The World Robot Conference in Beijing has drawn big crowds to its showcase of "jiqiren", or "machine people", in Chinese. The country still has a long way to go until it catches up with Japan, among others, but on the evidence of the conference, it is only a matter of time before robots are cooking us dinner and cleaning up afterwards too. China is already the world's biggest market for industrial robots, according to the International Federation of Robotics. But many analysts at the conference said the future lay with "service robots", helping out around the home and office. Robot waiters are already a popular draw at some restaurants and tourists sights in China. In a world of declining birth rates, robots could increasingly keep the young, and old, company.