This year’s Appliance & Electronics World Expo, no concept drew as much attention or sparked as much debate as embodied intelligence.
From vacuums that grip to robotic arms that can cook, the Shanghai expo was a stage where consumer electronics and appliance companies were eager to reframe their company as a robotics company. Dreame, for instance, unveiled a dual arm air conditioner with 126 degrees of airflow. Fotile’s panoramic cooking system ACS 2.0 featured a robotic hand capable of cooking over open flames–completely unattended.
But robot arms are only the beginning. Appliance makers are reinventing themselves as robotics players as embodied intelligence technology matures. Robotics companies are also looking to expand into the home.
Haier’s Qingdao robotics subsidiary partnered with Robotera recently to co-develop robots for smart homes. Dreame, on the other hand, announced its move into major home appliances at the expo, unveiling its full lineup of air conditioners and refrigerators as well as washing machines and kitchen devices.
It’s not just white goods that are causing a buzz. Consumer electronics companies are also joining in. Anker Innovations, according to Jiemian newsis actively building up its robotics division. It is developing vacuum robots, and plans to increase hiring for quadrupeds and humanoid units.
After Unitree Robotics humanoid robotics went viral, the real surge began. A pattern is emerging beneath the flurry announcements: many companies are vague about what type of robotic products they actually aim to build.
For the moment, robotic arms are standard features on the latest wave 2025 vacuum robots. The appliance industry has a common goal of building a humanoid robotic assistant. This is not the first bandwagon, and it won’t last. Like any tech trend, embodied intelligence will eventually lose its luster. It’s unlikely that any appliance brand can deliver a real, working humanoid before then.
Breakthrough technology, or just incremental hype
Unitree ‘s performance at this year’s Lunar New Year Gala brought the field to national attention. Embodied intelligence has been positioned as the next big thing after large language models.
Embodied intelligence is artificial intelligence that has a physical form, capable of sensing and interfacing with the world. These systems are more human-like than traditional industrial robots that follow predetermined instructions. They perceive their environment by using vision, touch and other sensors.
A robotic vacuum already demonstrates basic embodied intelligent,” a robotics specialist told 36Kr. It must be able to interact, perceive its environment, find targets such as trash, and plan movements. It’s a robot that looks like a humanoid, but is more complex.
This gives vacuum robotic makers a natural foothold.
Dreame unveiled a robotic vacuum that features a mechanical arm with tool bay at the recent AWE. It can select and use cleaning products autonomously via a decision core. The bionic hand has five degrees of freedom and a 33-centimeter range, which is enough to grasp objects weighing less than 500 grams.
The five degrees of freedom simulate the shoulder and elbow. They also simulate the wrist and fingers. This allows for realistic rotation and movement. It can grasp objects up to 6cm in width and 400g weight, which is about the size and weight of a soda bottle.
Adding manipulaters expands the capabilities of vacuums, but rivals are quickly catching up.
The G30S vacuum from Roborock is equipped with a five axis foldable arm that can detect and remove obstacles such as socks or cables in the middle of cleaning. Yunji Technology’s UP robot can switch tools on the fly, allowing it to perform multiple functions, including cleaning, delivery and more. Industry insiders claim that the bar for developing robotic arm technology has dropped rapidly. Even six-DoF models that are more advanced than the current ones are now available commercially, lowering entry barriers and increasing competition. In some cases, however, the rush to market has overshadowed real utility. Users have ridiculed demo videos that show vacuums picking up socks and bits of trash as gimmicks — flashy tricks to justify higher price tags.
Yet, not everyone views this as marketing fluff. According to a research note by Kaiyuan Securities, vacuum-mounted arms are likely to continue evolving. With better hardware, and AI that is smarter, they will eventually be able to climb stairs, remove larger obstacles, or handle objects such as toys or stools. They could eventually fold clothes or slice vegetables.
From household service robots to vacuums
While it may seem flashy, for many brands, the addition of robotic hands on vacuums could be a strategic decision.
The vacuum robot market has begun to show signs of fatigue after a period of rapid growth. Upgrades are becoming incremental, marketing costs are increasing, and margins feel the squeeze.
Both Ecovacs robotics and Roborock saw their earnings decline last year. Ecovacs’ Q3 profit dropped 69.2% on an annual basis to RMB 6,04 million (USD 8,45,600), whereas Roborock’s fell 43.4% year-on-year at RMB 351, million (USD 49.1 millions), despite rising revenue. Both firms now spend over 20% of their revenues on sales and marketing.
A robotics engineer stated that there is no major gap in the technology between vacuum brands at this time. “They’re all trying to outdo each other to grab the consumer’s attention, but a lot of this feels like innovation just for innovation sake.”
IDC estimates that 20.6 million robot vacuums will be shipped globally by 2024, an increase of 11.2% over the previous year. The growth rate slowed down to 7.8% in the fourth quarter, signaling a possible cooling of demand.
This is what has pushed brands into exploring new revenue streams. One of the most promising directions is household service robots, which are built around robotic arms. Appliance makers are also eager. The pressure to adopt new technology has increased as core innovations have reached a plateau. Missing the trend, whether or not it is viable, is not an option.
Midea has recently launched its dedicated innovation center and unveiled its first humanoid robot. It claims to have made progress on components such as sensors, reducers and controllers.
Midea’s robot humanoid can perform public demonstrations in which it can dance, make heart gestures, give water bottles to people, open caps and use screwdrivers. It can also respond to voice commands. Midea is a company with a lot of experience. In 2017, it acquired Kuka–one of the top industrial robotics companies in the world–giving it an advantage both in terms of capital and expertise. But building industrial-grade robots isn’t cheap. Units can cost up to six figures RMB depending on the specifications (reach, payload and precision). Unitree’s rise to prominence is partly due to the fact that it has lowered this ceiling into the five-figure price range. Affordable humanoids will be crucial if they are to become mass market home products. Haier has recently become the controlling shareholder in Step Electric, a robotics company for industrial use, a clear sign of its long-term ambition.
It is expected that more companies will join the embodied-intelligence rush. It remains to be determined if any of these companies will succeed. This arms race, both literally and figuratively, is far from over. KrASIA Connection
features content that was originally published on 36Kr. Leslie Zhang wrote this article for 36Kr.
