2 hours, 40 minutes, and 42 seconds! At the humanoid robot half marathon held in Yizhuang in April 2025, “Tiangong” crossed the finish line first, winning the world’s first humanoid robot half marathon championship and setting a new world record. On June 17, the “Vibrant China Research Tour” theme interview visited the birthplace of “Tiangong”—the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center and the Robot World, to see how Beijing’s humanoid robots collectively accelerated to the finish line, experiencing the vibrant vitality of Beijing as a domestic source of innovation in robot technology, an application demonstration highland, and a high-end industrial cluster.
Exterior view of the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center. Image source: Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center
Creating the “Super Brain” for Humanoid Robots
“Tiangong, please put the orange on the red plate, and then check today’s weather in Beijing.” At the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, following the technician’s instructions, “Tiangong” carefully analyzed and efficiently completed the specified task through a series of fluid operations, with the entire process being orderly. Nearby, another “Tiangong” partner was diligently and smoothly completing the task of cleaning the table. No matter how the surrounding technicians interfered, he remained “emotionally stable.”
“Tiangong” humanoid robot completing the specified task
“Decades ago, getting humanoid robots to run was a significant technological breakthrough; now, by equipping ‘Wisdom and Creation’, our ‘Tiangong’ not only has the ability to analyze and execute tasks but also ensures strong motion control performance,” introduced a staff member at the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center.
The “Wisdom and Creation” mentioned is the world’s first general-purpose embodied intelligent platform with “one brain, multiple capabilities” and “one brain, multiple machines” released by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center. It consists of a task planning embodied “brain” driven by an AI large model and a data-driven end-to-end skill execution embodied “small brain”, serving as an open platform supporting various robots to interact with the physical world, filling the gap in the embodied intelligence field regarding general software systems.
Flourishing Humanoid Robots
“Look over here, this is our little rascal humanoid robot N2, from Songyan Power (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Songyan Power), which came in second in the humanoid robot half marathon. Standing at 1.2 meters tall and weighing 30 kilograms, it achieves flexible and superb motion performance with only 18 high-performance joints, making it the world’s first robot capable of continuous somersaults in multiple scenarios,” the guide introduced while walking in the Robot World.
With the explosive popularity of the humanoid robot half marathon, Songyan Power has suddenly entered the public eye. “So far this year, we have received over 2,500 orders, with a total intended amount exceeding 100 million yuan,” said Jiang Zheyuan, chairman of Songyan Power.
Display of Songyan Power’s product series. Image source: Songyan Power
Currently, the company’s core products include the N2 and E1 series humanoid robots, as well as bionic robots. Among them, the E1 biped humanoid robot’s components are highly localized, suitable for research and education, scene development, and other fields; the bionic robots Hobbs & Xiaonuo have 32 degrees of freedom, reaching world-class technical standards, capable of precise control of micro-expressions such as eyebrows, eyeballs, and mouth, meeting the secondary development needs for research and education, commercial guidance, elderly companionship, and psychological therapy.
Can robots also play football? On that day, in the Robot World, the humanoid robot “Accelerate T1” from Beijing Accelerated Evolution Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Accelerated Evolution) staged such an exciting match. Dribbling, passing (the robot), shooting, and raising hands in celebration… In the end, the player in the black jersey, number 1, won the match.
Player number 1 celebrates scoring a goal
In fact, this is not his first victory. Back in March this year, at the RoboCup Open Adult Group finals held in Germany, the Tsinghua Huoshen team won the championship by defeating the host Germany’s Sweaty team with a score of 9:0 using “Accelerate T1”.
“‘Accelerate T1’ is designed for developers, featuring ‘lightweight, flexible, and durable’ characteristics,” said Cheng Hao, founder and CEO of Accelerated Evolution. Since the product’s official release in October 2024, the global shipment has reached hundreds of units, covering dozens of countries and regions including China, the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, and South Korea. “We have also officially become an official partner of RoboCup, a first for domestic companies,” Cheng Hao further added.
Bridging the “Last Mile” for Humanoid Robots into Ordinary HouseholdsWith the rapid layout and accelerated mass production of humanoid robots, how to address the pain points faced by the humanoid robot industry, such as the single display scene for robot companies, weak financial services, slow after-sales service response, lack of user feedback mechanisms, and the lack of real experience opportunities and complex purchasing processes for users, has become a challenge for the development of the humanoid robot industry.
“This year can be regarded as the development year for humanoid robots. At this turning point, we conceived the idea of creating a 4S store for embodied intelligent robots,” said Wang Yifan, deputy general manager of Beijing Yizhuang Robot Company. The 4S store will integrate sales, spare parts supply, after-sales service, and information feedback, truly achieving efficient docking between supply and demand.
“In the 4S store, we can not only achieve customized displays to provide users with an immersive experience but also create a financial service system to realize centralized promotion of the ecosystem,” Wang Yifan added.
Based on the policy, resources, industry, and ecological advantages of Yizhuang, as well as the enterprise and financial chain elements of the Beijing Robot Industrial Park, the world’s first 4S store for embodied intelligent robots version 1.0 will officially debut at the World Robot Conference on August 8; and will grandly appear in the Beijing Robot Industrial Park in November, helping to bridge the “last mile” from enterprises to users.
According to data from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, in 2024, the revenue of Beijing’s robot industry will exceed 30 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of nearly 50%, and nearly 30 humanoid robot manufacturing units, ranking first in the country.
Mechanical hand sculpture on the first floor of the Robot World
From “Tiangong” winning the championship to the N2, the only robot capable of continuous somersaults, making a stunning appearance; from the Mozi robot enabling Qianxun Intelligent to become one of the only two companies globally capable of generalized folding of pliable objects (clothes), to the global debut of the end-to-end grasping model GraspVLA and navigation model TrackVLA by Galaxy General… Just as the mechanical hand sculpture at the entrance of the Robot World suggests, the development of Beijing’s humanoid robot industry is accelerating to the finish line in the blink of an eye.
Produced by: Beijing Association for Science and Technology Media Center