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    A bike-riding robot, Murata Boy, and a unicycle-riding robot, Murata Girl, made by Murata (China) Investment Co., which didn’t show up at the fair’s past three sessions, climbed slopes in a demonstration in Hall 2.

    “Foreign-made robots are expensive and average Chinese families can’t afford them,” said Xiao Manyi, assistant to Union Brothers’ president. “Even if they can afford them, it’s not an easy job for them to learn how to use these robots. Shenzhen’s robot makers lowered the prices of their robots for daily use through their own research and made them more user-friendly.”

    Xiao said they will unveil an updated Alpha in January in Las Vegas. The newer version will better serve users by connecting Alpha to the Internet.

    Shenzhen is a rising base for robot manufacturing and research, according to Qiu He, deputy secretary general of the association. The output value of the 92 Shenzhen Robotics Association members is expected to exceed 2.5 billion yuan (US$407 million) this year.

    Mick Millington, a manager of MIITech Services, an Australian firm, was looking for robots used for education. He told Shenzhen Daily that he’s planning to buy from two Shenzhen firms.

    “What I’m seeing here is at least one or two years ahead of the tech sector in Finland,” said Esko Ala-Peijari, IT secretary general of Finland’s CSC-IT Center for Science Ltd. “When I first attended this fair four years ago, I saw people use big mobile phones and tablets, I was awed as people in Finland were still using the very small Nokia phones. This year’s fair impressed me with the wide range of robots.”