by LI Shuyao, CHENG Lu

At WorldSkills Shanghai 2026, robotics competitions are increasingly focused on getting machines to work in real environments rather than simply building or programming them.

In Robot Systems Integration, competitors must integrate robots into production processes. Autonomous Mobile Robotics combines mechanical design, assembly, programming and testing. Other manufacturing skills, including Mechatronics and Industrial Control, similarly require competitors to work across mechanical, electrical and control systems.

That overlap reflects a broader shift taking place in factories.

China installed 295,000 industrial robots in 2024, up 7% from a year earlier and accounting for 54% of global installations, according to the International Federation of Robotics. By the end of that year, more than 2 million industrial robots were operating in Chinese factories.

As robots spread into more industries, making them work reliably in increasingly varied production environments is becoming a bigger challenge.

"Previously, employees only needed to know basic robot teaching, but now we need more multidisciplinary engineers who understand how different pieces of equipment work together," Chinese robot maker DOBOT told Jiemian News.

Robot teaching — setting positions and movement paths through a teach pendant or similar device — is only one part of deploying a robot on a production line. Engineers may also need to understand electrical systems, programming, sensors, production processes and safety.

That is also what WorldSkills is testing.

Tai KengIam, an expert with the Macao, China delegation in Autonomous Mobile Robotics, told Jiemian News that competitors need both mechanical design and programming skills.

"If you can only design the machine but cannot program it, the robot won't move," Tai said. "You need to understand a little of everything and be able to work with different roles."

Employers say that combination is becoming harder to find.

DOBOT told Jiemian News that field technical support engineers and robot integration engineers are among the positions where it sees relatively tight supply. Engineers who can independently integrate and commission robot systems may need to program robots, read electrical drawings, handle basic wiring, understand production processes and troubleshoot equipment on site.

Salary levels also reflect the premium on experience. Jiemian News found some robot systems integration roles offering 12,000 yuan to 25,000 yuan (about US$1,700 to US$3,500) a month. A JD Logistics posting for an engineer with five to 10 years of experience offered 30,000 yuan to 40,000 yuan.

Local labor-market data point in the same direction. Hangzhou's 2026 list of occupations facing skills shortages ranked industrial robot system operators, industrial robot system maintenance workers and industrial vision system maintenance workers among its most-needed technical occupations.

The issue is not that China lacks robotics education.

China's national teaching standards for higher vocational programs in industrial robotics already include system integration, operation and maintenance, automation control, installation and technical support.

The harder part, companies say, is learning to deal with problems that do not follow a textbook.

DOBOT told Jiemian News that classroom teaching and real industrial projects can still be disconnected. As its robots have expanded from education and research into manufacturing, retail and healthcare, the company has found growing demand for engineers with hands-on project experience.

"Textbooks teach standard procedures, but conditions are different at every site," the company said.

A robot arm performing a similar task in two factories may encounter different conveyor systems, fixtures, sensors and control systems. Engineers therefore need to diagnose unexpected problems and adjust solutions to conditions on site.

WorldSkills deliberately introduces some of that uncertainty.

Tai said the Autonomous Mobile Robotics competition includes navigation tasks in which a robot must use sensors and algorithms to move through an unknown environment, where obstacles may appear unexpectedly.

"That's just like a real-world environment," he told Jiemian News.

AI is adding another layer.

DOBOT expects some repetitive robot teaching, basic parameter adjustment and fixed-process commissioning to become increasingly automated. Engineers may instead spend more time deploying multimodal perception involving vision, force and touch, connecting AI models with robots and testing whether intelligent systems remain stable and safe in industrial settings.

The result is a changing definition of robotics expertise. As machines become more capable, employers increasingly need people who can bridge mechanical engineering, electrical systems, software and real-world production.

That makes the robotics floor at WorldSkills more than a competition venue. It offers a glimpse of what factories are beginning to expect from the people who will deploy the next generation of machines.