PLA Tests Military Robots Across Ground, Sea and Space

China's People's Liberation Army is testing robots for ground, maritime and space operations, Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET) says in a new report. The study reviewed more than 2,000 open source procurement documents published from October 2022 to December 2025.

The requests covered quadruped robots, ordnance disposal systems, undersea platforms and devices that could manipulate satellites in orbit. Other proposed uses included reconnaissance, patrols, minesweeping, search and rescue, seabed surveys and operations in areas contaminated by nuclear or chemical materials. Most contracts had relatively small values, indicating a focus on research and testing rather than deployment at scale.

Most requests specified systems controlled by people, although some included autonomous path planning, obstacle avoidance and navigation without GPS. The documents also sought lidar, thermal imaging, sonar and other sensors, along with swarm simulations, systems for cooperation between people and machines, robots powered by large language models and brain computer interfaces. Quadruped requests outnumbered those for humanoid robots, but humanoid and exoskeleton requests increased in 2025.