Home Appliance Manufacturers Collectively Venture into Embodied AI, But Entry into Households May Still Take 3 to 5 Years | Direct Coverage of AWE2026

Cailian Press, March 15 — (Reporter Wang Biyi) Haier’s robots automatically sort ingredients into the refrigerator, Ecovacs’ robots use mechanical arms to put scattered toys back in place, and FOTILE’s robotic kitchen completes the entire process from pouring oil to stir-frying and serving dishes.

These scenes appeared at AWE2026.

On March 12, the 2026 China Appliance and Consumer Electronics Expo (AWE2026) opened in Shanghai, covering a total area of 170,000 square meters, with a new Innovation Technology Zone for the first time.

Cailian Press reporters observed on-site that companies known for home appliances, including Haier, Hisense, Ecovacs (603486.SH), TCL, FOTILE, Stone Technology (688169.SH), ZhuiMi, and Robam Appliances (002508.SZ), collectively showcased embodied intelligent products. These covered various robot forms for chores, cleaning, companionship, and cooking, with the highest number of robots displayed in history.

On the same day, the China Household Electrical Appliances Association’s Special Committee on Service Robots was officially established in Shanghai, with the first batch of 50 member companies covering the entire industry chain, including home appliances, embodied intelligence, AI chips, and robot joint modules.

Wan Chunhui, Deputy Secretary-General of the China Household Electrical Appliances Association, stated at the founding conference that family scenarios have been unanimously recognized by all companies as the ultimate goal of the robotics industry.

Home Appliance Companies Explore Embodied Intelligence

Ecovacs, a giant in cleaning appliances, debuted two embodied intelligent products at this year’s AWE.

The first is the home service butler robot “Bajie,” equipped with a sliding base and mechanical arms for gripping, capable of toy storage, desktop organization, and object retrieval and delivery.

(Ecovacs Bajie, photo by Cailian Press) At the exhibition, Cailian Press learned that Bajie is equipped with the VLM large model and a home database, enabling it to understand objects, spatial relationships, and object ownership. This is Bajie’s global debut, and it is still a prototype.

Qian Dongqi, Chairman of Ecovacs, said at the AWE venue that this butler robot “is expected to enter households within three years.” On one hand, the technology needs to become more mature; on the other, it depends on how much users are willing to pay to bring it home.

Ecovacs also showcased the AI bionic companion robot “Mao Tuan Er,” shaped like a Maltese dog, supporting multi-sensory interactions such as sight, sound, and touch. It has five personality types and seven emotional states, priced at 3,999 yuan, and is now officially on sale.

TCL also displayed a companion robot. According to TCL, AiMe is the world’s first split-type AI companion robot capable of multimodal natural interaction, emotional companionship, and anthropomorphic communication. Additionally, TCL AiMe continuously learns and adapts to household members’ behaviors through daily interactions, providing personalized experiences for each family member, and can intelligently connect with home devices.

(TCL AiMe, photo by Cailian Press) Haier Group Vice President Shu Hai stated during the home service robot industry development forum held at AWE that the current home appliance industry is showing two major trends: AI integration and embodied intelligence. The core of AI in home appliances is proactive intelligence, which can anticipate user needs and automatically provide services without commands; the core of embodied intelligence is spatial intelligence, enabling machines to act autonomously in the home environment.

Haier Smart Home released three types of home service robots at this year’s AWE: cleaning, companionship, and chores.

Among them, Haier’s “Hua Wa” chores robot can work with all household appliances to perform tasks such as transporting ingredients, sorting and storing, and organizing tableware; the Hua Wa cleaning robot first uses its claws to move slippers to designated areas, then collects scattered toys into storage baskets, and autonomously plans routes for whole-house cleaning; the Hua Wa companionship robot supports medication reminders, fall detection, and emergency alerts.

Hisense also showcased three robot products.

The humanoid robot Harley is Hisense’s first commercialized humanoid robot, responsible for guiding and explaining products at the exhibition. The butler robot Savvy has a humanoid upper body and a wheel-based lower body, allowing it to move autonomously around the house, controlling all household appliances and performing chores like laundry and meal prep. The companionship robot Moii is designed for child companionship and elderly care.

FOTILE announced the world’s first robotic kitchen just before the AWE opening at the Eco-Conference.

The kitchen is composed of high-precision mechanical arms and humanoid robots working together. The mechanical arms handle cup positioning, water pouring, and dishwasher placement, while the humanoid robot performs cooking tasks such as pouring oil, stir-frying, and serving dishes, all without human intervention from cooking to cleaning.

Additionally, FOTILE released the first “Global Smart Kitchen Innovation Development White Paper,” dividing smart kitchen capabilities into five levels from L1 to L5.

