The China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) exhibition hall in the China National Convention Center in Beijing (COURTESY PHOTO) 

Eight months after the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in China, the first global trade fair in China opened in Beijing on September 4, offering a platform for technology companies to share their new products and experiences of how they contributed to epidemic containment.   

At the entrance of the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), artificial intelligence (AI)-powered machines measure visitors' temperature, 15 people per second. Guide robots take them wherever they want to go and robotic coffee makers make fancy coffees. These cute assistants are the super stars at CIFTIS not only because of their sci-fi concept but because of the real services they offer.  

A mini logistics center at the fair is another prime example of sci-fi that meets the real world. A mechanical arm is sorting items with the help of two cameras; robotic vehicles are transporting the sorted items to different destinations, guided by QR codes on the floor.    

After social distancing measures have been implemented worldwide, robots have become a welcome business. 

"We helped a world-leading fashion company build an automatic logistics center in Shanghai in April. It can handle 400,000 pieces of clothing in eight hours daily," Cheng Changshun, Vice President of Megvii, a company providing AI solutions and products, told Beijing Review. The logistics center includes 800 smart vehicles and overall, thousands of pieces of equipment. It will save 60 percent human resources costs.       

"This will be the largest logistics center with flexibility," Cheng said. The robots are not fixed to any place, which makes it easy to change their location and number. 

The client owns the online-to-offline central control platform. But "if they want to open the control platform to us, we can help deal with problems from afar without obtaining any data. If not, we can help on site," Cheng said. 

In his eyes, China still lags behind in automatic manufacturing and logistics and this system will help improve industrial digitization. This is not the first smart logistics center in the world but its relatively lower cost can be a core competitiveness. Due to the large market in China, Chinese companies have more space to test their products and upgrade them.  

Megvii's robots and intelligent equipment for warehousing, logistics and manufacturing processes and supply chains at CIFTIS on September 6 (XINHUA) 

Also, human resources costs are relatively lower compared to developed countries. So Chinese companies have the advantage of lower cost, which does not mean lower quality. 

Japanese companies are known for their demanding requirements. "That's why we want to cooperate with them," Cheng said. The system also has clients from Singapore and Thailand.  

"We help clients from overseas lower production cost and realize automation and digitization of logistics," Cheng said. "For people abroad, this fair is an opportunity to see our products."

Chinese company Xiaoben Intelligence's Iben Robots are serving hospitals in Wuhan, Shanghai and Beijing, where frequent sanitizing is needed, especially since COVID-19. 

"The robots spray liquid sanitizer without wetting the surroundings," Xiaoben Intelligence's sales manager Liu Yunfei told Beijing Review. "It took us three weeks to get them ready for use in February."  

The robots use sensing cameras developed in China. 

"The future of AI technology relies on cooperation among countries," Xia Huaxia, Vice President of Meituan, an online services platform, said. Meituan has joined Berkeley DeepDrive, a U.S. industry consortium on automotive applications. "Openness facilitates mutual development for the industry," Xia said. 

CIFTIS will come to a close on September 9. 

Copyedited by Sudeshna Sarkar