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In a martial artist's white silk pajamas, a man practiced tai chi in harmony with a motorized arm at a Beijing exhibition showcasing a vision of robots with Chinese characteristics.
Vehicles with automated gun turrets sat alongside drink-serving karaoke machines at the World Robot Conference.
Manufacturers sought new buyers for their jiqiren - "machine people" in Chinese.
The push has support at the highest levels of government.
President Xi Jinping issued a letter of congratulations for the conference, and the industry is name-checked in the draft version of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), the policy document that guides economic development in the nation.
China is already the leading market for industrial robots, accounting for 25 percent of global sales, according to the International Federation of Robotics.
But executives at a conference round-table said the real market opportunity lies in service robots for China's homes and offices.
Yu Kai, head of Horizon Robotics, said China's automated helpers will do everything from building cars to driving them in future.
"Each person might have 10 robots," Yu said.
