According to a recently released white paper, the gross output value of the robotics industry in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong province saw a rise of 13.82 percent to 117.8 billion yuan ($17.13 billion) in 2018.

Differing from the statistical coverage of the Chinese robotics industry, which only refers to industrial robot arm-related sectors, Shenzhen's robotics industry covers the sectors of industrial robot, service robots, and other varieties of robots, as well as some artificial intelligence products.

The white paper shows that the number of robotics enterprises in the city increased from 594 in 2017 to 649 in 2018.

The output value of the industrial robot sector in 2018 was 80.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.25 percent, while that of the service robot sector totaled 34 billion yuan, with a yearly growth rate of 21.79 percent over the previous year.

"The robotics industry in Shenzhen is getting mature now. Industrial clusters in the city and several enterprises are yielding profits," said Bi Yalei, secretary general of the Shenzhen Robotics Association.

The white paper on the development of the robotics industry in Shenzhen in 2018 was jointly produced by the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology of Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Shenzhen Robotics Association.