Robotics Development Trends at ICRA & IROS and the Rising Influence of Chinese Research
Based on an in-depth interview conducted by NOKOV Motion Capture with Professor Wang Hesheng of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Chairman of the IROS 2025 Conference.In an era of rapid technological advancement, robotics is reshaping human life at an unprecedented pace. As General Chair of IROS 2025, Professor Hesheng Wang shared his perspectives in an exclusive interview with NOKOV Motion Capture—shedding light on the latest developments in robotics research and offering insights into the rise of Chinese robotics and its growing global influence.
Recent data from top robotics conferences highlights China’s expanding research impact. At both ICRA and IROS, papers with first authors from mainland China have grown consistently, surpassing those from Japan and the U.S. in both submissions and acceptances.
Key drivers behind this growth include:
National and Industrial Support: Professor Wang emphasized that China’s strategic focus on robotics—backed by strong policy support, funding, and talent development—has been crucial. The domestic robotics market is also booming, creating real-world demand. For example, Unitree’s robot dance performance at the 2025 Spring Festival Gala demonstrated how robotics achievements are capturing public attention.
Growing Talent Pool: China’s educational investment has led to a significant increase in robotics researchers and students, strengthening the foundation for continued innovation.
ICRA 2024 Poster Session
Professor Wang described China’s robotics research as being in “full bloom,” with progress across multiple areas:
Academic Output: Chinese scholars now lead in paper contributions to ICRA and IROS. Quality is also rising, with more publications in top journals like IEEE Transactions on Robotics (TRO).
Industrial Applications: Companies are addressing practical needs, from smart manufacturing to automation, enabling a smoother transition from research to application. Startups are thriving, and supply chains are maturing. For instance, NOKOV’s high-precision optical motion capture systems provide accurate data for robot locomotion, grasping, and navigation—bridging academic research and industrial deployment.
ICRA 2024 at the NOKOV Booth
Overall Progress: Benefiting from reform and opening-up policies, China’s robotics ecosystem has developed comprehensively. While gaps with global leaders remain, Professor Wang believes China will continue to advance in both research quality and industrial impact.
3. Cutting-Edge Trends: From Embodied AI to Machine Learning
Robotics research is moving beyond “automation” toward Embodied AI, fueled by large-scale models and advances in machine learning and deep learning.
Embodied AI: This emerging concept integrates perception, cognition, and action, shifting robotics from pure control and modeling to end-to-end intelligence and interaction. Large language and vision models are already transforming perception and human-robot interaction. However, challenges remain in translating such intelligence into effective real-world robot actions.
Motion capture technologies such as those offered by NOKOV play a crucial role here. By providing detailed datasets of robot-environment interactions, they enable more accurate simulation-to-reality transfer, reducing gaps between training environments and real-world performance.
The learning wave: Analysis of IROS conference keywords shows that “learning” has consistently dominated in recent years. Whether deep learning, reinforcement learning, or end-to-end methods, data-driven approaches are reshaping robotics. Conferences like CoRL (Conference on Robot Learning) embody this cross-disciplinary momentum. Increasingly, roboticists are exploring how machine learning can enhance traditional robotics problems like grasping, navigation, planning, and control.
At IROS 2025, workshops under the Embodied AI theme—sponsored by NOKOV—include:
Embodied AI and Robotics for Future Scientific Discovery https://airobot4sci.github.io/
Human-aware Embodied AI (HEAI) https://heai-iros25-workshop.github.io
The 3rd C4SR+ Workshop: Continuum, Compliant, Cooperative, Cognitive Surgical Robotic Systems in the Embodied AI Era https://sites.google.com/view/iros-2025-c4sr/home
4. Building Chinese Presence: From Domestic Conferences to the Global Stage
While Chinese scholars have long been active internationally, Professor Wang stressed the need for more mainland researchers to engage globally:
CC-CRS: The China Conference on Robotics and Systems, though relatively new, has grown quickly, uniting previously fragmented research communities and attracting thousands of participants.
CC-CRS 2024 in Xi'an
Going Global: Professor Wang hopes domestic conferences will become more international—publishing proceedings, hosting specialized forums, and inviting global experts—to strengthen China’s integration into worldwide robotics research.
Professor Wang envisions IROS 2025 in Hangzhou as a landmark event where Chinese and international scholars can exchange ideas and collaboratively shape the future of robotics.
As IROS 2025 approaches, NOKOV looks forward the global robotics community to gathering in Hangzhou—a convergence of science, industry, and society that will define the next chapter of intelligent robotics.
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