Inovance debuts its first humanoid, the wheeled InoBot W1, at CIIF 2026

Inovance Technology, one of China's largest industrial-automation suppliers, showed its first humanoid robot at the 2026 China International Industry Fair in Shanghai, a wheeled machine called the InoBot W1. Inovance is betting that factory humanoids are missing a reliable, consistent body that others can build on, so it sells the body and its reach into factories and leaves the brain to partners. That bet depends on AI partners closing the gap Inovance itself describes between today's task success rates and what a production line needs.

The W1 runs on a liquid-cooled NVIDIA Thor computer. Inovance says it holds full load for long periods above 40°C while delivering 2,070 TOPS. The company says centralized cooling brings the body to IP54 protection against dust, splashes and oil mist, with noise under 60 decibels. The chassis fits in 0.6 by 0.6 meters, uses omnidirectional steering wheels and can turn on the spot. A 3.6-kilowatt-hour pack gives about 10 hours, enough for a day or night shift, and two hot-swappable modules are meant to keep the robot working 24/7.

The arms keep force control within 3 newtons

The chest, arms, end effectors, folding mechanism and chassis are separate modules for production and maintenance. Inovance uses its own seven-degree-of-freedom arms with force sensors in every joint. The company says end force-control accuracy stays within 3 newtons, enough for picking, plugging and fastening, and the arms support real-time collision detection. An EtherCAT bus links the whole body with millisecond-level synchronization, and Inovance plans to run the torso, arms and chassis as a single whole-body control motion model.

Inovance leaves the brain to AI partners

Inovance plans an SDK spanning sensors, motion control and whole-body joints, a data platform for collection, labeling, training and deployment, and joint work on "big brain / small brain" models with AI partners. It already works with two partners, A-Mi-O Robot and FMC³ Robotics, and says it will connect them to more than 70 industry segments, drawing on 23 years of process-engineering assets. Inovance also plans reference deployments in specific industries. At the fair, the W1 worked with a vision system and an arc welding robot, loading and unloading workpieces.

The strongest case against the timing comes from Inovance. It says embodied models and data paradigms have not converged and that task success rates and cycle times still fall short of joining a production line, which a better body does not fix on its own. Longqi Robot, another Chinese industrial-arm maker, brought its own wheeled humanoid, the HR-05W, to the same fair, arguing that wheels beat legs on flat factory floors, which Longqi says make up roughly 80% of industrial scenarios. Inovance is selling one half of the problem and handing the other half to A-Mi-O and FMC³.