Pang explained.
In overseas markets such as the US, the typical process from turning an idea into a physical product, to producing samples and entering the small-scale market, and finally reaching mass production and making debut, could take five-to-ten times longer than the Chinese counterparts, Liu Shaoshan, director of the Embodied AI at the Shenzhen Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics for Society, told the Global Times. Liu has worked in the US for a bunch of years before returning to Shenzhen two years ago.
"Robotics is an industry where speed almost decides everything - as half of it is manufacturing, and the other half is about R&D," Liu told the Global Times.
According to Liu, in the US, it can take a week just for industrial chain communication to implement a hardware change or upgrade, and most of their suppliers are located outside the country, which further delays the process. By contrast, the complete supply chain of Shenzhen's Robot Valley enables highly efficient communication — "in some cases, suppliers can even arrive on site within half an hour."
The Global Times also noticed a telling scene during its week-long visit to Shenzhen's Robot Valley: the company visited on the first day turned out to be the exact supplier of the company visited on the second day, while the third-day institute was itself a key testing partner of the second-day company — further underscoring the tightly integrated industrial ecosystem that makes rapid iteration possible.
For embodied intelligence manufactures, the Robot Valley is home to a full range of upstream suppliers — from perception systems such as tactile sensors and LiDAR, to actuation systems including servo motors and joint modules, and core components like robotic arms and dexterous hands. Meanwhile, downstream, large-scale manufacturers in the auto, new energy and electronic industries stand ready to put these robots into broader real-world applications, industry insiders noted.
"Many of the embodied robotics companies in the valley are our customers. Some of them — such as UBTECH, X Square and PUDU — are within a 20-minute drive of our headquarters. It is not an exaggeration to say that if you want to build a robot in Shenzhen's Robot Valley, you can easily find the suppliers you need nearby," Zhao Qiyu, marketing director of publicly listed robotics and AI vision company Orbbec, told the Global Times.
Meanwhile, as China's robotics industry continues to expand, downstream customers are developing increasingly specialized and specific requirements, encouraging companies like Orbbec to launch new products that address these evolving needs, Zhao said.
She cited one of the company's newly launched products, EGO, a head-mounted data collection device designed to capture first-person perspectives and real-world task flows. By collecting multimodal data related to environmental semantics, spatial scale and long-horizon task chains, the device helps generate high-quality training data for downstream embodied AI model companies.
'DeepSeek' moment in robotics industry

