While China has garnered significant attention for its recent advances in robotics, Taiwanese companies and research institutions are quietly gaining ground in this industry, producing the full range of critical modules and components.

A stream of viral videos has placed China at the forefront of robotics innovation for viewers worldwide. In impressive displays of coordination, athleticism, and precision, humanoid robots have danced, flipped, and changed formations across stages in ways that seem to blur the line between programming and choreography.

The performances have helped cement the notion that Chinese companies like Unitree, AgiBot, Galbot, and UBTech are decisively leading the charge.

However, Taiwan is also emerging as a major player in the robotics industry. Its hardware supply chain comprehensively covers nearly all critical robot modules and components. For instance, motors, reducers, and servo drive systems are produced by Teco, Delta Electronics, Hota, Maindrive, and Liming Machinery. For their part, Hiwin, TBI Motion, Airtac, and others provide mechanical and precision components, including screws, robotic arm structures, and linear guides, according to an industry overview from the semigovernmental Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC) in Taipei.

Meanwhile, companies like Delta Electronics, Foxlink, and Silitech produce optical, distance, and tactile sensors, in addition to connectors and power modules, while dexterous grippers are made by companies such as Airtac, Mindman, and Foxconn. Then there are industrial control systems made by NEXCOM, Advantech, and others.

NEXCOM stands out among Taiwan’s emerging robotics players. It began its journey in the 1990s as a Taipei-based industrial PC maker. About 10 years ago, the company pivoted toward developing integrated solutions for Industry 4.0 — the Fourth Industrial Revolution which has introduced smart, connected technologies to manufacturing. NEXCOM now offers key modules spanning motion control, AI, vision, functional safety, and cybersecurity for robots ranging from industrial arms to quadrupeds and humanoids.

“The robotics industry is the convergence of the IT and machinery industries, combining one of Taiwan’s strengths with one of its strongest supply chains,” says Clement Lin, Nexcom’s CEO. “By aligning the two, we are now building Taiwan’s AI robotics industry.”

Lin explains that factories often use equipment from various brands with over 300 different — often incompatible — protocols. Nexcom’s approach to bridging this gap is to provide different gateways to connect disparate systems from widely used brands like Siemens, Yaskawa, Hitachi, Panasonic, Fanuc, and Rockwell. According to the company, this enables about 80-90% of equipment in a typical factory to be connected and share data.

“This data is then combined with AI for real-time decision-making, making the solutions applicable across industries without requiring deep knowledge of each manufacturing domain,” Lin says.

Another player is Solomon Technology Corporation, a Taipei-based company that’s been operating for 53 years, which also shifted focus toward robotic automation about a decade ago. Employing over 80 software engineers locally, the company develops AI-powered vision systems that function as the “eyes and brain” for robots, which enable better perception and smarter decision-making. Their primary application is detecting defects during inspections across industries such as semiconductors, automotive, agriculture, and medical devices. Identifying cosmetic defects like scratches, cracks, or incorrect labeling on products helps maintain consistent product quality and potentially avoids costly customer rejections.

“Our key technological advantage lies in efficient AI model training, including the ability to identify defects using only good samples, a major time-saver for clients with low defect rates who would struggle to collect large datasets of flawed items,” says Johnny Chen, chairman of Solomon AI and 3D Vision.

Chen says demand for these defect inspection solutions has increased by three to five times over the past three years, driven by demand for productivity and quality improvements across industries.

Taipei-based Aurotek operates in another segment of the industry, focusing on what it calls “action training.” It’s a flexible framework that integrates standardized off-the-shelf modules, such as collaborative arms and autonomous mobile robots, into a client’s production lines, physical spaces, and IT systems. One application is what the company calls “SMT Post-Processing Automation” for electronics manufacturing.

“The cutting, handling, and inspection of PCB boards have traditionally required extensive manual labor, but by integrating our collaborative robot arms and AI vision-guided board-cutting machines, a single technician can now simultaneously supervise multiple production lines, potentially reducing downtime by up to 40%,” says Chen Mao-sheng of Aurotek’s Robotics Division.

Logistics and warehousing automation have also benefitted from action training, the company says. Aurotek’s autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and integrated smart logistics solutions transform warehouse picking and handling operations from labor-intensive processes into collaborative human-robot workflows.

