China's Humanoid Supply Chain Moves Toward Industrial Production

BEIJING - Chinese robot maker ROKAE claims it has sold 10,000 force-controlled arms, used for building humanoid robots, providing an estimate of business in components as manufacturers increase production of embodied AI equipment.

The company said Oct. 26 that the 10,000th arm was made by ROKAE in September at its production facilities in Shandong province. The number includes products in its humanoid arm range, not complete humanoid robots or its standard industrial and collaborative robots.

ROKAE said more than 80 industrial customers have incorporated ROKAE arms in their production processes. No details on sales per customer or revenue from the range were given.

Force control technology is applied to each joint of AR Series arms from ROKAE, enabling robots to change movement dynamics when contacting objects. In the technical data provided by the company, the seven degrees of freedom arms can bear payloads weighing from 3 to 10 kg, depending on the model.

One example of the use of such equipment was given at Schaeffler's humanoid robotics production line in Taicang, China.

ROKAE says five Helios wheeled humanoids with AR Series arms are operating at the assembly line for parts assembly and inspection.

Schaeffler separately announced the launch of the 7,500-sq. meter facility, revealing an automated process in which six humanoid robots operate at five stations to assemble joint modules for other robots.

The factory features a training center, data collection capabilities and digital twin technology. Schaeffler has said that it has started series production of linear and rotary actuators for use in humanoid applications.

The German company revealed its total orders for humanoid robots amounting to about 400 million euros as of the third quarter of 2026, having won two more Chinese customers.

Other well-established industrial component suppliers have joined the market. China's Tuopu Group made public the income from its robot-actuator business totaling 14.05 million yuan ($2.11 million)  in the first half of 2026, in its interim reports, though the unit represented only a small portion of its total sales.

Though incomparable metrics of market demand, the numbers represent different commercialization levels of the same technology, as ROKAE reports deliveries of components, Schaeffler reports orders and production processes, while Tuopu reports robot actuator revenues.

For ROKAE, the outstanding issue is how much of the reported delivered volume pertains to robots that have been deployed in the commercial environment. This company has not provided any details about the proportion sold for research or development purposes and the profits made from humanoid arms.