Making pizza, giving massages, playing tennis — on August 23, the 2026 World Robot Conference (WRC 2026) concluded in Beijing's Yizhuang district. Over five days, 373 domestic and international companies showcased over 3,000 innovative products, with more than 150 making their global debut.

But what's truly worth remembering isn't the flashy demos on the show floor — it's one signal: consumer home robots are finally taking pre-orders.

During the conference, Shangwei Materials' Zhiyuan Robotics brand "Qiyuan" announced that two consumer humanoid robots, Q1 and T1, are officially open for pre-order, with the first batch shipping in September. The Q1 stands just 88cm tall and weighs under 15kg, positioned for home companionship and light household tasks. It even won an international A'Design Gold Award. This isn't a lab prototype or an industrial robot requiring a seven-figure budget — this is a product ordinary consumers can actually pre-order and bring home.

From "Demo Theater" to "Sales Floor"

At previous World Robot Conferences, the event felt more like a "tech show." Robots would dance, do backflips, perform cool stunts — but if you asked "when can I buy this?" the answer was always "still in R&D" or "commercialization will take time."

This year was different. Next to many products on display were QR codes — scan to pre-order, ask about pricing, get shipping estimates. Pizza-making robots, coffee robots, cleaning robots, homework-tutoring robots — they're no longer "future concepts." They're becoming products.

Galaxy General unveiled its bipedal humanoid robot Galbot ET1 at the conference, alongside its self-developed embodied large model "Galaxy Brain." The company became widely known for its "Xiao Gai" robot appearance on the Spring Festival Gala, and is now moving its technology from the stage to real-world scenarios. Unitree's Go2 quadruped has already sold tens of thousands of units, and the newly released H1 humanoid has started small-batch delivery.

This marks a critical inflection point for the embodied AI industry: shifting from "showcasing technology" to "shipping products."

The Real Problems for Home Robots

Of course, consumer robots still have many problems to solve before they truly enter millions of homes.

The first is price. Today's consumer humanoids are still priced in the tens to hundreds of thousands of RMB range — comparable to a family car. Most households won't spend that on a "toy that does simple chores." Prices need to drop below 10,000 RMB for mass adoption to happen.

The second is utility. What home robots can actually do today is still very limited — greet people, walk around, pick up light objects. But truly cooking, cleaning, or caring for the elderly? Not there yet. Hand-eye coordination, fine manipulation, and long-term autonomous navigation are still unsolved technical problems.

The third is safety. With robots running around homes with elderly people and children, what happens if it bumps into someone, drops something, or malfunctions? Safety standards, certification systems, and insurance mechanisms — these "software" layers are harder than the hardware itself.

But the direction is clear. Just like the iPhone in 2007 or Tesla in 2014, first-generation products are never perfect. But once people start buying, using, and giving feedback, iteration speed accelerates exponentially. From "available for pre-order" to "genuinely useful" may only take two or three years.

The embodied AI story has been told for years. This year, it's finally starting to materialize. At next year's WRC, we might see the first wave of real user feedback — and that's when it gets really interesting.

See you tomorrow.