Beijing Union University established a special group called "Union One" robot team to develop a robot which can speak in sign language. (China.com.cn/Liu Xingyu)

China has become the biggest consumer of industrial robots, but domestically produced robots account for only 30 percent of market shares. Key parts rely on imports, which take up over 70 percent of production cost.

Industrial robots have recently been dominating the robot industry. Wang Tianran, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and an automation researcher, thinks that the demand for robots in China is seeing a rapid increase due to the rising cost of human labor. The use of robots can not only increase production efficiency but can also save on cost.

China became the biggest global robot market in 2013, and its sales volume accounts for a quarter of the global sales volume. Qu Daokui, President of China Robot Industry Alliance, said that China has over 30 big robot development areas and industrial parks. Hundreds of listed enterprises focus on robots and thousands more are robot-related.

Globally, robot popularity is measured by robot ownership per every 10,000 workers. Currently in China, there are 23 robots per 10,000 workers. That number exceeds 300 in Japan and South Korea.

China is in the process of working out its Thirteenth Five-Year Plan for the robot industry. Made in China 2025 has listed robots and advanced numerically controlled machines in the top ten important fields that need a breakthrough.

As for the heavy dependence on foreign materials, development of artificial intelligence and internet technology will be of great use to smart robots, according to Wang. The gap between domestic robots and imported ones is still big; in order to tackle this problem, robots will have to be deeply integrated with information technology, big data, networks and artificial intelligence.