From dance floor to war: China readies humanoid robots for combat

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SynopsisTwo days after the Games ended, the People's Liberation Army's official newspaper drew its ​own conclusions from the show. The PLA Daily called for researchers to accelerate the transfer of cutting-edge technologies from ​laboratories to military training grounds for robotic "combatants."

APHumanoid robots compete in the free combat during the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)At the World Humanoid Robot Games in China last month, robots jumped, boxed and danced. Some fleet-footed bots ran faster than Usain Bolt over 100 meters. Spectators cheered the machines' improving capabilities and their meme-worthy stumbles.

Two days after the Games ended, the People's Liberation Army's official newspaper drew its ​own conclusions from the show. The PLA Daily called for researchers to accelerate the transfer of cutting-edge technologies from ​laboratories to military training grounds for robotic "combatants."

China's defense establishment is accelerating research into humanoids' military uses and planning for their eventual wartime deployment, according to a Reuters review of more than 100 Chinese military procurement notices, ​academic studies, patents, official publications, government records and defense-company materials.

Military institutions are testing humanoids against battlefield requirements, seeking to acquire robots and technologies to train them, and studying how they might function alongside troops, the previously unreported records show. The work gained momentum in 2025 and 2026, focusing on robot perception, manipulation, and training data.

Chinese manufacturers accounted for about 95% of global humanoid shipments in 2025, according to BofA Global Research. That commercial dominance gives the PLA access to an expanding industry while developing its own military applications.

China's robot defense research underscores how rapidly military technologies are evolving globally. In the Russia-Ukraine war, semiautonomous drones that use artificial intelligence for navigation and targeting have transformed reconnaissance and attack, while robots carry supplies ‌and retrieve casualties. Reuters has previously documented ⁠the Chinese military's ⁠efforts to learn from Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II.

That evolution is driving worldwide military interest in autonomous systems.

"Going where we don't want humans to go is one of the most compelling reasons to develop robots in the first place," said Dennis Hong, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UCLA. "If losing a robot means avoiding the loss of a human life, then the robot ​can become expendable."

China's defense ministry and the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT), the PLA's premier research institution, didn't respond to requests for comment about humanoid robots' military applications.

Reuters found no evidence that China has deployed an armed humanoid with an operational PLA unit. The robots remain energy-intensive and unreliable outside controlled demonstrations. Battlefield environments ​pose many variables and challenge robots' abilities in unpredictable ways, said Aaron Johnson, a professor of mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.

Already, China has a vision for humanoid robots in urban warfare.

Six "combat robots" - humanoids, robot dogs or unmanned vehicles - would be split up between two assault teams. Working with ground troops, the robots would clear an enemy-occupied building, floor-by-floor and room-by-room.

That scenario was described in an August 2025 paper by researchers at NUDT's test center in Xi'an. The study modeled an urban assault force using equipment the authors projected could be available within five to 10 years. It didn't specify the robots' rules of ​engagement, the weapons they would carry, nor how they would handle civilian encounters.

Improvements in balance, perception and endurance could make humanoids useful in places including buildings, tunnels and ship interiors, said Juo-Min Chou, ⁠a researcher at ‌Taiwan's Institute for National Defense and Security Research. "Their two hands and two feet could, in theory, combine mobility, climbing and manipulation," she said.

For simpler reconnaissance or logistics missions, however, quadruped, tracked or wheeled robots would generally be cheaper and easier to deploy ​at scale, Chou added.

Chinese military commentary envisions an ​expanding range of roles for humanoids. A July 2025 article in PLA Daily argued that humanoid missions could eventually evolve "from supporting combat toward primary combat" and discussed how robots might be authorized to fire on a living target that had ⁠been verified by a human.