Stone Technology showcased the world’s first wheel-legged floor-cleaning robot G-Rover, with each leg capable of independent extension and elevation, allowing it to move stably on stairs and slopes and expand the cleaning range from flat surfaces to stairs.

(Stone G-Rover, photo by Cailian Press) ZhuiMi Technology, with an exhibition area of over 11,000 square meters, was the largest exhibitor at this year’s AWE, displaying a clothes-folding robot and full-time service robots with functions including housekeeping, monitoring, and security.

(ZhuiMi full-time service robot, photo by Cailian Press) Industry organizations are also making progress.

Wan Chunhui explained that the first batch of 50 member companies of the special committee includes 23 listed companies, with a total annual revenue exceeding 1 trillion yuan. Haier Group Vice President Shu Hai serves as the director of the committee, with members including Hisense, Fourier, TCL, Wolong Electric, Midea, OBIO, Changhong, and FOTILE.

Wan Chunhui noted that the complexity of home scenarios presents common issues such as repeated data collection, inconsistent technical pathways, and lack of standards, and that collaboration between home appliance and robotics companies still needs breakthroughs.

Large-Scale Household Entry Still 3 to 5 Years Away

Home appliance manufacturers are trying to replace traditional appliances with robots, bringing “embodied intelligence” into household scenarios.

Liu Fei, Director of Consumer Electronics Research at Aowei Cloud, told Cailian Press that traditional home appliance companies are entering embodied intelligence to seize the next-generation smart interfaces and achieve secondary growth. He believes their advantages lie in a complete supply chain and extensive application of large models, which can establish cost advantages and quickly build ecosystem stickiness.

Taking Ecovacs, which specializes in cleaning appliances, as an example.

Regarding Ecovacs’ advantages in entering embodied intelligence, a PR representative told Cailian Press that first, based on their existing cleaning robot products, they understand consumer needs; second, their own supply chain provides key components; and third, their own large language AI models have mature applications and training experience.

They also mentioned that Ecovacs has invested in five industrial bases in Nanxun, Zhejiang. Taiding New Energy, responsible for battery business, achieved sales of 250 million yuan in the first quarter, with over 50% year-on-year growth, and is expanding production. After the expansion, monthly capacity will double.

From home appliances to embodied intelligence, supply chain layouts like Taiding New Energy can be fully reused.

The person also told Cailian Press that “household chores are one of the visible application scenarios for embodied intelligence. People are not good at sensing chores, and their value is hard to measure, but robots can serve 24 hours. In this field, user acceptance of robots is already relatively high.”

However, while many home appliance companies are entering the field, industry insiders remain cautious about the timeline for commercialization.

Liu Fei said that humanoid robots are expected to move from technical validation to mass production by 2026, but still require supply chain support and technological maturity, taking about 3 to 5 years.

Industry analyst and State Grid chief editor Lv Shenghua also stated at the forum that large-scale household entry of embodied intelligent robots still faces three challenges:

First, moving from “usable” to “easy to use” — household environment adaptability needs to be improved; ease of use is the real threshold for household entry.

Second, matching price with value — current embodied intelligent products range from 10,000 to 200,000 yuan, far exceeding traditional home appliances. Consumers are buying not toys but intelligent partners that solve real problems. Only when price and value align can robots move from novelty to widespread adoption.

Third, as robots interact frequently with family members across many scenarios, safety and privacy issues must be strictly regulated. Uncontrolled incidents could destroy the entire category’s future. Safety and trustworthiness are the first hurdles for embodied intelligence entering homes.

Additionally, Professor Sun Fuchun of Tsinghua University’s Department of Computer Science and Technology, and Vice Chairman of the Chinese Artificial Intelligence Society, pointed out that there are still technical challenges in deploying household service robots.

One such challenge is the “Moravec paradox”: actions like pouring water or tying shoelaces, which are routine for humans, are extremely complex for robots, involving high-dimensional joint control, force feedback, visual reasoning, and other technologies. Tasks that are difficult for humans to compute or play chess are easily handled by robots.

Yuh Hao, Secretary-General of the China Household Electrical Appliances Association’s Service Robots Committee, explained while interpreting the “Household Service Robot Industry Development White Paper” that consumer awareness of household service robots is already present, but the depth of understanding is low, risking a “cognitive and reality gap.”

He predicted that the consumer market will evolve in four directions: from single-function to multi-function integration; from specific scenarios to full-house smart hubs; from tool-like to emotionally interactive; and from high to gradually lower prices.

Zhang Chonghe, President of the China Light Industry Council, provided industry data at the event: China is the world’s largest robot market, producing 55% of global robot products, with a projected service robot output of 18.58 million units in 2025, a 16.1% increase year-on-year.