China’s smartphone and electronics supply chain is adapting its expertise to support the country’s fledgling but fast-growing humanoid robotics industry, as component suppliers seek new growth beyond a slowing mobile market.

The sector received a glimpse of that crossover after Honor’s humanoid robot D1, a dark-horse entrant from the smartphone maker, won Beijing’s recent robot half-marathon, beating established Chinese robotics names such as Unitree.

Honor entered the humanoid robotics sector only last year. Its robot, Lightning, beat the human world record by more than six minutes. After the race, Honor engineer Yao Bin told Chinese media outlet ThePaper.cn that one reason for the win was the transfer of smartphone cooling technology to robots, which kept the motor cool after running 21km.

Major smartphone suppliers including Lingyi iTech, Lens Technology and AAC Technologies supplied structural components for Honor’s D1.

A new growth curve

Smartphone and electronics component suppliers are targeting a robotics market that is moving towards mass production and large-scale deployment.