Retailers tout robots at innovative tech festival

As the doors swing open at Beijing's new robot-themed restaurant, diners are greeted by humanoid workers who nod and speak in lifelike gestures, while robotic servers glide between tables delivering dishes and a robot band plays drums and guitars, turning a dining experience into a futuristic spectacle.

"The restaurant gives me a fresh sense of technology. It's quite an amazing attempt," said Ding Wenjun, a tourist from Jiangxi province.

Sun Ling, head of the Robot Restaurant, said, "It is not only an immersive dining place integrating cuisine, culture and technology, but also provides a scenario for robot application and data collection."

The tech-savvy restaurant is participating in the E-Town Robot Consumption Festival, running from Aug 2 to Sunday. The event was organized by the administrative committee of the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town.

Making its debut at the festival is the Robot Mall, a 4,000-square-meter "robot 4S" store. It features more than 50 products across medical, industrial and companion robotics.

For example, the Galbot G1, a wheeled-chassis humanoid robot, can retrieve medications from shelves and deliver them directly to patients.

"It can automatically dispense and distribute medications, alleviating the heavy workload of nurses and reducing the risk of human error," said Meng Yanpei, a manager at the mall. "In pharmacies, it serves emergency patients, especially at night, while also lowering operating costs by taking over repetitive tasks."

Over 10 pharmacies in Beijing are now operating 24 hours a day with the use of a Galbot G1. The robot is priced at 680,000 yuan ($94,800), a 50,000 yuan discount, at the 4S store during the festival.

As of Tuesday, more than 19,000 robots and related products have been sold during the festival, generating total sales of over 200 million yuan. Meanwhile, the distribution of consumption vouchers has boosted sales by over 60 million yuan, according to the administrative committee of Beijing E-Town.

Meanwhile, shopping malls and e-commerce platform JD.com are hosting sales campaigns at the festival. Enterprises can enjoy subsidies of up to 250,000 yuan on robot purchases.

Targeting online consumers, JD.com has showcased over 680 robots and related products, including quadruped, biped, exoskeleton, and educational and companion robots, offering a maximum subsidy of 600 yuan for a single product.

"In the past, these robots were priced in the millions of yuan, but now they are becoming more affordable," said Xu Lei, head of the Intelligent Robot Business Department under the 3C Digital Business Group of JD.com. "We hope to leverage the advantages of online sales, brand support and supply chains to make robots accessible to more consumers."

Zhang Hao, chief scientist of ALVA (Beijing) Technology Co, said that robots are still in their infancy and are often used mainly for display. "Even though they may stagger while walking, they captivate us because we can sense their intelligence gradually maturing."

"Only when robots help customers make money will they buy and keep buying such machines," said Zhang, adding that such machines must be practical, affordable, versatile and of effective use for consumers.

Zhang's perspective echoes that of Massimiliano Zecca, a professor of healthcare technology at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom.

"Humanoid robots now require an engineering team to look after them," the professor said. "They need to bring real value to form a natural market."

Despite the limitations of the robots, Zecca was clearly impressed by a humanoid coffee barista crafting intricate latte art at the 2025 World Robot Conference, which concluded on Tuesday.

"I would pay for a cup of coffee with artistic flavor. The evolution of humanoid robots will surely provide more choices to meet personal preferences," Zecca said.

Xinhua