Beyond Expo was a great success at the Venetian Convention and Exhibition Center in Macau on Dec 2 – 4, 2021. The three-day offline tech summit and exhibition has attracted more than 300 exhibitors promoting everything from artificial intelligence and biotech to smart cities. Giant firms such as Tencent, China Telecom, Alibaba, and Huawei joined with upcoming vertical unicorns to showcase their latest technological developments and products.

Here are some highlights in case you missed out, reported by TechNode.

Innovations from giant firms

Tencent booth at Beyond Expo (Image credit: TechNode)

At Tencent’s booth, the company demonstrated 15 ways its technologies are applied in smart cities, industrial chains, and healthcare, mainly concentrating on commercial applications in the Greater Bay Area, which consists of nine cities in the southern Guangdong province, Hong Kong and Macao.

One example was Tencent’s cooperation with the Macao Water Supply Company. Tencent’s productivity app, WeCom, has greatly improved the working efficiency of his company, according to Hu Jianchao, head of the water firm’s pipeline management department.

Before adopting the app, the company relied on phone calls to learn about water pipeline emergencies. Lack of real-time updates often led to miscommunications. WeCom has streamlined the emergency treatment process by digitizing case details such as the location of the emergency, onsite pictures, and the staff in charge of the case, Hu explained.

China Telecom booth at Beyond Expo (Image credit: TechNode)

Telecom carrier China Telecom has developed a smart city transportation platform for Macao by integrating technologies including IoT, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and big data. The app, which claims more than 100,000 daily active users in the city, supports major features like route management and bus stop reporting.

The company’s 5G-enabled robot dog drew a large crowd at the event. The dog can be useful in various scenarios such as accompanying and guiding visually-impaired people in emergency rescues, said Chen Zhanhong, a representative from the Macao subsidiary of China Telecom.

Visitors trying out 5G-enabled VR headsets at the Huawei booth. (Image credit: TechNode)
Alibaba’s smart hotel solution: Guests can control appliances, room temperature, and lights using Alibaba’s smart voice assistant, Tmall Genie. (Image credit; TechNode)

Robots at work

Service robots are well on track for commercial applications as traditional sectors turn to automation to increase efficiency and slash labor costs. The trend got a strong boost from the pandemic, which gave rise to the new concept of “non-contact delivery.”

Now, service robots are giving directions at malls, supermarkets, museums, and hotels, as well as delivering food in restaurants, taking care of the elderly, and assisting with medical treatments.

Left to right, Putdu Technology’s robots for food delivery, air disinfection, and hotel food service. (Image credit: TechNode)
A robot guide and food delivery robots developed by Softback-backed Keenon  (Image credit: TechNode)
Hotel delivery robots developed by service robot developer S3 Robotics. The company also develops robots for taking human temperatures, disinfection, and education. (Image credit: TechNode)

Cars take to the air

As electric vehicles and autonomous driving become more familiar concepts to Chinese consumers, entrepreneurs are exploring the future of daily transportation.

EHang 216 showcased at Beyond Expo (Image credit: TechNode)

Developed by Chinese drone maker EHang, EHang 216 is a dual-seat passenger grade autonomous aerial vehicle designed for short- to medium-range air transportation. The passenger drone can travel at a maximum speed of 130 km/h. It can fly for 21 minutes with a full-load capacity of 220 kilograms.

Voyager X2 showcased at Beyond Expo (Image credit: TechNode)

Xpeng Huitian, an autonomous aviation unit of electric vehicle maker Xpeng Motors, showcased its “flying car” prototype Voyager X2 at the event. With eight propellers on four axes, the passenger drone could carry two adults. It has a maximum load of 200 kilograms. The electric drone can travel 35 minutes at between 80 and100 kilometers per hour on one charge.