Announcement of Shortlisted Projects for the 2026 Top Ten Scientific and Technological Advances in China's Smart Manufacturing

From July to October 2026, the Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society Intelligent Manufacturing Alliance conducted research on "China Intelligent Manufacturing Technology Advances." After recommendation and selection by 15 member societies and experts in the intelligent manufacturing field, 10 technological achievements have been shortlisted for the "2026 Top 10 China Intelligent Manufacturing Technology Advances" (listed in no particular order). The projects are hereby publicly announced, with the announcement period from October 22 to October 28, 2026. High-Performance Control and Optimization Technology and Application for Precision Electronic Manufacturing Equipment Keywords: precision electronic manufacturing equipment; control and optimization; high-speed and high-precision placement machine; hybrid visual servoing; multi-objective collaborative optimization Reason for shortlisting: The electronic manufacturing industry is an important pillar industry of the national economy, but precision electronic manufacturing equipment has long relied on imports. Facing a complex international situation, independent controllability of core technologies and equipment has become a core prerequisite for safeguarding national security and industrial development. Precision electronic manufacturing equipment is highly interdisciplinary, highly integrated, and complex in tasks, making development extremely difficult. Harbin Institute of Technology, Ningbo Yitang Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., Aerospace Science and Technology Holdings Group Co., Ltd., and Yongjiang Laboratory have worked for more than ten years to overcome key technical challenges such as high-speed and high-precision motion control, hybrid visual servoing control, and multi-objective collaborative optimization, and have created a high-performance control and optimization technology and application system. They independently developed three high-speed and high-precision placement machines and achieved large-scale mass production. Core performance indicators such as placement accuracy and placement speed have reached the most advanced international level of similar equipment. The incubated enterprise has built a large-scale production base with an annual output of 1,000 units and was selected as a national specialized, refined, distinctive and innovative "little giant" enterprise and a key "little giant" enterprise. It has achieved domestic independent controllability of high-end placement machines, breaking the situation of long-term reliance on imports for 40 years. The equipment and core technologies have been applied in more than 200 enterprises (including 26 listed companies) such as China Electronics Technology Group and Huawei, covering dozens of industries including instruments and communications, with significant economic benefits in the past three years. It led the formulation of 2 IEEE international standards, obtained 121 authorized Chinese invention patents and 8 U.S. invention patents; the core patents have been cited more than a thousand times by top universities, research institutions, and enterprises, and more than 50 invention patents have been evaluated and transformed. Industrial Autonomous Intelligent Manufacturing System Based on AIoT Fusion Architecture Keywords: 5G full connectivity; small data transmission; trusted authentication; AI single-point application; full-process embedding of AI agents Reason for shortlisting: Facing the needs of the national major science and technology project "5G Integrated Industrial Manufacturing" and the national key research and development program "Artificial Intelligence Integrated Terminal Manufacturing," following the technical route of "network as the foundation, security as the escort, AI single-point improvement, and full-process embedding of agents," Xi'an ZTE Communication Terminal Technology Co., Ltd., Xijing University, ZTE Corporation, and ZTE (Nanjing) Co., Ltd. have carried out collaborative research through industry-university-research cooperation, breaking through key technologies such as 5G factory full connectivity, low-latency IoT, machine vision quality inspection, dual-machine collaborative assembly testing, and full-process embedding of AI agents in manufacturing, forming an "Industrial Autonomous Intelligent Manufacturing System Based on AIoT Fusion Architecture," which has been applied to 14 AI scenarios including quality inspection, processes, logistics, R&D, warehousing, and equipment control in the manufacturing of mobile terminals, base stations, and AI servers. The project participated in the formulation of more than 50 international, national, and industry standards and authorized more than 100 invention patents, covering technological innovations such as cloud-network security, computing power platforms, edge computing, terminal agents, and 5G full connectivity. The system builds an intelligent factory with "one network (5G private network), one line (flexible production line), one chain (data mainline), and one brain (AI scheduling)," supporting ZTE's Xi'an, Nanjing, Shenzhen, and Changsha bases, forming an annual production capacity of more than 10 million wireless terminals and system products, with an annual output value of tens of billions of yuan and significantly reduced costs. At present, the system has been promoted to industries such as aviation, logistics, power, energy, and electronic information, achieving replicable and transferable applications across factories. Large-Scale Customized Excavator Intelligent Factory Integrating Data and Models Keywords: artificial intelligence; digital twin; sales-production-supply collaboration; large-scale customization; new energy excavators Reason for shortlisting: Xuzhou XCMG Excavating Machinery Co., Ltd. directly addresses three major challenges: intensifying homogeneous competition in the global market, rapidly growing customization demand, and continuously rising just-in-time delivery requirements. It has built a large-scale customized intelligent factory model integrating data and models, applied a new generation