Pang from UBTECH recalled firsthand how he has witnessed the drastic change in Shenzhen's Robot Valley and the broader picture of the Chinese robotic industry during the past 10 years.
"When we started the company a decade ago, what we saw from the window was just old industrial base, some construction sites and villages. We were like marching through a dark desert, where even the positions of the stars and the moon could not be seen clearly," Pang said.
He noted that at that time, the most well-known robotics companies on the international stage were the US-based Boston Dynamics, which wooed the world with its signature backflips and parkour moves, and Honda from Japan, whose humanoid robot ASIMO became a global icon. In the Chinese market, domestic companies specialized in humanoid robots "were extremely scarce."
However, a decade later, China's robotics industry has undergone what industry insiders described as "transformative changes," shifting from a follower to a frontrunner. The once "valley of entrepreneurship" has also transformed into a world-class "highland of innovation," Liu Zhufu, deputy general manager of Dobot Robotics, which was founded in 2015, told the Global Times.
Today, China has firmly established itself in the world's first tier of the robotics industry, with Chinese robotics companies having increasingly become a must-visit destination for foreign heads of state during their trips to China - as vividly exemplified by Slovak President Peter Pellegrini's tour of a robotics mall in Beijing's Yizhuang in July and President of Myanmar Min Aung Hlaing' visit to the Unitree Robotics in June.
According to data released by Beijing CCID Publishing & Media Co, China accounted for 84.7 percent of global humanoid robot shipments in 2025, meaning that for every 10 humanoid robots sold worldwide, more than 8 carried the "Made in China" label.
The institute Liu Shaoshan works for has also received a number of officials from Europe, including former UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, as well as corporate delegates from Europe, Japan and South Korea in recent months.
"Many foreign visitors, during their inspections in Shenzhen, would ask me similar questions — why have cutting-edge technologies such as AI and embodied intelligence developed particularly rapidly in China? What can they learn, and what role should their governments play in accelerating this development?"
The answers, according to Liu, lie not in a single technological breakthrough, but in a combination of long-term strategic planning, industrial cultivation, and ecosystem building. "It is precisely thanks to the forward-looking layout and top-level design that China has gradually formed a complete chain spanning basic research, core technology breakthroughs, and industrial applications, while gaining a first-mover advantage in the real-world deployment of robots," Liu stressed.
"China has been promoting the development of the humanoid robotics industry with unprecedented strategic resolve. And the inclusion of intelligent AI into the 15th Five-Year plan (2026-30) carries a lot of significance: it is not only a policy dividend but also offers long-term strategic guidance. It will guide more resources toward core technology breakthroughs and industrial ecosystem building, accelerating the process of humanoid robots moving from the laboratory to factories and into households," Pang said.
When it comes to the local practice echoing this top-level design, the authorities in Shenzhen's Nanshan District have so far opened a total of 68 public scenarios for robot applications, aiming to open up the full chain of "technology R&D - scenario verification - commercial promotion," the Global Times learned.
Encouraged by these developments, industry insiders in the Robot Valley are increasingly optimistic that a "DeepSeek moment" for China's homegrown robotics industry may arrive sooner rather than later.
This moment may not come in a single instant, but a process accumulated from countless "world's firsts" - fueled by continuous homegrown technological breakthroughs and the constant expansion of application scenarios across China.
"Maybe one day, robots will be able to produce robots right here in our manufacturing base—that could be a defining 'DeepSeek moment'," Yao Qiyuan, co-founder of EngineAI, told the Global Times.
。　　厨房里的健康隐患：警惕塑料与涂层材质的“超期服役”　　塑料和涂层材料在厨房环境中面临的考验远比想象中严苛：高温反复加热、酸性食物侵蚀、日常清洗摩擦……这些因素叠加在一起，会加速材料的老化。　　2025年《npj Emerging Contaminants》期刊的研究发现，聚丙烯(PP)材质水壶在反复煮沸后，每升水可释放高达3000万个微塑料颗粒。2026年《Environmental Engineering Research》的研究进一步指出，PP材质在“热水+光照+空气氧化”共同作用下会加速老化——变脆、出现裂纹，甚至肉眼可见的掉渣，这正是微塑料大量释放的信号。　　不只是烧水壶，空气炸锅的涂层烤篮，长期在200℃以上高温烘烤后，涂层会逐渐老化脱落；电蒸锅的塑料蒸层，在高温蒸汽反复冲刷下，可能迁移出添加剂成分；养生壶壶盖、底座等涉水塑料部件，长期高温煮制同样存在析出风险；净水器管路中的塑料部件，经过热水反复冲刷后也可能产生二次析出。这些风险的共同特征是：不是材料本身“有毒”，而是材料在长期使用、老化降解后，才产生健康隐患。　　全钢全钛方案——材质为先长期安全杜绝隐患　　越来越多的消费者开始关注厨房电器的材质健康。既然常用的塑料和涂层的风险来自长期使用不稳定，玻璃材质虽然安全但易碎，那最彻底的解决方案是什么？用惰性金属，也就是全钢、全钛材质来守护健康。

二 | 　　为什么是钢和钛？食品级不锈钢(如304、316、316L)化学性质极为稳定，耐高温、耐腐蚀，在正常烹饪温度下几乎不与食物发生化学反应，不会产生涂层脱落，也不会析出微塑料或化学添加剂。　　如果说不锈钢是一种可以“传承”的材质，钛，则被称为“亲生物金属”，化学惰性更强，耐腐蚀性甚至超过不锈钢，被广泛应用于医疗植入物和航天器。这意味着，全钢全钛材质能够提供真正意义上的长期安全。　　除了材质选择很关键，更关键的一点在于“全”——全钢、全钛，意味着所有涉水、涉食部位均采用金属或玻璃材质，做到0塑料、0硅胶、0涂层接触。只有“全”，才能真正堵住每一个可能析出的入口，做到真正的材质健康。

三 | 　　健康材质到底怎么选？这个品牌的材质通过了太空验证　　那如何证明材质足够安全？有一种更严苛的筛选模式是：让它通过太空的考验。　　太空环境有多极端？首先是失重状态——食物碎屑和液体在失重环境下会悬浮飘散，任何脱落、析出的微粒都可能被航天员吸入或误食，容错率几乎为零。其次是极端温差——太空舱内外温差剧烈，材质必须经受反复热胀冷缩而不变形、不老化。

四 | 再者是辐射与真空——高分子塑料在太空辐射下会加速降解，释放有害气体，因此太空厨房设备优先采用全金属等惰性材质。

五 | 　　很多人不知道的是，在这么多国民品牌中，九阳脱颖而出，成为太空厨房研制单位，在为航天员研制太空厨房设备的过程中，九阳深刻理解到：太空环境对材质的要求，远非地面日常使用可比。

