China launches companion robot with emotion recognition for elderly care

On 2026-04-20, researchers at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China unveiled "Kangbao," a companion healthcare robot in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. The robot can perform non-contact health checks and identify 13 emotional states, and it is set to begin trials in elderly-care settings. The event is a notable AI-enabled healthcare demonstration, but it is not a frontier strategic capability milestone.