A robot monitors power-transmission equipment during a rainstorm in Chuzhou, Anhui province, on Aug 10, 2015. [Photo/China Daily]

"Though the domestic scientific community has been researching robots for many years, the robot industry is still in its infancy," said Hao Yucheng, deputy director of the China Robot Industry Alliance.

"The bulk of enterprises have no intellectual properties, talents, and cash. They are just entering the sector with enthusiasm and doing repetitive jobs like assembling robots instead of making robots," he said.

In 2014, China bought over 57,000 industrial robots, but less than 30 percent of them are from domestic suppliers, data from the China Robot Industry Alliance shows.

Foreign heavyweights including ABB Ltd, KUKA Robotics Corp and FANUC Corp are sharing the rest 70 percent of the market.

"China's robot industry is like a toddler. But it is growing in the world's largest robot market where many competitive foreign enterprises are scrambling for a pie. Opportunities abound, so do challenges. A simple mistake is likely to nip the industry in the bud," Qu of Siasun said.

Also, a wide technological gap still exists between domestic robot manufacturers and their foreign counterparts.

China now has few enterprises that can provide mass produced and reliable industrial robot components such as speed reducers, drive and control devices, as well as servomotors.

"Most of these components are still imported from foreign countries, whose steep tariffs increase the cost of robots," Hao of the China Robot Industry Alliance said.

For instance, speed reducers could account for about 30 percent of domestic robots' cost, compared with only 12 percent for similar Japanese robots, an industry resource said.