Innovation as the Bond: The 2025 World Robot Conference —
Humanoid robots gracefully dance on the exhibition stage, medical micro-robots navigate precisely through blood vessels, and agricultural robots perform intelligent tasks in the fields — the 2025 World Robot Conference, themed “Making Robots Smarter, Making Human Bodies More Intelligent,” presents a grand vision of the deep integration of science and technology with industry. At this premier global robotics event, intellectual property emerges as the core driving force of innovation, with its strategic value increasingly evident — it serves not only as a “moat” for technological breakthroughs but also as an ‘engine’ for industrial upgrading and a “passport” for global collaboration.
Global industrial robot installations decreased by 3%, while China saw a counter-cyclical growth of 5%, with its market share rising to 54%; humanoid robot prices dropped to the 40,000 yuan range, and quadruped robot exports ranked first globally; Beijing Yizhuang opened nearly 1,000 data collection points... At the 2025 World Robot Conference, a set of data drew close attention from the industry.
Whoever holds core patents, sets data rules, and leads standard-setting will define the future of human-robot coexistence. At this tech extravaganza featuring over 1,500 exhibits from more than 200 domestic and international robotics companies, a consensus beyond technology itself is emerging: the competition in the robotics industry is fundamentally a battle over intellectual property rules.
Breaking through patents, from “chokepoints” to “strengthening the backbone.” “All core components are self-developed!” Wang Xingxing, founder of Hangzhou Yushu Technology Co., Ltd., demonstrated the second-generation 3D laser radar in his speech, which achieves centimeter-level precision at a unit price of just a few thousand yuan. Behind this product, which breaks international monopolies, lies China's nine-year patent breakthrough. From motors, reducers to sensors, the company has built a complete intellectual property moat, reducing the cost of logistics robots to a few thousand yuan.
A more profound transformation is occurring at the technological route level. “AI + spatial computing” is the key core technology driving the practical application of robots. Academician Ni Guangnan of the Chinese Academy of Engineering emphasized in his conference report that this technology is redefining the bridge between the physical and digital worlds. Professor Gao Feng of Shanghai Jiao Tong University pointed out: “The core of robot innovation lies in kinematics, which serves as the bridge between science and engineering, and between artificial intelligence and robots.” Currently, global robotics technology competition has shifted from single products to system ecosystems, and intellectual property布局 must transition from “point-based defense” to “chain-based control.” He Xiaodong, Senior Vice President of JD Group, announced an investment of over 10 billion yuan in the intelligent robotics field, driving the opening of the “Joy inside” platform for large model access—a vivid example of lowering innovation barriers through intellectual property sharing. Only by patenting core technologies and standardizing patents can one gain the initiative in the wave of embodied intelligence.
At the conference, the world's first embodied robot 4S store was bustling with people. Meanwhile, in the adjacent venue, a debate on data sovereignty was unfolding.
“Beijing Yizhuang has opened nearly a thousand real-world data collection points and is building a PB-level shared data pool!” Wang Lei, Director of the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone Administration Committee, announced the launch of the “Embodied Intelligence Social Experiment Plan.” This project, dubbed the “robot testing ground,” is the first to transform urban public spaces into data resource pools, accompanied by eight pioneering policies, including the nation's first “prototyping vouchers” and subsidies for humanoid robot sales.
Through this conference, we witnessed a new paradigm in intellectual property: hard breakthroughs—using core patents to solidify the industrial foundation, enabling domestic laser radar to illuminate the path to self-reliance; soft connectivity—breaking resource monopolies through data sharing, turning Beijing Yizhuang's testing ground into a global laboratory; and establishing rules—comprehensively supporting enterprise development through the “Measures for Promoting the Innovative Development of Embodied Intelligent Robots in the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone,” precisely empowering the development of the embodied intelligent robot industry.
Standing at the forefront of the development of new productive forces, the 2025 World Robot Conference reached a unified consensus: intellectual property rights are an indispensable “operating system” in the era of embodied intelligence. They must not only “establish rights” for innovators to incentivize breakthroughs in core technologies, but also ‘empower’ industrial development to promote the conversion of technological achievements, and “establish rules” for global cooperation to build an open and inclusive innovation ecosystem. As robots transition from tools to “partners” and from factories to daily life, the intellectual property system will undoubtedly leverage its unique value in balancing protection and incentives, innovation and sharing, to provide a solid foundation for the advancement of human intelligent civilization.