On the "Ice Ribbon," Witnessing the New Speed and New Heights of "Intelligent Manufacturing in China"

On the evening of August 26, as Tiangong Ultra crossed the finish line of the 100-meter final in 8.64 seconds, all 1,301 matches of the 2nd World Humanoid Robot Games (hereinafter referred to as the "Games") came to a close. Over the five-day schedule, 2,056 robots from 666 teams representing 16 countries across six continents competed side by side. The results of the major group 100-meter race improved from 21.50 seconds in the inaugural Games to 8.64 seconds; the 1,500-meter race dropped from 6 minutes 34.40 seconds to 2 minutes 21.64 seconds; and the standing high jump rose from 0.956 meters to 3.40 meters. Behind every record-breaking performance stood engineers and patent certificates. Running through the entire Games was an increasingly clear intellectual property logic: the arena is the examination hall, and patents are the bedrock of confidence.

Hard Innovation Tackles Real-World Application Challenges

RealBOT S2, a wheeled humanoid robot from RealMan Intelligent Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd., appeared in two key segments of the opening ceremony. It steadily lifted the energy token during the "Smart Core Lighting" ceremony and performed flower arrangement with a repeated positioning accuracy of ±0.05 mm, enabling flexible and damage-free placement of flowers. "Behind this stable performance lies a core technology system supported by over 120 patents," said a company representative. The robot series had previously completed real-world kitchen tasks such as cutting vegetables and grilling meat in Xinjiang, and performed logistical support duties at a dragon boat event in Sichuan. From stage performances to real-world competition venues, humanoid robots are moving beyond conceptual demonstrations.

The Games introduced for the first time a dedicated dexterous hand competition, featuring eight fine-manipulation events including powder weighing, tweezer bean-picking, and cable connection—all extreme tests of "fingertip dexterity." Zhiyuan Robotics' mass-produced dexterous hand, OmniHand, won 7 gold medals across the 8 events, validating the versatility, stability, and reliability of mass-produced dexterous hands. "The dexterous hand is a key challenge for humanoid robots to enter a wide range of industries. Each finger must not only move independently but also coordinate with others, involving the collaborative integration of multiple technical modules such as micro-motors, force sensors, and precision transmission devices," said He Yin, head of industrial and commercial robotics business at JD Smart Robot Business Unit. It is understood that patent applications related to dexterous hands alone have maintained an average annual growth rate of over 30% in recent years. From bionic structural design to tactile feedback algorithms, Chinese enterprises are rapidly accumulating independent intellectual property in every sub-segment.

On the track, Tiangong Ultra completed the 100-meter dash in 8.64 seconds, with an average speed of approximately 11.57 m/s. Tang Jian, Chief Technology Officer of Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, admitted that its turning speed exceeded 10 m/s: "If control is not precise, the robot can easily be thrown off." While improving sprint speed, the team invested substantial effort in tackling navigation and control challenges during turns. From joint motors to reducers, from foot force sensors to motion control algorithms, every breakthrough corresponds to a patent portfolio.

During the Games, Chengdu Humanoid Robot Innovation Center released the world's first ultra-long-range multi-operation fully autonomous robot task execution system, which has been granted an invention patent. The system enables robots to autonomously plan complex task paths and execute multiple tasks simultaneously in large spaces, paving the way for future deployment in real-world factories and warehouses.

Scenario Competitions Test the "MetTle" of Patents

The biggest highlight of this edition was the large-scale introduction of real-world social scenario competitions for the first time. Twenty-one scenario events accounted for over 40% of all competitions, covering nine real-world scenarios including industrial assembly, retail, home services, fire rescue, library management, garden inspection, and electric vehicle charging. The Games' organizing committee proposed the industrial logic of "win a medal, win an order; leave the arena, enter the worksite"—reflecting a higher standard for patent technologies to evolve from "functional" to "practical."

In the industrial scenario, the "assembly and material handling" station required robots to perform heavy-load transportation, multi-category material sorting, and precise hole alignment and insertion. In the retail scenario, the "store service" station simulated nighttime restocking and takeaway order picking. Kunwei (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. provided force-control technology for the events. Yuan Minglun, co-founder of the company, noted that the competitions offered an excellent "training ground" for enterprises: "Participating teams actively push the performance limits of robots and core components, frequently creating extreme use cases such as overload operation and instantaneous overloading."

The large volume of extreme data enabled companies to verify product load boundaries, dynamic tolerance boundaries, and fault-tolerance margins in high-frequency operations—data that is difficult to obtain in laboratories.

The dexterous hand from Lingxin Qiaoshou (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. was deployed in two extreme scenarios simultaneously: the dexterous hand competition and the tug-of-war event. Cao Yueyang, the company's event director, said: "The former tests fine manipulation capabilities, while the latter tests durability, stability, and sustained output." A single event validating two extreme performance aspects simultaneously is a vivid example of how patent technologies move from the lab to real-world applications.

Intellectual Property: From Quantity to Quality

The competition on the field is essentially a contest of intellectual property reserves. Statistics show that China currently accounts for about two-thirds of global robot-related patents, and 73% of humanoid robot patents worldwide. Huang Xianqiang, an industry observer and founder of Aotao Robot (Beijing) Co., Ltd., told reporters that China's humanoid robot patent count has grown rapidly, and overall innovation capability now ranks among the world's top tier. More notably, patents are shifting from "quantity advantage" to "quality advantage"—the technologies that withstood extreme tests at the Games are all products of high-value patents.

According to the 2026 Humanoid Robot Industry Development Report, China's humanoid robot shipments exceeded 40,000 units in the first half of 2026, accounting for 97% of the global total. Behind this surge in shipments is the accelerated transformation of patent technologies into actual productivity. At the closing ceremony, the world's first full-dataset for humanoid robot games was released, with a total duration of over 2,500 hours covering 12 application scenarios. These high-quality data, refined through real competitive arenas, will become valuable shared resources for the entire industry and provide a data foundation for next-generation patent R&D.

The competition on the "Ice Ribbon" has concluded, but a new race—driven by intellectual property for high-quality development—has only just begun for China's robotics industry.