The final round of the 11th "Maker China" Intelligent Bionic Robot SME Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition is scheduled to take place in Shapingba District, Chongqing, from September 9 to 11. Centered on the theme "Technological Breakthroughs, Boundless Creativity," the event aims to establish a collaborative platform for small and mid-sized enterprises in the national robotics sector, facilitating project incubation, industrial-financial integration, and joint technological development.
The competition is organized around key elements of the intelligent bionic robot industry, featuring both startup and enterprise categories across a total of 13 specific challenges, with over 100 organizations participating. The startup category covers three primary directions—frontier technology, common infrastructure, and specialized applications—with challenges such as robot visual-language navigation, safety and robustness, and micro flapping-wing aerial robots. The enterprise category targets sectors like power, healthcare, and services, with tasks including robotic surgical operations, autonomous shirt folding, and smart wearables with human-machine interaction.
So why was Shapingba chosen to host the finals of this high-level national competition in intelligent bionic robotics? The answer lies not in a single advantage, but in three layered pillars of support: a solid industrial foundation capable of hosting such an event, a vibrant innovation ecosystem that attracts and retains talent, and a business-friendly environment that sustains enterprises.
Behind the Arena: A Solid Industrial Foundation
As a core manufacturing hub in Chongqing, particularly serving as the heartland for the intelligent connected new energy vehicle industry, Shapingba District has precisely targeted investment around the complete vehicle supply needs of SERES. This has led to the establishment of 84 supporting enterprises, creating a comprehensive "complete vehicle + components + aftermarket" industrial chain. This approach allows the emerging embodied intelligent robot sector to build on existing strengths rather than starting from scratch, promoting integrated development of vehicles and machines to drive mutual growth between the two industries.
To date, the district has gathered 7 complete machine manufacturers, including Phoenix Technology, Weizhi Technology, and Estun, spanning four major robot tracks: humanoid robots, industrial collaboration, logistics mobility, and rehabilitation exoskeletons. With more than 30 vehicle-machine synergetic enterprises such as Meihu Zhizao, Flying Rongda, and Tuopu, the district has formed a complete chain covering "core components, complete machine manufacturing, and system integration."
As a strategically cultivated future industry at the billion-yuan scale, embodied intelligent robots are steadily clustering and accelerating their rise. From January to July 2026, production value grew 233% year-on-year, establishing this sector as a new growth engine for the local economy. This substantial industrial base is the strongest support for the national robot competition being held in Shapingba.
A view of the SERES super factory (Phoenix) in Shapingba District, Chongqing, where industrial robots work on the production line. (Photo provided by the Shapingba District Economic and Information Commission)
Innovation Ecosystem: A Thriving Tropical Rainforest
How has the embodied intelligent industry managed to flourish in Shapingba District? The local answer is: "nurture the ecosystem"—enriching the entrepreneurial soil, cultivating a suitable environment, and building a "tropical rainforest-style" innovation ecosystem to promote clustered, chain-based development of the embodied intelligent robot sector.
The source of innovation is talent. As a major innovation district, Shapingba is home to 6 universities with robotics-related programs, housing high-level research teams and producing over 3,000 specialized graduates each year. Institutions such as the Robotics and Intelligent Systems Research Institute and the National Key Laboratory of High-End Equipment Mechanical Transmission provide platform support for upstream research in "brain-control-joint-complete machine" technologies. Meanwhile, the Chongqing University Industrial Machine Tool Research Institute offers testing and pilot-scale support for robots, and the Chongqing Intelligent Control Technology Concept Validation Center provides commercialization validation and entrepreneurial mentoring for robotics innovation teams.
From the laboratory to the production line, Shapingba is turning the city itself into a "testing ground" for robots. By deeply exploring and opening application scenarios in industrial manufacturing and smart logistics, the district has successfully incubated technology commercialization enterprises such as Yibu Zhidong, Yisilun Technology, and Jinggang Transmission, achieving deep integration of technological and industrial innovation.
Additionally, Shapingba is accelerating the development of a municipal-level public pilot platform for embodied intelligent robots, opening its technical services to the entire city. Plans are also underway for a 10,000-square-meter embodied intelligent real-world training facility in the Chongqing International Logistics Hub Park.
The full series of industrial robots produced by Estun Intelligent Equipment Technology Co., Ltd. in Shapingba District are widely used in intelligent manufacturing for new energy vehicles. (Photo provided by the Shapingba District Economic and Information Commission)
A Business-Friendly Haven: Full-Service Support
For an industry to gain momentum and for innovators to establish themselves securely, the business environment is key. In recent years, Shapingba District has built a government service system covering the entire lifecycle, all processes, and all factors for enterprises, addressing institutional supply, factor guarantees, and long-term services. This approach uses the certainty of services to counter the "uncertainty" of innovation.
Among its initiatives, "Entrepreneur Reception Day" serves as a regular channel for government-enterprise communication, using the resolution of enterprise concerns as a core focus to continually enhance the district's reputation as a top-tier business environment. During an August 21 session, Tang Jiangyu, Chairman of Weizhi Technology, shared the company's plan to develop a "cultural tourism + embodied intelligence" industry by deploying human exoskeleton devices for rental at mountain city scenic spots. Relevant departments immediately pledged to assist in coordinating application scenarios with scenic areas, while also suggesting expansion of product applications to include labor-intensive industrial enterprises, with plans to promote the products across local businesses.
As the origin of the China-Europe Railway Express and the birthplace of the Western Land-Sea New Corridor, Shapingba serves as the city's land-port-type national logistics hub. It boasts the largest railway marshaling yard in Southwest China and a leading national railway container center station, along with a railway port and bonded zone. As of July 2026, nearly 34,000 international freight trains have departed from the area, carrying goods valued at over 735 billion yuan. The corridor connects over 40 countries across Asia and Europe overland, while maritime routes reach nearly 600 ports globally.
The Chongqing International Logistics Hub Park in Shapingba is the starting point of the China-Europe Railway Express and the origin of the Western Land-Sea New Corridor. (Photo provided by the Shapingba District Economic and Information Commission)
During this competition, supporting activities such as results commercialization matchmaking, financial service connections, and customized service packages will run concurrently. "Using the competition as a link to build an integrated platform for technical exchange, industrial-financial collaboration, and results commercialization, we aim to precisely attract high-end robotics research talent, entrepreneurial teams, and specialized SMEs to continuously improve the industrial innovation ecosystem and inject new momentum into the city's intelligent robotics industry," said a representative from Shapingba District.
Promoting innovation through competition, industry through competition, and talent attraction through competition—for Shapingba, hosting the national competition serves both as a review of its industrial strength and a starting point for the next phase of growth. Converting "event traffic" into "industrial increment," Shapingba is transforming this national competition into a pathway toward a new frontier of emerging industries.