Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science & Technology Co., Ltd. drew significant interest at KOMATEK 2026 in Istanbul with the introduction of its humanoid robot, Z01. While the company showcased more than 40 advanced construction equipment products and secured orders worth over RMB 1 billion, the Z01 robot became one of the exhibition's standout attractions.

Developed for industrial assistance, intelligent navigation, and educational use cases, the bipedal robot demonstrated smooth mobility and precise task execution throughout the event. In a live presentation, Z01 performed a Tai Chi sequence, highlighting its sophisticated motion-control systems, balance capabilities, and interactive human-robot functionality, attracting considerable attention from visitors.

The unveiling of Z01 reflects Zoomlion's increasing focus on embodied artificial intelligence, which the company views as a key pillar of its future growth strategy alongside its existing businesses.

Zoomlion's position in embodied AI is supported by its long-standing investments in digital technologies. As one of the first construction machinery manufacturers in China to embrace industrial IoT solutions, the company has established a strong technological foundation through Zvalley, its AI-driven industrial internet platform, backed by a team of nearly 1,300 research and technical specialists.

Beginning in 2024, the company intensified its efforts in embodied AI by leveraging its expertise in both hardware and software development. This has led to the creation of an integrated technology ecosystem encompassing robotic hardware, critical components, motion and decision-control systems, and supporting software platforms. At the same time, AI and robotics innovations are being incorporated into Zoomlion's construction, agricultural, and mining equipment operations to accelerate intelligent automation.

By the close of 2025, Zoomlion had produced eight embodied AI robot prototypes spanning four primary categories, including both humanoid and wheeled robotic platforms. These systems have undergone testing in operational environments within Zoomlion Smart City, where they have been deployed for tasks such as material handling, facility inspections, loading and unloading operations, component pre-assembly, and quality control. The practical experience gained from these applications has generated valuable data and insights to support future commercial expansion.

Earlier in 2026, at Hannover Messe 2026, Zoomlion presented Robot Ops, its embodied AI development platform, and demonstrated coordinated workflows involving humanoid and logistics robots. The showcase illustrated the company's progress in translating embodied AI from research environments into industrial applications, with particular emphasis on adaptability, autonomous operation, and collaboration between multiple robotic systems.

Today, embodied AI robots are already supporting a range of manufacturing activities within Zoomlion Smart City. The company continues to pursue an industrially focused approach to embodied intelligence, prioritizing practical applications and foundational capability building. Through the development of comprehensive industrial data resources and engineering-driven robot design and manufacturing processes, Zoomlion aims to enable large-scale adoption of embodied AI technologies across diverse industries.

Manycore Tech has announced that it is open-sourcing Aholo Viewer, a 3D Gaussian rendering tool that enables users to effortlessly navigate large-scale 3D environments through a web browser. The platform works across smartphones, desktop computers, and VR headsets, without requiring any installation. It is capable of rendering city-sized 3D scenes containing more than one billion Gaussian splats—an area comparable to the full expanse of Hangzhou’s West Lake.

Advancing the Foundation for a 3D Internet
“For over three decades, the internet has primarily existed in 2D forms such as text, images, and video,” said Huang Xiaohuang, co-founder and chairman of Manycore Tech. “Physical spaces are reduced to a few photos, and real-world objects become flat representations. We have continually compressed rich spatial information into lower-dimensional formats. By open-sourcing foundational 3D technologies like Aholo Viewer, we hope to speed up the transition to a true 3D internet era.”

Aholo Viewer is built on a streamable Level-of-Detail (LoD) system that allows 3D data to be delivered across devices in a way similar to video streaming. This enables users to instantly load and interact with extremely dense 3D environments directly in the browser, regardless of the device being used.

Industry analysts point out that a key benchmark for 3D browsers is how many Gaussian splats they can efficiently render and how quickly they perform. For instance, Fei-Fei Li’s open-source Spark 2.0 engine supports streaming of over 100 million splats on consumer hardware. Aholo Viewer reportedly pushes this limit further, handling up to 1 billion splats—about ten times more—while also improving rendering efficiency, smoothness, and memory usage.

As a result, high-performance 3D browsers may soon become the main entry point for everyday users to access immersive digital environments. In the near future, exploring a 3D world could feel as simple as scrolling through short videos: one click, and users can virtually “enter” a real or imagined space.

From Visualization to Interaction: Expanding Spatial Computing
For Manycore Tech, simply displaying 3D content is only the starting point. The company also aims to make these environments fully usable and interactive. Alongside Aholo Viewer, it is releasing APIs from its Aholo Spatial Intelligence Platform, including tools for spatial reconstruction, cloud-based rendering, and AI-driven 3D model creation. These are designed to remove bottlenecks in producing, sharing, and deploying 3D assets.

