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According to CCTV, China tested humanoid robots in all stages of real tea production in Fujian province, including harvesting, transportation on mountain roads, withering, roasting with real-time thermal monitoring, and leaf pressing. The challenge is part of the promotional campaign for the 2026 World Humanoid Robot Games, which will take place in Beijing from August 22 to 26 with more than 30 events.
China is testing its humanoid robots in one of the most unlikely scenarios for modern robotics: the artisanal production of tea in mountains in the east of the country. On Sunday, robots that had participated in the humanoid robot half marathon in Beijing in April arrived at a tea production base in the city of Fuding, Fujian province, to work alongside humans throughout the manufacturing process, from harvesting leaves on the slopes to the final pressing of the tea. It was the first time humanoid robots tested their training results in a real tea production environment.
The initiative is part of a promotional campaign for the World Humanoid Robot Games, which will have its second edition in Beijing in August 2026. The concept behind the challenge is to have robots perform tasks with regional characteristics in real scenarios, evaluating their ability to adapt to the environment, autonomous operation, and practical service skills. Tea production was chosen as the first stage because it combines demands for manual precision, temperature control, navigation on rugged terrain, and interaction with fragile organic materials, a set of challenges that tests practically all the capabilities of a humanoid robot.
From harvesting to roasting: what the robots did in the mountains of China
The challenge proposed to humanoid robots in China covered all stages of the tea production chain. After a week of specific training, the robots were taken to the tea plantations in Fuding to perform leaf harvesting, transportation on mountain roads, withering, roasting, and pressing. Each stage requires different skills: harvesting demands fine finger dexterity to select and pluck leaves without damaging them, transportation requires balance and movement control on uneven terrain, and roasting requires continuous temperature monitoring.
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The results were mixed, as the engineering team itself acknowledged. Despite repeated failures throughout the process, the humanoid robots managed to complete the designated tasks. The honesty about the problems faced is revealing: instead of presenting a polished demonstration where everything works perfectly, China opted to show the robots failing and trying again, which generates real data about the limitations that need to be overcome before the technology can be considered ready for commercial use.
Thermal imaging in roasting: where robots surpass humans
If there was one stage where the humanoid robots showed an advantage over human artisans, it was in roasting. The robots’ real-time thermal imaging monitoring system allowed precise temperature control during this delicate process, which is crucial for the flavor and aroma of the final tea. An experienced artisan evaluates the temperature by touch and accumulated experience over decades of practice. The robot measures in exact degrees, second by second, without variation.
The roasting of tea is a stage where fractions of a degree and seconds of difference can separate an exceptional product from a ruined batch. The ability of robots to maintain constant and digitally documented temperature parameters offers a precision that even the best artisans cannot guarantee in every batch. For the tea industry in China, which produces hundreds of thousands of tons per year, this consistency has concrete commercial value.
Five-fingered hands and the problems tea production revealed
One of the most valuable lessons from the test in China was about the limitations of robotic hands. Fang Hainan, a representative of the engineering team, revealed that the finger area used for pinching encountered problems during the handling of tea leaves. Fresh tea leaves are thin, light, and moist, requiring a combination of delicate pressure and precision of movement that current robotic hands have not yet fully mastered.
The engineering team used motion capture technology to collect data throughout the process, feeding optimization algorithms for the flexible control of the dexterous five-fingered hand. Each failure recorded during tea production becomes data that improves the next version of the robot. Fang stated that the problems will be solved through constant iterations in the products, preparing humanoid robots to serve society in future applications. Tea production, in this sense, functions as a testing ground that challenges robots in situations that controlled laboratories cannot simulate.
Mountain roads: the locomotion test that no laboratory replicates
The transportation of tea on mountain roads in Fujian has presented China’s humanoid robots with a challenge that goes beyond object manipulation. Walking on rugged terrain, with inclines, loose stones, and uneven surfaces while carrying baskets of leaves requires dynamic balance, real-time adaptation, and the ability to recover when the robot stumbles or momentarily loses stability. These are skills that distinguish laboratory robots from those ready for the real world.
The engineering team recognized that this stage significantly enhanced the robots’ motion control capabilities on rugged terrain. For a robot designed to operate in factories with flat, standardized floors, navigating mountain paths is a leap in complexity that accelerates the development of new forms. The data collected during tea transportation on the slopes of Fuding will be used to improve locomotion algorithms that will have applications far beyond tea production, such as disaster rescue, mine exploration, or patrolling rural areas.
A tea artisan and a robot working side by side
The reaction of Wang Chuanyi, a traditional white tea artisan from Fuding, summed up the experience of working alongside robots. “It’s the first time I’ve prepared tea with robots, which is a great novelty. There are areas where robots need to be improved, but we believe they will become more and more sophisticated in the future,” said Wang. The statement reveals both the curiosity and pragmatism of someone who has mastered a manual craft for decades and recognizes that technology is not yet at their level.
For the traditional tea industry in China, humanoid robots may represent the answer to a growing problem: the labor shortage. Young Chinese are increasingly less interested in manual agricultural work in isolated mountains, and artisans like Wang are aging without training enough successors. If robots can perform the heavier and more repetitive tasks of the process, artisans could focus on the stages that require human sensitivity and experience, such as the sensory evaluation of tea and the fine-tuning of processing times.
World Humanoid Robot Games: the competition that begins in August
The tea production challenge is just the first stage of a series of tests preceding the 2026 World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing. The second edition of the event will be held from August 22 to 26 and will feature more than 30 competitions showcasing the latest advances in embedded intelligence and precise manipulation capabilities. In the next stages of the promotional campaign, robots will attempt to perform tasks with regional characteristics in other provinces of China, each testing different skills.
China’s strategy of using real-world scenarios as a testing ground for humanoid robots is deliberate. Instead of limiting demonstrations to controlled environments where robots always succeed, the country exposes the technology to real failures, collects data, and uses the information to accelerate development. Producing tea in mountains, running half marathons, and competing in dozens of different events creates a feedback loop that no isolated laboratory can replicate. For China, every robot that stumbles on a mountain road or drops a tea leaf is a step closer to a robot that will not fail.
Tea made by robots: the future China is building
China has deployed humanoid robots to harvest, transport, and roast tea in the mountains of Fujian, and the robots failed several times before succeeding. The test revealed both real advances, such as thermal control by imaging in roasting, and concrete limitations in robotic hands and locomotion on uneven terrain. The Humanoid Robot World Games in August promise to show how far the technology has advanced since these early tests with tea leaves.
Would you drink tea prepared entirely by robots? Tell us in the comments what you thought of the demonstration, whether you believe humanoid robots will replace traditional artisans or work alongside them, and which stage impressed you the most: the harvesting, the transportation in the mountains, or the thermal imaging roasting. We want to hear your opinion.
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