Robotics with Chinese characteristics

Science and Innovation should be fun. Too often in the Embassy my team becomes engulfed in all sorts of not-so-fun activities like policy briefings and project admin. So when an opportunity came along to accompany a delegation of British robotics experts to Beijing’s World Robot Conference, we jumped at the chance.

In the interests of making this post admin and text-light, I’ll let the pictures do (most of) the talking.

Robotics is of course, one of the UK’s Eight Great Technologies, recognised as one of the sectors at which the UK is particularly strong, and which is likely to drive our country’s economic growth in the future. With its Made in China 2025 policy recently announced, China is thinking in much the same way. In particular it plans to upscale its manufacturing industry using innovative technologies, to create a sustainable model of economic growth.

So it made sense for us to bring a team of British experts from across government, academia and industry to scope our Chinese opportunities and counterparts. SIN Beijing and the Embassy’s Outreach Team (responsible for taking the UK’s influence beyond the major cities) organised a programme of meetings and networking events in Beijing and Shenyang, home of China’s State Key Laboratory for Robotics and Autonomous Systems, before packing the team off to do the same with our SIN colleagues in Tokyo.

Initial outcomes for us? After a day in Beijing, the British experts were already thinking about a return visit to meet potential partners. The complementarities were obvious. The UK has long experience in robotics research and development in its universities and industry. China is catching up technologically, and willing to invest with the right partners. Both countries face similar challenges which call for a robotics-based solution: an ageing population; a dwindling workforce; a services sector growing in importance and the need to upscale the manufacturing industry.

Highlight of the World Robot exhibition? The biggest crowds were drawn to Geminoid F, Japan’s Hiroshi Ishiguro Laboratories’ lifelike humanoid, built to resemble a women in her twenties. She sat with dignity, quietly blinking coyly at her admirers. My Chinese colleague commented dryly that she could probably be considered the perfect wife.