(Yicai) June 26 -- Companies from Shanghai's Pudong Jinqiao Economic and Technological Development Zone showcased coordinated operations among multiple unmanned systems at MWC 2026 Shanghai using next-generation communication technologies.

On the opening day of MWC 2026, an unmanned aerial vehicle took off from the Shanghai New International Expo Center and flew eight kilometers to the central lake at Jinqiao Office Park. Hovering above a low-speed unmanned surface vehicle, it retrieved a football using a robotic claw before returning to the exhibition venue.

Outside the exhibition hall, the UAV transferred the football to an autonomous vehicle, which delivered it to the All-Space Unmanned System Pavilion. A humanoid robot then picked up the football, navigated autonomously through the crowd, and delivered it to the robot penalty shootout competition area. The entire process required no human intervention and took less than 30 minutes.

Shanghai's Pudong Jinqiao Economic and Technological Development Zone is a major high-tech industrial hub for advanced manufacturing and innovation. The showcase at MWC Shanghai, one of the world's largest trade shows for mobile and connectivity, illustrated the zone's push to commercialize all-space unmanned systems by linking autonomous platforms across air, land, and water through next-generation connectivity.

Building an Autonomous Ecosystem

Jinqiao is exploring an industrialization path centered on "new communication technologies plus all-space unmanned systems," an official from the local administration told Yicai.

At this year's exhibition, communications and unmanned equipment companies based in Jinqiao showed how next-generation connectivity enables diverse unmanned systems to operate together across the industrial chain, the official said.

"Advanced communication technologies serve as the central nervous system of the intelligent era, linking local unmanned equipment manufacturers and testing companies to form a complete industrial ecosystem and drive industrial upgrading," the official said.

Wang Ning, general manager of the Shanghai branch of StarPoint Technology, a wireless communication testing solutions provider that recently established operations in Jinqiao, said China leads the world in the number of intelligent unmanned systems.

"Communication technologies provide the operational foundation for these intelligent systems, while reliable connectivity depends on robust testing technologies," Wang told Yicai.

The company has established an intelligent systems testing facility in Jinqiao that provides collaborative testing scenarios for unmanned equipment. "These unmanned systems will evolve from standalone intelligence to swarm intelligence," Wang said.

Jin Yaqiu, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a professor at Fudan University, said the information intelligence era is characterized by cross-sector integration, rapid technological iteration, and commercialization.

"System-level collaboration is the inevitable path toward large-scale commercial deployment of all-space unmanned equipment," Jin said.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Emmi Laine