Xianglu Robotics unveils adaptive AI cooking robots at WRC 2026

Chinese cooking-robot maker Xianglu Robotics unveiled three products at the World Robot Conference in Beijing on Sunday, as it seeks to advance kitchen automation beyond rigid preset-recipe operations.

The Beijing-based company launched CookingMuse, a multimodal cooking AI model, the 3K Vision AI cooking robot and RobotCook, a mobile, automated kitchen system empowered by embodied AI.

The company said CookingMuse was trained on data collected from real kitchens and is designed to help robots respond to changes in ingredients and cooking conditions, rather than rely solely on fixed cooking times, temperatures and ingredient quantities.

"Real kitchens are never standardized laboratories," said Yang Jiancheng, founder and chairman of Xianglu Robotics, at the launch. CookingMuse can assess factors such as moisture levels, ingredient temperature and the state of food in the wok, and adjust cooking parameters accordingly, the company said. 

The 3K robot, which incorporates the AI model, uses three 40-megapixel global-shutter industrial cameras to capture images of food at 30 frames per second. It can adjust heating power, cooking time, stirring speed and seasoning during cooking, according to the company.

At the conference, the robot underwent two live cooking tests using mapo tofu, or sauteed tofu in spicy sauce, and stir-fried pork with green peppers. When an extra 100 grams of water was added to the mapo tofu midway through cooking, the robot immediately detected the change and adjusted its cooking parameters. It then cooked partially frozen pork alongside thawed meat, adapting the cooking process to compensate for the difference. People at the event sampled the dishes side by side afterward and said they noticed little difference in taste and texture. 

The company also said the robot's AI monitoring system can identify irregularities in ingredient preparation, thawing, ingredient quantities and equipment setup, which could help restaurant chains standardize kitchen operations.

The third product, RobotCook, combines cooking robots with a mobile kitchen system covering ingredient storage, cooking, serving, exhaust treatment and self-cleaning. The company said it can cook two dishes simultaneously and be deployed at exhibitions, sports events and office parks, among other locations, without requiring a fixed restaurant.

Xianglu said its cooking robots currently operate in nearly 350 Chinese cities and more than 20 overseas markets, serving about 3,000 brands and 13,000 stores. Its AI recipe system has nearly one million digital recipes for Chinese dishes, it said.