International Industry Fair kicks off in Shanghai

China's annual International Industry Fair is now under way in Shanghai. This year, it's focusing on the latest achievements in the country's equipment manufacturing sector. And as always, robots are the event's highlight.

This humanoid robot is one of the country's major scientific projects since 2008, at a cost to the central government of some 20 million yuan. Project managers from Zhejiang University told ICS the robot isn't just for sports training, but was created to test a number of key robotic functions such as movement coordination, object-recognition and balancing.

Zhang Yifeng, Zhejiang University, said, "Now, we should be very "friendly", not competitive with the robot during the match. But in the future, as our technology improves, he will become a professional table tennis player to play with."

CCTV reporter Zhang Jun, Shanghai, said, "You can find robots at almost every industry fair. But it's the first time for this robot-only exhibition hall. Some economists say robots will lead the world's third industrial revolution."

More than 60 domestic and foreign companies and research institutes are showcasing hundreds of their newest robots here. This mouse-making robot weighs about as much as a seven-year-old child, and is one of the smallest at the fair. But each robot can work four times as efficiently as a pair of human hands. And they're already being used at a computer mouse factory in Shenzhen.

Gu Chunyuan, President, Abb Engineering Shanghai, said, "The productive improvement is tremendous, in my opinion. It's not just replacing the people, because as I said, the characteristic of robot machine is competiveness, its consistence. So this gives you reduced very consistent product quality, to reduce the rework, the scrap grade. It improves your total efficiency."

Many visitors have crowded the robot exhibition hall to get a glimpse of how the potential new revolution might affect our life.

Wei Xianbing, Visitor, said, "The home-grown robots don't look as professional as the foreign robots. But at this fair, I see a lot of improvement in the industrial robots made by Chinese companies."

Martin Huth, German Exhibitor, said, "We can say that the impression that we are getting here is a very positive one because not only the set-up is very professional and we find our major competitions here that we can observe. But we also find key customers that are displaying here. Thus, this show is a very important one for us, also for future participations."

As one of the world's major manufacturers, China has become the fastest growing robotics market. Figures from the International Federation of Robotics show installation of multi-role robots in China has risen by 136 percent from 2008 to 2011 and will grow another 15 percent this year. But some two-thirds of the robots are made by foreign manufacturers.

The annual industry fair is being held at the Pudong New International Expo Center through Saturday. The displays also include new industrial products such as electric cars, mobile network and space technology.