六 | 　　在这样的极端环境下，九阳太空厨房设备的材质，都经过了航天级严苛筛选标准，合格后才被允许进入太空。　　这意味着什么？如果一种材质能在失重、极端温差、辐射、零容错的太空环境中依然保持稳定、0迁移，那它在你家厨房的高温蒸煮、日常烹饪中，自然更加安全可靠。　　如今，九阳用在厨房产品上的全金属、全玻璃材质，从材料配方到加工工艺，都有着太空科技加持，太空级的考验，为厨房级的安心做了最硬核的背书。　　从太空到厨房九阳用全钢全钛系列健康产品守护千家万户　　到底有哪些品类？让每个家庭都能用上健康材质。　　——九阳纯钛0涂层养生壶真正健康无析出　　养生壶是日常工作或生活中用到的非常高频的单品，不管是办公或宅家，煮上一杯养生茶，都是补充水分和让人放松的方式。但市面上很多养生壶，食品接触层或多或少使用了塑料或其他涂层，大家开始担心涂层脱落或金属析出，长期饮用有健康风险。　　九阳创新推出的纯钛0涂层养生壶，内胆采用纯钛材质，0涂层、0析出。钛的化学惰性使其在长时间高温煮制银耳羹、花茶、辅食时依然稳定安全，不会像涂层壶那样老化脱落。　　搭配包钢上盖、316L茶篮，涉水涉食部位全金属，不管是办公室日常煮茶、养生饮，家中带娃间隙炖煮银耳羹、辅食汤，家庭日常饮水、甜品糖水，全家人放心喝，真正实现“煮什么，都放心喝”。　　——九阳全钢系列空气炸锅有钛全金属硬核“好功夫”　　传统空气炸锅的特氟龙涂层在200℃以上高温烘烤下会逐渐老化脱落，而九阳创新推出的全钢空气炸锅用钢替代涂层，高温烤不脱落，钢丝球随便刷不留痕。　　九阳全钢空气炸锅从机身到炸篮都是专利321TI+304不锈钢，内外全钢很“耐用”，无涂层不脱落，每一口食物都入口安心；全钢材质还很“耐烤”，高温久烤0析出，不串味，每一口都纯正；更是“耐旧”，久用如新不是口号，是材质健康带来的真本事。

七 | 　　全钢空气炸锅真正做到0涂层、0析出、0串味，搭配太空烘烤技术，让“一锅出一桌菜”，家宴级容量同时满足多人需求，带来“健康材质”与“颜值”“实力”共存的品质生活体验。　　——九阳太空舱鲜满分电蒸锅美味营养鲜满分　　传统电蒸锅的塑料蒸层在高温蒸汽下存在析出风险，九阳创新推出的这款太空舱电蒸锅使用钛钢蒸笼+0涂层底锅，食物接触的全路径0塑、0涂层，材质安全更健康。　　这款电蒸锅还搭载太空舱匀热智控系统，使用IH立体环流加热+微孔匀热蒸+慧瞳智能温控技术，让食物更美味、更鲜更营养。不仅健康安心、更鲜，这款电蒸锅使用分体式可拆底锅，可拆好洗锅，且搭配智能除垢模式，一键除垢，水垢清零。

八 | 真正做到了又健康又美味还好清洗，带来厨房新体验。

九 | 　　——九阳小安芯全钢水路保温壶行业首创全钢水路呵护安心　　针对传统保温壶塑料壶盖微塑料析出的痛点，九阳最近推出了行业首创的小安芯全钢水路保温壶，为家庭饮水健康提供了新的解题思路：不同于传统保温壶的纯塑料壶盖，这款保温壶从封水盘到内部进出水管路、壶嘴等水流经过的所有部件都是食品级不锈钢，真正实现零塑料接触，从源头杜绝微塑料析出，让每一口热水都喝得安心。　　传统壶盖无法拆卸或拆卸结构非常复杂，导致壶盖内部无法彻底清洗，日积月累容易滋生污垢、细菌，这款保温壶的壶盖采用了九阳首创的专利便捷易拆洗结构，轻轻一转即可拆装、清洗，水路没有密闭死角，霉菌无处躲藏，一冲即净。这款产品还采用九阳太空舱锁温技术，48小时长效锁温，足够一家人的热水需求。　　——九阳天净系列净水器太空科技材质守护每一杯饮水健康　　很多人不知道，净水器的管路很可能是细菌滋生的重灾区，因为滤芯过滤后的水流经机器内部的时候，细菌、微生物等物质依旧可能在内部肆意生长，还可能从水龙头偷偷“溜进去”，造成水被二次污染。　　为了解决这些痛点，九阳2022年开始就把太空科技同源技术创新应用在家用净水器上，最新推出的天净系列净水器，先通过太空科技&旋流芯的9级精滤去除重金属、细菌、微生物等7大新型污染物、150种+有害物质；再用太空同源的氧化锌抗菌技术实现了6维全链路抗菌，有效解决二次污染的问题，让大家喝到一杯真正干净的水。

十 | 　　九阳天净系列净水器颠覆行业，以健康材质守护从过滤到出水的全链路，让每一杯水从源头到杯口都安心。　　结语：材质健康守护航天员同样守护你和家人　　材质的老化不是突然发生的，而是藏在日复一日的使用习惯里。一次高温蒸煮，一次涂层脱落，一次肉眼不可见的微塑料析出——这些都在潜移默化地累积。与其等到材料老化再去担忧，不如从选择材质的那一刻起，就为长期安全打好基础。