The domestic market for collaborative robots is now basically saturated, and prices are very low," said Wu Yuxuan, Sales Manager at JIIMT ROBOT, to media including EEFOCUS at the recently held ICDIA.
Wu Yuxuan, Sales Manager at IIMT ROBOT Manufacturing
This is no alarmist claim. China's collaborative robot industry is currently in a unique stage characterized by both rapid growth and intense competition. In 2025, sales of collaborative robots in the Chinese market reached approximately 49,500 units, a year-on-year increase of 45.59%; the market size grew from 2 billion RMB in 2021 to 2.9 billion RMB in 2025. In 2026, sales are expected to exceed 60,000 units, with the market size reaching 3.8 billion RMB. On a global scale, the collaborative robot market size exceeded 9.2 billion USD in 2025, with the Chinese market contributing over 28%.
However, the flip side of this growth is a brutal price war. The average price of domestically produced 6-axis and above collaborative robots dropped from 110,400 RMB in 2022 to 72,100 RMB in 2024, and mainstream 5-6kg light-load models collectively fell below the critical threshold of 20,000 RMB in 2024. Quotations for 6-axis collaborative robots from some brands have even dropped below 10,000 RMB. Prices continue to plunge while performance keeps advancing—collaborative robots are transitioning from "high-end equipment" to the "10,000 RMB mass-market tier." Analysis points out that if the fierce competition continues for another year, cash flows of tail-end manufacturers will break, leading to a 30% capacity elimination.
The industry landscape is also undergoing drastic reshuffling. Companies such as Dobot, JAKA, Aubo, FAIRINO, ROKAE, and Elite Robot each hold their own ground, while the entry of two giants, ESTUN and Siasun, has further consolidated domestic strength. The number of collaborative robot manufacturers globally has reached approximately 130.
It is against this backdrop that IIMT ROBOT, founded in 2016, has chosen two differentiated paths to break through—anchoring in the embodied intelligence track and continuously expanding overseas markets with the deep integration of "collaborative robots + unmanned vehicles."
Overseas Breakthrough: Sales Markets in Over 40 Countries
Against the backdrop of fierce price competition in the domestic market, IIMT ROBOT has turned its sights to overseas markets.
"We have agents in many overseas regions, and the collection volume is very high," Wu Yuxuan revealed. Demand in overseas markets is mainly concentrated on robotic arms—overseas markets highly value the feasibility of implementation for supporting solutions of robotic arm products.
Currently, IIMT ROBOT's products have entered over 40 countries and regions. In 2025, the company's overseas sales surged several times compared to the previous year. In 2025, China's collaborative robot exports reached 10,872 units, and are expected to exceed 12,000 units in 2026; China's industrial robot exports grew by 48.7%, surpassing imports for the first time and making China a net exporter. To further improve its service system, IIMT ROBOT has established overseas service centers in 7 countries, and its products support 13 language versions.
Wu Yuxuan compared the differences between domestic and overseas markets: "Overseas markets might be relatively better in terms of price competition compared to China. Currently, most of the Chinese market cares more about the cost-effectiveness and stability of products." Meanwhile, overseas customers "value scenario implementation solutions more." This market preference precisely provides a premium space for Chinese robot companies with system integration capabilities.
Product Differentiation: Full-Stack In-House R&D and "Integrated Smart Delivery"
In terms of technology roadmap, IIMT ROBOT has chosen "full-stack in-house R&D"—from algorithms and software to core components, all are independently developed.
To date, the company has developed 6 collaborative robots, 9 indoor and outdoor unmanned vehicles, as well as products like the integrated smart delivery coffee robot and intelligent cleaning robots. The collaborative robots cover various load models from 3kg to 20kg, suitable for over 15 industries including 3C, automotive, and semiconductor, and more than 200 application scenarios.
The most representative differentiated product is the "Integrated Smart Delivery Coffee Robot"—which deeply integrates the in-house 6-axis collaborative robotic arm with the in-house delivery unmanned vehicle. "Currently, we are the only one in the world with the integrated smart delivery coffee robot," Wu Yuxuan mentioned. Priced at approximately 180,000 RMB, this product has become a popular item in malls, office buildings, and other multi-scenario environments amid the surging demand for "coffee freedom." The linkage between the robotic arm and the unmanned vehicle enables full-scenario contactless delivery integrating "preparation + delivery." Consumers can summon it via their mobile phones and enjoy freshly made and delivered coffee in as quickly as 4 minutes.
On the industrial side, IIMT ROBOT focuses on diverse scenarios such as welding, spraying, and pick-and-place. The company has made particularly remarkable efforts in the welding field over the past two to three years, with welding robots applied in industrial sectors like shipbuilding, ports, machinery, and steel structures. Wu Yuxuan introduced, "We are currently building an embodied intelligence welding training ground, which includes data collection and annotation for welding robots."
Embodied Intelligence: The Gap Between Ideal and Reality
Embodied intelligence is currently one of the hottest directions in the robotics industry, and IIMT ROBOT is actively deploying it. The company has built an embodied intelligence technology system based on the VLA large model. For example, focusing on the core pain points of data collection, IIMT ROBOT has created a dual big data collection solution featuring XR teleoperation and master-slave arm point mapping.
At the specific product level, IIMT ROBOT is developing the "embodied intelligence welding robot"—users only need to give voice commands, and the robot can automatically go to the designated station to complete welding. In 2025, IIMT ROBOT also took the lead in building the "Key Laboratory of Intelligent Harvesting Robots of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs." At the industry-university-research level, IIMT ROBOT has long established a mature comprehensive industry-education integration service system, reaching school-enterprise cooperation with over a hundred vocational colleges and undergraduate universities. The cooperative business covers multiple sectors such as the co-construction of embodied intelligence practical training bases, R&D of embodied intelligence robots, and co-construction of related professional courses for embodied intelligence, forming a standardized and replicable school-enterprise cooperation operation model.
However, Wu Yuxuan remains clear-headed about the implementation prospects of embodied intelligence. "To be honest, in my view, the process from the development of embodied intelligence to its actual implementation is still relatively long," she frankly stated. For instance, during the R&D and implementation of agricultural picking robots, they face complex situations such as lighting changes, human interference, and occlusion. "Actually, after leaving fixed locations, robots face significant challenges in autonomy, and currently, they cannot achieve very good implementation results."
Or rather, "the scenarios in the laboratory are different from reality, so we need to test more in real-world scenarios and constantly optimize and update our algorithms."
Regarding computing power deployment, Wu Yuxuan stated, "The purpose of improving computing power is to enable perception and decision-making capabilities to be directly deployed on the body of the collaborative robot, reducing reliance on cloud communication. In this way, it will provide lower latency, higher autonomy, and stronger adaptability in actual applications."
Conclusion
From its establishment in 2016 to the present, IIMT ROBOT has walked a ten-year path of robot R&D. At a time when the price war for collaborative robots in the domestic market is becoming increasingly intense, the company has chosen two breakthrough paths: "going global" and "product differentiation"—the former has already yielded considerable market returns, while the latter is still under exploration.
"The industry prospects are definitely good, and the goal is embodied intelligence," Wu Yuxuan said at the end of the interview. However, for embodied intelligence to move from the laboratory to real factory workshops and fields, it requires not only the iteration of algorithms but also the reconstruction of the entire industrial ecosystem. This journey has just begun.