On October 25, the 2026 Global Developer Pioneer Conference and the International Embodied Intelligence Skills Competition came to a successful close at the Zhangjiang Science Hall in Shanghai. The conference brought together more than 300 embodied intelligence hardware companies and more than 200 upstream and downstream supply chain enterprises, gathered nearly 100 open-source organizations and developer communities from home and abroad, as well as more than 500 young developers and heavyweight industry guests. It attracted nearly 60,000 offline attendees, with more than 6,500 reports published across the internet and over 6 billion exposures.
ConferenceIt intensively launched major "4+X" achievements, building full industrial-chain ecosystem support for embodied intelligence. In terms of application scenarios, the conference unveiled the "Ten Real-Scenario Tracks of the International Embodied Intelligence Skills Competition," opening up broad space for the deployment of embodied intelligence technologies. In terms of technical evaluation, it released the "Embodied Intelligence Evaluation System and Tools," establishing a systematic measurement standard for capability assessment. In terms of supply chain collaboration, it introduced the Zhangjiang South embodied intelligence supply chain platform, featuring "one-day matching, three-day prototyping, and one-week trial production." In terms of industrial space, it unveiled the landmark building of Zhangjiang Robotics Valley, further enhancing the region's industrial cluster capability.
This conference fostered a flourishing ecosystem featuring broad developer participation, deep linkage of international resources, and a concentrated showcase of industrial innovation achievements. It injected new momentum into Shanghai's effort to build a sci-tech innovation highland, continuously strengthening Shanghai's label as a 'City of Developers' and its international influence.
Three Major Fields, Nine Competition Tracks: One Thousand Robots in Real-World Action in Shanghai
This year's International Embodied Intelligence Skills Competition focuses on three major fields—industrial, service, and special—featuring 9 competition tracks and 23 competition events.The competition attracted more than800 participating teams and over a thousand robots competing on the same stage, with more than 70 industry experts serving as judges and more than 500 industry experts engaging in in-depth exchanges.
Grounded in real-machine practice and real-scene training, the competition pushed embodied intelligence from skill demonstration toward real-scene operations, using scenarios to drive the landing and regular deployment of AI applications, with a focus on testing robots' practical capabilities in real production and life.
At the closing ceremony, the major awards were announced one by one: the competition awarded 16 first prizes, 21 second prizes, and 31 third prizes. Teams including Guodi Center, Shanghai Electric, Shanghai University General Intelligence, XinZhi Embodied, Xingtu Low-Altitude Intelligence, Zhongxin Zhi, Lenovo, Twilight Line, Bailian Commercial Internet, Rushen, Tianyi Digital Life, Explorer Epoch, Hou Jiyuan, and Qianyu Zhichuang achieved good results in multiple events, fully demonstrating the industrial achievements of embodied intelligence moving from technology R&D to actual operations.
Group photo of the first-prize winners of this competition
The closing ceremony also revealed the Forbes China Robotics series of awards: the Humanoid Robot Future Award, Multimodal Interaction Design Award, Commercial Value Award, Human-Machine Symbiosis Creativity Award, and Digital AI Character Image Award were announced in turn. At the same time,The closing ceremony featured a variety of exciting performances: a naked-eye 3D show, a DJ set, and a talent-show street dance ignited the atmosphere; an embodied robot performed a human-machine interaction program, "Go, π Boy!", vividly depicting a robot's complete growth journey from startup training and beginner mistakes to iterative learning and skillful completion; powerhouse singer Liang Yuying collaborated across dimensions with AI virtual band "Ying Zhi Zi", pushing the atmosphere to a climax.
Rooted in Shanghai, Radiating Nationwide, Linking International Ecosystem Co-Building
This conference gathered industry guests from more than 20 countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France. Internationally renowned experts such as former Google Developer Relations President Jeanine Banks, OpenJS Foundation Executive Director Robin Bender Ginn, and Oussama Khatib — President of the International Foundation of Robotics Research (IFRR), IEEE Fellow, former ICRA Chair, Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, and Director of the Robotics Laboratory (SRC) — attended to share cutting-edge insights and discuss global technological transformation and the industry's future, bringing multiple feasts of ideas to developers and enterprises present.
In Hall A of Wisdom Bay at Zhangjiang Science Hall, the supply chain exhibition presented the full industry-chain landscape of embodied intelligence, creating a one-stop matchmaking platform where "you can assemble a complete robot BOM just by entering the exhibition hall". More than 200 upstream and downstream enterprises from across the country gathered here, opening supply-demand channels for components, complete machines, and solutions, and laying a solid industrial foundation for the translation of technological achievements.
In Hall B of Wisdom Bay at Zhangjiang Science Hall, a 2000-square-meter permanent real-scene training space was launched alongside the competition, promoting the construction of innovation application consortiums and building a robot industry-education-training-evaluation integrated center. In the future, the center will organize user organizations, complete robot manufacturers, model and algorithm companies, core component suppliers, and research institutions to jointly tackle challenges, conducting continuous training around practical operation skills, atomic-level skill packages, and engineering deployment capabilities, promoting the transformation of training results into industrial applications.
Cultivating New Quality Productive Forces, Injecting Momentum into High-Quality Development
The "Opinions on Developing New Quality Productive Forces" issued by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council clarified the forward-looking layout of future industries such as embodied intelligence, proposing to "explore diversified technical routes, typical application scenarios, and viable business models" to accelerate the formation of a complete industrial ecosystem; it also listed humanoid robots as a key direction for the application of new-generation intelligent terminal scenarios, emphasizing the layout and opening of "high-value application scenarios".
At present, a new wave of artificial intelligence is surging forward. For Shanghai, "AI+" is not only a slogan but a key engine for cultivating new quality productive forcesamong others. Industrial development is moving from the clustering of technology and products toward large-scale scenario implementation; behind the numerical growth is the continuous opening of real scenarios, deepening technology validation, and the accelerating release of industrial value.
"Embodied intelligence in real scenes; labor is most glorious." Artificial intelligence is accelerating its move from the digital world to the physical world, and embodied intelligence is undergoing important transformations from technological breakthroughs to scenario applications, from single-machine capability to system coordination, and from industrial exploration to commercial value creation. In the future, the GDPS Global Developer Pioneer Conference will continue to rely on Shanghai's comprehensive advantages in AI industry foundation, application scenarios, developer ecosystem, and international cooperation, using developers as the link, real scenarios as the driver, and the industrial ecosystem as support, continuously promoting the aggregation of global innovation resources, collaborative tackling of frontier technologies, landing and transformation of application results, and international industrial exchanges and cooperation.
This article was provided by the 2026 Global Developer Pioneer Conference; QbitAI republished it with authorization, and the views belong to the original author.