With these capabilities, 3D environments can evolve from static visualizations into dynamic, programmable assets integrated into real-world workflows. Tourism companies could recreate destinations digitally in a short time, filmmakers could build virtual production sets, and game developers could design immersive experiences based on accurate real-world spaces.

By combining open-source visualization tools with spatial computing APIs, Manycore Tech is positioning itself as a key infrastructure provider for the emerging 3D internet ecosystem.

Why the 3D Internet Matters for AI
The impact of a 3D internet goes beyond simply upgrading digital content from flat to immersive formats. Its deeper significance lies in addressing a core weakness in artificial intelligence: limited spatial understanding of the physical world.

Today’s internet is dominated by 1D and 2D data, meaning AI systems largely learn from flat representations. This contributes to a gap in capabilities—while AI can generate text and images effectively, it still struggles with spatial reasoning, physical accuracy, and real-world interaction.

As technologies like Aholo Viewer make 3D content easier to create and distribute, these long-standing barriers could be reduced. If producing and consuming 3D environments becomes as simple as sharing short-form videos, vast amounts of spatial data could become available. This, in turn, would provide valuable training material for embodied AI systems such as robotics and other agents designed to operate in the physical world.

The Appliance & Electronics World Expo 2026 (AWE2026) wrapped up on March 15 after four energetic days, uniting more than 1,200 companies and innovators from around the globe to present the latest in AI-driven smart living. Early data from the organizers indicates that attendance rose by over 30% compared to last year, cementing its status as the world’s largest consumer technology exhibition.

Held at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre, the main venue covered more than 140,000 square meters and attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors eager to explore interactive experiences. A second venue at the Shanghai Eastern Hub International Business Cooperation Zone offered a more convenient entry process for international guests, including pre-registration and visa-free access, allowing them to participate immediately upon arrival.

Under the theme “Smart AI, Smarter Future,” the event highlighted how artificial intelligence is reshaping modern lifestyles. Major exhibitors such as Haier and Dreame dominated with expansive displays exceeding 10,000 square meters each. Haier introduced its enhanced AI Eye 2.0 and debuted the Seeker series of L4 intelligent appliances, including three types of household service robots designed for cleaning, companionship, and assistance. Dreame showcased a broad ecosystem spanning smart home devices, mobile technology, transportation, aerospace, energy systems, and computing, featuring innovations like a clothes-folding robot, its in-house “Chixiao 01” processor, and the Nebula NEXT 01X.

In the smart home category, leading brands including Haier, Huawei, Hisense, Siemens, and Panasonic demonstrated tightly integrated AI solutions, reflecting a shift from reactive appliances to proactive, service-oriented systems.

Home service robotics emerged as a key focus area, with companies such as Haier, Hisense, TCL, Fotile, Roborock, MOVA, Ecovacs, and Dreame unveiling a wide range of innovations—from companion robots and automated kitchens to mobile and even airborne cleaning devices—pushing the boundaries of hands-free living.

Embodied AI also drew significant attention. Firms like Unitree, Agibot, MagicLab, Tesla, DEEP Robotics, ULS Robotics, Tars, Zeroth, and Genisom AI presented robots capable of performing intricate tasks such as boxing, embroidery, and even opening bottles, highlighting rapid progress in sensing and motion technologies.

In the smart devices segment, brands including Huawei, Dreame, BOE, Aridge, BYD, Tesla, Vertaxi, NAVEE, Segway-Ninebot, and Sky Motor revealed next-generation solutions such as electric vehicles, water-based aircraft, flying cars, and intelligent two-wheelers. At the same time, companies like Qwen, XREAL, Lenovo, ZTE, Insta360, TCL RayNeo, Robam, Shokz, Rokid, and Orka Tech introduced cutting-edge AI-powered gadgets ranging from smart glasses and smartphones to PCs, earbuds, and action cameras.

Beyond consumer products, the expo also highlighted advancements in semiconductors and computing from Intel, Lisuan Tech, MiniMax, Dreame, Ugreen, and Moore Threads. Display technology breakthroughs were presented by Sony, Hisense, TCL, LG, Changhong, and Skyworth, while innovations in brain-computer interfaces from BrainCo, Stonehill, and others demonstrated progress in human-machine integration.

Dubbed the “year of robotics,” 2026 began with the impressive showcase at AWE2026, underscoring how close the future has become. With nearly 10,000 intelligent products transitioning from exhibition halls into everyday use and human-machine interaction becoming increasingly seamless, the event signals not just innovation, but the beginning of a transformative era defined by closer collaboration between humans and technology.