World Robot Conference coming to Beijing this month

The 2017 World Robot Conference will be held in Beijing from Aug 22 to 27, with various world-famous robot companies showcasing the latest robotic technologies that can handle work and daily tasks, like playing piano and performing a surgical operation.

The conference will be hosted by Beijing Municipal Government, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and China Association for Science and Technology. Other backers include the Chinese Institute of Electronics.

Japan's SoftBank Group Corp, Swiss engineering group company ABB Group and other world-leading companies will display the industry's latest achievements, including specialized industrial and service robots and artificial intelligence technologies. It will cover a total exhibition area of 50,000 square meters.

At the forums held during the conference, more than 300 worldwide industry experts and entrepreneurs will share the status quo of the robotics and artificial intelligence industry, research and applications, and will discuss future trends in the industry.

Xu Xiaolan, secretary-general of Chinese Institute of Electronics, said the conference will create an international robotic technologies communication platform for worldwide firms.

"It allows entrepreneurs to have a better access to the latest development of robotic technologies, which also will help them to avoid reinventing the wheel."

China became the world's biggest market for industrial robots in 2013, surpassing Japan, according to the International Federation of Robotics. And the robotics federation estimates that China will likely usher in more than one-third of the industrial robots installed worldwide in 2018.