Building young minds of the future with all-things-robotics

Of UB Tech's humanoid robots sold last year, 31 percent ended up being used in household applications, with the rest as teaching-based devices.

"The price of humanoid robots is still high, because few have realized mass production yet," says Liao. As a result, profits from UB's humanoid robots still represent just 10 to 20 percent of total revenue, he says.

Overseas robot makers involved in the household appliance market, meanwhile, tend to sell high-end products in China, often carrying high price tags.

According to Max Conze, chief executive officer of United Kingdom-based household appliance maker Dyson Ltd, China will soon be the world's leading market for service robots.

His company is eyeing high-double digit growth in China in years to come because the country has a large and growing technology-savvy population, he says.

Dyson's smart vacuum cleaner, for instance, allows users to program cleaning times into their devices using their mobile, so their robot will automatically mop the floor while they are out.

"We plan to introduce the product in 2015 via both brick-and-mortar stores and online shopping sites," says Conze.

Other enterprises gaining market share in the Chinese cleaning robots market include Ecovacs Group, a domestic cleaner inventor based in Jiangsu province, and Fmart Co Ltd, a Sweden-based auto sweeper producer.

Xu Xiaolan, secretary-general of the Chinese Institute of Electronics, says China's appetite for service robots will continue surging, as dispensable income keeps on rising.

"The Chinese industrial robots have great potential for export, but for service robot makers, the market will still be big enough for years ahead," says Xu.

The 23-year-old graduate from Tsinghua has already established his own machine vision firm, SenseTime.com, together with a professor from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

The company, which is developing face recognition technology that can be applied to payment and picture analysis, which could be used, for instance, on bank card verification and security systems, has already received tens of millions of dollars in investment, including from International Data Corporation, the United States-based market research, analysis and advisory firm, which specializes in information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology.

Ni Huiliuqian contributed to this story

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