See the new highlights of the smart economy from the Zhongguancun Forum Annual Conference
Beijing is full of spring in March, and the 2026 Zhongguancun Forum Annual Conference has kicked off as scheduled. Making coffee, sorting express delivery, playing piano and drums… Various robots showed off their special skills at the event, vividly demonstrating the new trend of artificial intelligence accelerating into reality.
"Customer No. 23, please pick up your meal." Following the call, the humanoid robot "Mozi" from Qianxun Intelligent (Hangzhou) Technology Co., Ltd. dexterously passed the sugar-coated hawthorn through the bamboo skewers. The food delivery robot "Kuafu" of Leju Tongyan (Beijing) Robot Technology Co., Ltd. smoothly delivered the meal trays to the customers. After the food delivery was completed, "Kuafu" expressed his feelings to the guests who were watching, which attracted bursts of praise.
Different from the previous single-machine displays and show performances, this year's robot restaurant bar has several heterogeneous robots showing their strengths under unified scheduling: the welcome robot warmly greets and guides the ordering, the production robot waves its "arm" to make freshly made candied haws and candied sugar, and the delivery robot shuttles back and forth to deliver the food accurately. It only takes less than two minutes from ordering to meal delivery, and the entire process does not require human intervention. The robots with clear division of labor and precise movements make people feel like they are in a future restaurant.
"How to deploy multiple robots when multiple orders are concurrent, and how to distribute food delivery robots, these links are all concentrated expressions of the scheduling capabilities of the robot brain." Wang Qiang, director of embodied operation algorithms of Leju Robots, said that the restaurant bar was welcomed as soon as it debuted. "We were open for about 5 hours yesterday and received more than 130 orders." Wang Qiang said that in the near future, companies will find more application scenarios for embodied intelligent adaptation, so that technology can truly serve people's lives.
In addition to the service industry, several types of humanoid robots from Leju have been applied in industrial scenarios. According to reports, the company will deliver thousands of full-size "Kuafu" humanoid robots in 2025. At present, the popularity of the industry is rising rapidly, and technological breakthroughs and market growth are entering an explosive period.
Xu Guoqing, a staff member of Lingxin Hands (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd., also sensed the changes in the market: "Sales of Dexter Hands have increased nearly 10 times in the past year, and currently we account for more than 80% of the high-degree-of-freedom dexterous hand market." At the Zhongguancun Forum annual meeting, the flexible and delicate manipulators brought by Lingxin Hands, which can play strings, play the piano, and thread needles, attracted a lot of attention.
The needle-threading robot senses the position and alignment of the needle and thread through visual and tactile sensors, and stably passes a thin thread with a diameter of millimeters through the needle hole with its "hands". "The price of our dexterous hand is one-tenth or even a few tenths of that of similar foreign products. In the future, the cost will be even lower and it can enter more people's daily lives." Xu Guoqing said.
In the field of brain-computer interface, the implementation and transformation of technology are also accelerating. The brain-computer interface "Beinao No. 1" that attracted much attention at the Zhongguancun Forum last year has become the focus again this year. Yuan Yaning, a staff member at the Beijing Institute of Brain Science and Brain Integration, introduced that "Beinao-1" adopts a semi-invasive wireless brain-computer interface technology route, and has completed 7 human implants since the beginning of 2025.
"This year's Beinao-1 will officially launch a fully registered clinical GCP trial, mainly for patients with cervical spinal cord injury. It is expected that 50 to 100 patients will be enrolled throughout the year." Yuan Yaning said that the "Beinao-2" brain-computer system using a fully invasive technical route is expected to begin clinical verification this year.
The rapid advancement of cutting-edge technology cannot be separated from the strong support of the industry. According to the relevant person in charge of Beijing Zhongguancun Capital Fund Management Co., Ltd., the company has established a 400 million yuan special fund for Beinao to support the research and development and industrialization of "Beinao No. 1" through a targeted fund model. "We are not just investing money, but also building bridges." Relying on the fertile ground for innovation in Zhongguancun, they are opening up the entire process from laboratory to clinical, from R&D to market for brain-computer interface technology, helping to accelerate its implementation and make this once out-of-reach cutting-edge technology truly benefit patients.
When robots learn to "work" collaboratively, when manipulators can thread needles and pluck strings to make music, and when brain-computer interfaces step by step from science fiction to reality – every pulse of technological innovation is quietly changing our lives, and more clearly outlines a new industrial picture of artificial intelligence moving from "showing off skills" to "implementation", and from "single point" to "collaboration".
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, March 28 (Reporter Dai Jinrong)