of intelligent manufacturing technology, accumulated an industrial knowledge base, integrated large and small models with industrial agents, connected the entire product life cycle, the entire manufacturing process, and all links of the supply chain, and promoted data-, knowledge-, and model-driven collaborative innovation in R&D, manufacturing optimization, and operational decision-making. It has made breakthroughs in manufacturing technologies such as intelligent splicing and welding of box-type components, automatic grinding of complex curved-surface welds, multi-agent evaluation of internal and external weld quality, multi-sensor fusion adaptive processing, and precise assembly of tracks under multiple constraints; independently developed 48 sets of intelligent equipment; innovatively developed product technologies such as bucket trajectory tracking and decision-making planning control; created a product matrix covering all three technical routes of pure electric, cable electric, and hybrid; demonstrated them in key projects such as Yaxia and applied them in batches in large open-pit mines; and multiple products won the Gold Award for Engineering Machinery Product Innovation, forming collaborative innovation achievements in technology, equipment, and products. The intelligent factory has achieved improvements in efficiency such as shortened product development cycles, increased production efficiency, reduced product defect rates, and lower operating costs. It has been promoted and applied in 25 units within the group and more than 500 suppliers, driving the collaborative upgrading of host machine, component, and upstream supply chain enterprises, and providing a complete set of referable technical solutions for the transformation and upgrading of the equipment manufacturing industry. Flexible, agile, intelligent workshop for complex structural parts of advanced aviation equipment Keywords: aviation; structural parts; flexible; intelligent workshop Reason for shortlisting: In response to the four major difficulties in the intelligent manufacturing of structural parts for high-end aviation equipment—automatic machining, equipment operation support, monitoring under variable working conditions, and efficient integrated control—Chengdu Aircraft Industrial (Group) Co., Ltd., taking data-driven operation as the foundation and intelligent control as the core, has made breakthroughs in key technologies such as self-decision-making of processes, self-perception of anomalies, and all-factor collaboration, empowering full-process intelligent control of the workshop and building a flexible, agile, green, and efficient large-scale intelligent workshop for structural parts of advanced aviation equipment. It proposed intelligent machining technology integrating multiple adaptive high-precision on-machine measurement, and developed high-precision on-machine measurement devices such as ultrasonic thickness measurement for webs and laser profiling, enabling automatic machining of complex structural parts once loaded; it proposed intelligent self-inspection technology for CNC equipment health based on accuracy evaluation and fault diagnosis, and equipped devices and platforms for equipment accuracy self-inspection, enabling intelligent assurance of equipment health status; it proposed intelligent monitoring technology for cutting states under complex and variable working conditions based on mechanism-data fusion, and developed a monitoring system for abnormal cutting vibration and tool wear/damage based on deep learning to accurately identify cutting states; it proposed workshop resource allocation optimization and intelligent control technology, and developed multiple time-varying resource scheduling optimization algorithms as well as production line and workshop control systems adaptable to multiple configurations, enabling efficient integrated control of flexible intelligent workshops. It has been granted 61 invention patents, 25 software copyrights, and published 21 papers. The results have been implemented and applied in 13 aviation, machine tool, and CNC system enterprises, building flexible intelligent workshops and multiple localized flexible production lines, realizing the transformation from discrete single-machine manufacturing to flexible intelligent manufacturing. New-type power system core equipment intelligent factory driven by multi-agent systems Keywords: new-type power system; multi-agent driven; industrial ontology; multi-model collaborative decision-making; flexible manufacturing Reason for shortlisting: Nanjing NARI-Relays Engineering Technology Co., Ltd. and Nanjing Institute of Software Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, based on flexible production lines, a self-developed MOM system, and a unified data foundation, integrate industrial ontology, multi-model decision-making, and multi-agent collaboration, connecting R&D, production, and operations, and promoting the upgrade of manufacturing management from "data visualization and manual judgment" to "business understanding and collaborative decision-making," providing support for the stable delivery of core equipment. Industrial ontology relationship modeling is carried out around orders, processes, products, resources, inventory, etc., and, combined with knowledge bases and rule engines, cross-system semantic association and traceable analysis are explored; large language models, machine vision, time-series forecasting, optimization algorithms, and digital twins are integrated and invoked in task-based combinations, balancing business understanding and industrial computing precision; relying on a decision-making agent platform, a matrix of specialized agents covering R&D design, planning and operations, quality control, and safety operations is built, promoting business collaboration through task orchestration, tool invocation, result review, and manual approval. Unlike reports and single-point algorithms, it forms a practice path of "reusable knowledge, verifiable analysis, and collaborative processes," and has built more than 40 agents. After the intelligent factory was implemented, comprehensive efficiency indicators such as product development cycle, automatic generation rate of the master production