The Jinan Innovation Zone in Jinan, East China's Shandong province, is poised to transform the city into a national hub for the robotics industry, with a burgeoning ecosystem of over 500 enterprises in the sector.

Spearheaded by industry leaders such as Aotai Electric, RobotPhoenix, Shandong Youbaote Intelligent Robot Co, and Shandong SIASUN Industrial Software Research Institute Co, the high-tech zone has solidified its position as the province's top robotics industry cluster.

Noteworthy companies like Inspur Group, Synthess Electronics, and BYD Semiconductor have also made significant contributions, leveraging their expertise in artificial intelligence, computational algorithms, big data, and semiconductor technologies to bolster the foundational aspects of robotics.

Du Dezhi, deputy general manager of the R&D Center at Shandong Aotai Electric Co., highlighted the company's pioneering role in welding robot systems and automated welding equipment. He said that these innovations are national leaders, finding widespread applications across sectors like special vehicles, construction engineering, steel structures, coal mining machinery, and engineering machinery.

Du said that the market share of its welding robots has been steadily increasing, constituting 20 percent of the company's total revenue.

Robots are being used in high-risk environments such as chemical plants and thermal power plants, as traditional manual inspections pose significant dangers due to factors like dust, toxic gases, and electromagnetic disturbances.

Wang Conglei, a manager of the Jinan Innovation Zone, emphasized the zone's strategic focus on artificial intelligence and humanoid robots, saying it is positioning itself at the vanguard of the city's robotics industry.

Next, the Jinan Innovation Zone will focus on developing commercial applications for humanoid robots and work toward establishing industrial clusters worth billions of dollars.