HANGZHOU, May 10 (Xinhua) -- China's robotics industry saw steady development in 2017 with about 1,686 robotics companies established last year, according to a report released at the ongoing 5th China Robot Summit.

By the end of 2017, the number of robotics companies in China exceeded more than 6,500, mainly located in China's Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta, said the report.

In 2017, the global robotics industry market reached 23.2 billion U.S. dollars, with annual growth of 17 percent between 2012 and 2017.

China became the largest market for industrial robots in 2013. In 2017, sales of China's industrial robots hit 4.22 billion dollars, up 24 percent year on year, while sales of service robots totaled 1.32 billion dollars, up 28 percent year on year.