plan, average order delivery cycle, and product defect rate improved significantly. The solution has been reused at the Nanjing and Changzhou bases, covering hundreds of products, and is being promoted to the power equipment industry chain, providing a reference path for the intelligent transformation of high-end discrete manufacturing. Intelligent demonstration production line for final assembly of aviation weapon equipment based on forward design Keywords: aircraft final assembly; forward design; human-machine collaboration; intelligent control; intelligent final assembly production line Reason for shortlisting: Chengdu Aircraft Industrial (Group) Co., Ltd., closely following national strategic needs and relying on the development of key models, has built an intelligent final assembly production line featuring "dynamic perception, real-time analysis, autonomous decision-making, and precise execution." The company established a three-tier system: the production management layer, focusing on intelligent processes, production line planning, scheduling and dispatching, warehousing and logistics, etc., builds a data-driven all-factor collaboration system to improve production coordination and resource allocation efficiency; the control and execution layer developed an industrial metaverse platform for final assembly, creating three major technical foundations: an industrial interconnection platform, a full-chain AI middle platform, and a low-code twin platform, supporting intelligent closed-loop control of the production line; the intelligent operation layer, oriented to the core business of aircraft final assembly, developed a flexible and reconfigurable universal foundation, a full-domain human-machine collaborative assisted assembly cluster, a system-integrated intelligent testing platform, and a flexible automated measurement system for the entire aircraft, supporting autonomous and efficient execution of the production line. This production line has been applied to multiple key models, significantly improving aircraft final assembly manufacturing capability, forming a complete, replicable, and promotable "1+3+N" intelligent final assembly production line solution, creating multiple typical demonstration scenarios such as rapid switching of production lines for multiple aircraft types, full-domain human-machine collaborative assisted assembly, system-integrated intelligent testing, flexible automated measurement of the entire aircraft, and intelligent control of all factors of the production line, promoting the intelligent transformation and upgrading of aircraft final assembly, with outstanding industry demonstration and promotion value. Key technologies and applications of multi-variety flexible precision intelligent thermal assembly for large compressor rotors Keywords: intelligent thermal assembly; model-driven; online prediction; dynamic correction Reason for shortlisting: Large compressors are core equipment in energy and power fields such as petrochemicals and natural gas, and the performance of compressor rotors directly determines the efficiency, reliability, and service life of the entire machine. Rotor thermal assembly involves multi-physics coupling and is a high-risk, high-precision key process in manufacturing. Constrained by the order-based customized production mode, different rotor structures and process parameters differ significantly, the thermal assembly operation window is short, and problems such as eccentricity, tilting, and jamming are prone to occur during assembly. For a long time, process formulation and process control have mainly relied on skilled workers' experience, resulting in prominent problems such as poor process reusability and assembly quality being greatly affected by human factors. To address pain points such as the difficulty of state sensing, the difficulty of directly measuring interface parameters, and delayed anomaly handling, the Shenyang Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has built a multi-variety flexible precision intelligent thermal assembly technology system, achieving breakthroughs in key technologies including model-driven autonomous process generation, online prediction and regulation of thermal states, and multimodal perception and active deviation-correction control, driving the transformation of traditional open-loop assembly toward a closed-loop manufacturing model encompassing process generation, perception and prediction, online decision-making, dynamic deviation correction, and quality verification. The results have been implemented and applied on the rotor production line of Shenyang Blower Works Group; since production began, assembly of multiple sets of large compressor rotors has been completed, yielding good economic benefits. The first-pass qualification rate of rotor thermal assembly has been greatly improved, assembly precision and work efficiency have been markedly enhanced, the long-standing practice of relying on manual experience has been changed, and a major transformation of the traditional thermal assembly model has been achieved. Aerospace-grade large-size solid-state additive intelligent manufacturing technology and equipment Keywords: SCP solid-state composite manufacturing; large-size solid-state additive equipment; aerospace large aluminum alloy structural components; in-orbit manufacturing and repair Reason for shortlisting: Anhui Wanyu Mechanical Equipment Technology Co., Ltd., addressing the major engineering needs of space manufacturing, crewed lunar landing, deep space exploration, mega-constellation networking, reusable rockets, and other major projects for low-cost, lightweight, and batch manufacturing of aerospace core structural components, and targeting the bottlenecks of traditional manufacturing processes such as forging, milling, and fusion welding—including low material utilization, long cycles, difficulty in forming high-strength aluminum materials, and incompatibility with microgravity manufacturing—has built an aerospace-grade large-size solid-state additive intelligent manufacturing technology and equipment system. The technology originates from the original theory of fill-type, self-supporting friction stir welding proposed by Harbin Institute of Technology in 