Qiming's Rising Star | UBTECH and Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center Launch Full-Size Research and Education Humanoid Robot "Tiangong Xingzhe"
Tiangong Walker is equipped with the "Huisi Kaiwu" universal embodied intelligence platform from the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, providing universities and research institutions with a complete humanoid robot research solution.
Recently, Qiming Venture Partners portfolio company UBTECH (09880.HK) jointly launched with the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center (hereinafter referred to as "the Innovation Center") the full-size research and education humanoid robot "Tiangong Xingzhe," aiming to reshape the humanoid robot research and education ecosystem with high cost-performance. UBTECH will begin deliveries of Tiangong Xingzhe in the second quarter.
01/ Lowering the Barrier to Humanoid Robot Applications in Research Through Six High-Performance Features
Integrating knowledge and technologies from machine learning, natural language processing, motion control, neural networks, and numerous other disciplines, humanoid robots have gained broad industry recognition for their value in AI, Embodied Artificial Intelligence, and other research and education fields, with applications growing rapidly.
UBTECH and the Innovation Center conducted surveys of thousands of universities, research institutions, and application scenario development organizations nationwide, finding that full-size (1.6 meters and above) humanoid robots better meet research needs and enable broader research topics. Currently, most humanoid robots on the market are medium-size (1.1–1.3 meters), offering limited development potential. Full-size humanoid robots for research and education face obstacles including high prices, limited open-source accessibility, and scarce scenario data. Moreover, research-grade humanoid robots demand excellent performance in experimental precision, efficiency, and stability from the robot body itself, with relatively high requirements for product performance and specifications.
To lower the barrier to humanoid robot applications in research and jointly cultivate original technologies in the Embodied Artificial Intelligence field, UBTECH and the Innovation Center jointly launched the full-size research and education humanoid robot platform — Tiangong Xingzhe, featuring six high-performance characteristics: high biomimicry, high strength, high performance, high stability, high expandability, and high openness.
Tiangong Xingzhe stands 170cm tall with a highly biomimetic torso configuration and anthropomorphic motion control capabilities. With up to 20 degrees of freedom throughout its body, it can run stably at 10km/h and move smoothly across complex generalized terrains including slopes, stairs, sand, and snow, while resisting impact disturbances. Additionally, it is equipped with the Innovation Center's "Huisi Kaiwu" general Embodied Artificial Intelligence platform, providing universities and research institutions with a complete humanoid robot research solution.
In key components, Tiangong Xingzhe uses titanium alloy materials to significantly reduce overall weight. Combined with high-torque-density joint modules, it ensures structural strength while being impact-resistant and durable. The ultra-high torque density design, paired with aerospace-grade aluminum and titanium alloy key components, delivers lightweight construction while maintaining high hardness, high performance, and high stability — making it well-suited for the repeated debugging common in research scenarios.
Tiangong Xingzhe also employs lightweight, high-performance joint modules, expandable to a maximum of 550 TOPS computing power. Meanwhile, its full-body air duct cooling design ensures that key components including the main control board, computing board, and joint modules can operate at high performance for extended periods without overheating, fully unleashing hardware capabilities. All key components undergo rigorous factory testing, enabling long-term stable operation in conventional research environments.
Considering the broad research topic demands in the research and education field, Tiangong Xingzhe's robot body is freely expandable, capable of being fitted with core humanoid robot components such as depth cameras, LiDAR, NVIDIA Orin computing boards, six-axis force sensors, seven-degree-of-freedom collaborative dual arms, and five-finger dexterous hands. At the same time, Tiangong Xingzhe fully opens its underlying motor interfaces, sensor interfaces, and motion control interfaces, with mature development guides and sample code, fully meeting the secondary development needs of research users in fields such as Embodied Artificial Intelligence body control and high-precision motion control.
