Warehouse Robots Struggle with Durability: 'Night Shift' Challenges Persist Despite Demo Success

At the 2026 World Robot Conference in Beijing, industry observers noted that while embodied AI robots demonstrate impressive sorting and grasping capabilities on display, real-world deployment faces significant hurdles. Although some solutions approach human-level efficiency, durability remains a critical bottleneck; current high-degree-of-freedom tactile dexterous hands typically last only 1,000 to 2,000 hours of continuous operation, far below the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's standard of 10,000 hours. Consequently, many projects remain in the proof-of-concept stage rather than transitioning to large-scale procurement contracts.