2013; after more than ten years of iteration, it has formed a complete "SCP" solid-state composite technology and equipment system, achieving independent and controllable control across the entire chain of materials, processes, equipment, and standards. It adopts solid-state plastic rheological layer-by-layer deposition forming, with no melting-solidification phase transformation, avoids various defects of fusion additive manufacturing, and extends solid-state joining processes to integrated forming. Full-process process validation has been completed for 2XXX to 7XXX aluminum alloys; 7XXX ultra-high-strength aluminum alloys have broken through the thermal cracking sensitivity limitation, transforming from materials that can only be forged into general materials that can be freely formed. The results have supported major aerospace-related projects in China and are widely used in scenarios such as rocket propellant tanks, satellite load-bearing structures, and military industry. The company has led or participated in the formulation of 5 relevant national standards and more than ten industry group standards. In 2024, it launched research and development of in-orbit manufacturing and repair technology, and is concurrently carrying out in-situ manufacturing and repair of large load-bearing structural components for space station operations and maintenance, lunar surface research stations, and interstellar exploration. Robotic patch-clamp technology and application for brain science research in awake animals Keywords: robotics; patch clamp; brain science; neurons; electrophysiology Reason for shortlisting: Brain science is the science that explains the cellular and molecular biological mechanisms of mental activity, and it is also the technological source for conquering brain diseases and developing brain-inspired intelligence. Patch-clamp technology won the 1991 Nobel Prize and is the gold standard for studying ion channels and electrophysiology in nerve cells. However, patch-clamp operations place high demands on operators, rely on manual experience, and have an extremely low success rate. The development of brain science urgently needs breakthroughs in robotic patch-clamp technology to lower the technical threshold of brain science research and make large-scale, precise patch-clamp probing possible. Facing three major challenges—"failure to align" the patch-clamp micropipette electrode with the nerve cell membrane, "failure to seal tightly" in high-resistance sealing, and "failure to break stably" in negative-pressure membrane breaking—Nankai University, together with the Nankai University Shenzhen Research Institute, Tianjin Medical University, and Tianjin Anding Hospital, has innovatively developed vision- and electricity-guided electrode-cell alignment technology, dynamic precise neural cell adsorption technology, and active chemical perforation membrane-breaking technology; and developed a robotic patch-clamp operating instrument with five major functions—keeping up, displaying clearly, positioning accurately, moving dexterously, and measuring truthfully—for brain science research in awake animals. It has realized all five patch-clamp recording modes: attached, whole-cell, inside-out, outside-out, and perforated. Application subjects include awake/anesthetized marmosets, live mice, rats, brain slices, and cells; in particular, it achieved the world's first electrophysiological recording of a single nerve cell in an awake marmoset. The instrument has been applied in more than 10 institutions in brain science and brain disease research, biomedicine, and other fields. Key technologies and industrial application of iAPM intelligent autonomous operation for the process industry based on "AI+5T" technology Keywords: process industry; autonomous operation; industrial software Reason for shortlisting: The process industry accounts for more than 60% of the country's industrial output value, and its automation hardware level has reached international standards, but stable operation of facilities still relies on manual work. The five domains of control, safety, operations, process, and equipment operate independently, lacking cross-domain closed-loop collaboration, and there are problems such as high energy consumption, prominent risks, a shortage of professional talent, and constraints on underlying control technologies. Zhongrun Huagu (Nanjing) Technology Co., Ltd., relying on the "AI+5T" system, promotes autonomous operation of production facilities under all operating conditions. The innovation is reflected in three aspects: the technical route has upgraded from the international mainstream control performance diagnosis to autonomous operation of facilities; the architecture adopts a "1+N" multi-agent industrial AI to connect mechanistic models across the five domains, building a closed loop of perception-diagnosis-decision-execution-self-learning, using mechanisms to verify data and data to fill mechanistic blind spots; and it has self-developed DTC dynamic temporal control and TCGAN temporal convolutional adversarial generation algorithms, adapting to complex operating conditions with nonlinearity, large lag, and strong coupling, and relying on multi-agent collaboration to achieve stable production, quality improvement, and consumption reduction. This achievement can replace existing mainstream APC advanced control solutions and is called the ADS intelligent driving system of the process industry. It has been implemented in more than 30 enterprises and over 100 sets of facilities, achieving operation of facilities under all conditions with minimal human intervention, effectively reducing energy and material consumption and improving product quality; it requires no changes to the original control architecture, and deployment cycles and investment costs are significantly reduced. The above is a basic introduction to the shortlisted projects of the "2026 Top Ten Scientific and Technological Advances in China's Intelligent Manufacturing." The public notice period is October 22–28, 2026. During the public notice period, if there are any objections, please provide feedback promptly to the Intelligent Manufacturing Science and Technology Progress Selection Office. Contact phone: 010-68799041