“This approach is particularly well-suited for scenarios with highly fluctuating labor demands, such as during long holiday weekends or e-commerce peak seasons, as robots do not require leave or overtime pay,” Chen says.

Beyond that, Aurotek deploys smart cleaning and service robots in hospitals, department stores, and commercial office buildings, to replace repetitive, low-skilled manual labor. Chen says employees then have greater capacity for tasks like customer reception and decision-making that require more interpersonal interaction.

Government’s role

In Taiwan, the government has long been active in supporting the advancement of private industry. As an example, the government-initiated Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) is simultaneously acting as a system integrator, regulatory sandbox, and “global supply chain accelerator.” ITRI says its mission is to achieve hardware-software integration by combining Taiwan’s fragmented hardware strengths with cutting-edge technologies, such as AI software algorithms and digital twins. A digital twin is a virtual, data-driven representation of a physical object, process, or system, which links real-world sensor data with 3D models and algorithms to enable companies to monitor, analyze, and optimize operations in real time without having to intervene in the actual infrastructure.

“We not only assist Taiwanese manufacturers in maintaining their supply chain advantages for components but also strive to drive the industry’s value-added transformation toward exporting complete systems and providing total smart solutions,” says Chou Ta-hsin, general director of ITRI Southern Region Campus.

Chou says that the most significant recent national-level project is the Smart Robotics Innovation and Application R&D Center, which was officially launched at ITRI’s Liujia Campus in Tainan in May with support from the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), the National Development Council (NDC), and the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC).

Funded by a four-year, NT$3 billion (US$93 million) budget allocated by the MOEA’s Department of Industrial Technology, the center, says ITRI, serves as “the core engine propelling southern Taiwan toward becoming a premier cluster for smart robotics.”

The center’s current focus is digital twin technology allowing robots to undergo high-precision physical simulation training and AI-driven perception and decision-making optimization in a virtual environment. Other areas of focus are AMRs for logistics, warehousing, and food service, as well as healthcare, inspection, and disaster relief systems.

“Utilizing AI-powered heterogeneous sensor fusion technology, AMRs can perform real-time obstacle avoidance and optimal path planning even in dense e-commerce warehouses or dynamic food service environments, thereby helping enterprises automate picking and material-handling tasks,” Chou explains.

He says ITRI is combining AI with precision robotics to develop healthcare assistance robots with human-robot safety mechanisms in response to Taiwan’s aging population. At the same time, the institute is developing inspection and disaster relief robots for hazardous, high-temperature, or hard-to-access industrial environments.

Challenges and concerns

Lee Yi-ching, senior industry analyst at MIC, says that most Taiwanese companies have difficulty scaling brands globally. As a result, they remain stuck in upstream and midstream segments, unable to move downstream.

“The market remains at an early stage, with limited visibility into demand and mass production timelines,” Lee says. “Most firms are taking a cautious approach, but Taiwan is well positioned to scale quickly if demand accelerates.”

Solomon’s Chen points out that the company’s main competitors in high-end defect inspection are its international counterparts. Since Taiwan is not traditionally recognized as a software hub, marketing and branding are an uphill battle.

“We actively participate in global trade shows to build trust and connections, especially in Western markets,” Chen says.

Aurotek’s Chen singles out several obstacles in promoting the adoption of robotics within Taiwan. First, many business owners worry about high upfront costs, slow returns, and elevated risks.

“Our approach to this concern is to offer pilot installation and validation services — we begin with a small-scale deployment, letting actual performance data speak for itself, before scaling up operations,” he says.

Second, he says many owners of small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises discover only after purchasing robots that the machines cannot be directly deployed into their existing production environments.

“They require extensive programming, motion training, and system integration, so we must embed ourselves within the client’s facility to help oversee the entire process, from needs analysis and solution design to system integration recommendations,” Chen says. Additional capacity must go toward collaborating with Aurotek’s network of system integrators to implement the solution, ensuring the robots are fully operational and effectively contributing to the production line.

Lastly, resistance from existing employees who fear that robots may take their jobs is a significant concern. He admits that frontline staff may struggle to accept that the objective of robotics is to augment the workforce in the face of Taiwan’s existing labor shortage and not replace it.

“During the implementation process, we assist clients with internal communication and employee retraining, helping staff transition from operating machinery to becoming technicians who supervise and manage the robots, thereby enhancing the value of their skill sets,” Chen says.