02/ Ten-Million-Yuan Fund to Support Collaborative Humanoid Robot Research
As a founding member and general manager unit, UBTECH joined with ten leading industry enterprises and institutions in late 2023 to establish the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, with UBTECH's Chief Technology Officer and Executive Director Xiong Youjun serving as the Innovation Center's legal representative and general manager. In October 2024, the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center was officially upgraded to the "National-Local Jointly Built Embodied Intelligent Robot Innovation Center."
This time, in addition to jointly launching the full-size research-grade humanoid robot Tiangong Xingzhe with the Innovation Center, UBTECH has also established the "Humanoid Robot Research Co-Creation Fund," with the goal of accelerating research innovation and scenario innovation, open to universities and research institutions at home and abroad for national and industry-level standards, projects, competitions, and other special initiatives.
UBTECH has consistently contributed its advantages in humanoid robot technology R&D and commercialization, working with partners to drive greater progress in the Innovation Center's various initiatives. Since the Innovation Center's founding, UBTECH not only dispatched R&D personnel to assist in launching multiple projects but also opened more than 300 patents to the Innovation Center, helping rapidly develop the general robot mother platform "Tiangong," which achieved the world's first anthropomorphic running by a full-size pure electric drive humanoid robot, with a maximum speed exceeding 12km/h and globally leading whole-body coordinated control for generalized mobility, capable of smooth movement across various complex generalized terrains including slopes, stairs, grass, gravel, and sand. To date, Tiangong has completed two iterations, achieving breakthroughs in embodied perception, embodied interaction, and embodied behavior capabilities, with smooth hand-eye coordination and hand-eye interaction functions.
As a key platform leading humanoid robot technology breakthroughs and industrial collaboration, the Innovation Center connects upstream and downstream of the industrial chain through open-source and open approaches, partnering with universities, research institutes, integrators, and other organizations with secondary development capabilities for embodied intelligent robots globally to build the most influential open-source community. This time, the Innovation Center launched the general Embodied Artificial Intelligence platform — Huisi Kaiwu, continuously promoting the deployment of Embodied Artificial Intelligence technology in research, industrial, commercial service, and special operations fields around the "Tiangong + Kaiwu" combination, generating datasets and launching full-chain Embodied Artificial Intelligence data solutions.
Research innovation in humanoid robot-related technologies requires the sustained building of a research ecosystem by multiple forces including academia, industry, government, and the open-source community. Going forward, UBTECH will work with the Innovation Center and renowned Chinese universities to jointly advance industry-academia-research collaborative technology breakthroughs, industry standard system formulation, and talent reserve development, while providing internships and employment opportunities for talent in related fields, offering the strongest support for the development of the humanoid robot industry.
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Founded in 2006, Qiming Venture Partners currently manages 11 USD funds and 7 RMB funds, with total assets under management reaching $9.5 billion. Since its inception, the firm has focused on investing in outstanding early- and growth-stage companies in Technology and Consumer (T&C) and Healthcare sectors.
To date, Qiming Venture Partners has invested in over 580 high-growth innovative companies, of which more than 210 have listed on the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited, Shanghai Stock Exchange, and Shenzhen Stock Exchange, or exited through M&A and other means, with more than 80 companies recognized as unicorns or super-unicorns in their respective industries.
Many Qiming Venture Partners portfolio companies have grown into the most influential companies in their fields, including Xiaomi (01810.HK), Meituan (03690.HK), Bilibili (NASDAQ:BILI, 09626.HK), Zhihu (NYSE:ZH, 02390.HK), Roborock (688169.SH), UBTECH (09880.HK), WeRide (NASDAQ:WRD), Gan & Lee Pharmaceuticals (603087.SH), Tigermed (300347.SZ, 03347.HK), Zai Lab (NASDAQ:ZLAB, 09688.HK), CanSino Biologics (688185.SH, 06185.HK), Schrödinger (NASDAQ:SDGR), MicroPort EP MedTech (688617.SH), Sanyou Medical (688085.SH), Amoy Diagnostics (300685.SZ), Berry Genomics (000710.SZ), GenScript ProBio (688520.SH), Yuanxin Technology, ClinChoice, Belief BioMed, Biren Technology, and others.