From drone lasers to lightweight exoskeletons, Chinese manufacturers used the country’s biggest trade fair to showcase a new wave of hi-tech, and sometimes quirky, hardware to global buyers this week.

The vast range of next-generation devices – often on offer at surprisingly affordable prices – is the product of a relentless innovation drive under way in China, as firms plough funds into research and development to cope with intense competition at home and rising trade barriers overseas.

The R&D wave is helping Chinese exporters expand their global sales even amid an era of higher tariffs. As of Monday last week, a whopping 189,000 buyers from 214 countries and regions had attended the October Canton Fair in Guangzhou, up 13.3 per cent from the previous edition of the trade expo in April.

Many exporters at the fair’s 52-hectare (128.5-acre) advanced manufacturing exhibition said they had upped their research spending to accelerate new product iteration – sometimes investing half their income on R&D.

Lingdu Intel-tech, a Guangzhou-based maker of cleaning robots, is reinvesting roughly 40 per cent of its annual revenue in developing new products, including specialised adhesive materials jointly produced with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The company already sells sanitation robots in more than 20 countries, and it is now offering window-cleaning robots for US$70,000 that are designed to work on high-rise towers in extremely hot countries in the Middle East.

“Our product engineering continuously evolves to adapt to increasingly extreme climate shifts, such as in the Middle East, where glass surface temperatures can exceed 70 degrees Celsius,” said Huang Jian, the company’s sales director.

The window-cleaning robot uses computer-vision algorithms and multi-modal sensors to detect obstacles, identify glass cracks and ageing rubber seals – allowing it to quickly change its washing pressure and prevent leaks, according to Huang.

Exoskeleton maker Hangzhou Taixi showcased the speed of its engineering by unveiling a revamped mobility exoskeleton at the fair just six months after releasing its predecessor.

The new exoskeleton, which is designed to be worn by people with mobility issues, weighs just 1.85 kilograms – 550 grams lighter than the previous model – after the company swapped out aluminium for custom carbon-fibre materials in its linkage joints.

The company spent the equivalent of millions of US dollars on developing the new model, which is on sale for just over US$1,000, according to Han Xu, a senior executive at the firm. Overall R&D spending now accounts for 30 to 50 per cent of company revenue.

Hangzhou Taixi has already received sample orders from more than 80 countries for the exoskeleton, while it works with regulators on certification. Its booth at the fair was packed with foreign buyers, many paying cash on the spot for demo units.

Elsewhere in the pavilion, Zhejiang Era Solar Technology was promoting a newly launched 800-watt solar power system – a plug-and-play set-up combining lightweight solar panels, microinverters and energy storage batteries that is designed to be used in regions with unstable power grids.

The new system is up to 20 per cent more cost-efficient than previous models, according to the firm. It plans to sell the device in parts of Africa, Southeast Asia and Europe, with one client from Ghana placing a trial order for 200 units before a prototype was even released.

Zhejiang Era set a target of iterating new products every six to eight months to maintain its “market edge”, said Xu Leiping, the company’s deputy sales general manager.

CZI Intelligent Machinery, which makes rescue gear for drones, also said it invested more than 30 per cent of its annual revenue in R&D.

The company recently adapted its aerial thermal imaging and laser technology for ground-based rescue equipment, which has helped the firm expand its sales into Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, according to CZI co-founder Zhang Kai.

Foreign procurement managers at the fair said Chinese companies’ strategy of combining technical upgrades with competitive pricing had allowed them to resist global trade shocks.

“Chinese pricing remains highly competitive against more expensive countries like Japan and Germany,” said Joerg Sageder, an Austrian buyer who is sourcing commercial robots and automation equipment. “As quality improves year by year, we can charge a mark-up in our own [European] markets.”