At the recently concluded 2025 International Intelligent Robotics and Systems Conference (IROS) quadruped robot challenge, Suzhou Zhishen Technology’s “Steel Coin L1” made its debut and won the championship in collaboration with the University of Manchester. Earlier, in August this year, Luming Robotics secured the runner-up position in the group dance competition at the World Humanoid Robot Games, thanks to its technological advantages in full-size humanoid robots. Both of these industry attention-grabbing “new stars” hail from Wuzhong District in Suzhou.
This is not all. At the recently concluded 2025 Suzhou Wuzhong Taihu Economic and Trade Cooperation Conference, the “Wuzhong Eight Heroes” including Magic Atom, Luming Robotics, Lexiang Technology, Zhishen Technology, and Kegong Technology collectively showcased the complete industrial chain layout of Wuzhong, from core components and intelligent large models to complete machine applications. The embodied intelligence “Wuzhong Legion” is making strides towards the peak of scientific innovation.
Shiyan Hua, Director of the Wuzhong District Industry and Information Technology Bureau, introduced that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Wuzhong aims to become the “No. 1 National Robot Industry Cluster” and has gathered over 1,600 companies related to “Robot + Artificial Intelligence,” with the industry scale exceeding 160 billion yuan, and is expected to reach 200 billion yuan this year. The production of service robots from Wuzhong accounts for over 60% of the national total, while industrial robots represent one-seventh of the national domestic brands.
In Wuzhong, leading enterprises are accelerating their guidance for the “new wave”. The household cleaning robot leader Ecovacs won the “Nobel Prize” of the robotics industry, the Chappie Award, while Zhaoming Technology has entered the ranks of global unicorns, and the global market share of Green Harmonic Reducers remains second. A total of 53 complete machine manufacturing enterprises produce 64 types and over 800 models of robots, forming a complete ecosystem led by listed companies, supported by large-scale enterprises, and breakthroughs from unicorns and specialized innovative enterprises.
At the Magic Atom laboratory, the “Suzhou Major Innovation Team” led by Wu Changzheng is busy debugging a new bipedal robot. “The maximum joint movement range reaches 320 degrees, and the maximum torque exceeds 130N·m.” Pointing at the data on the screen, the testing engineer continuously adjusts the commands, and the robot smoothly completes a series of difficult actions such as “falling down and getting up continuously” and “bending down”.
This company, established less than two years ago, has already achieved mass production of bipedal and quadrupedal robots, with core products successfully penetrating key scenarios such as industrial quality inspection and commercial services. Through collaboration with Zhaoming Technology, Magic Atom’s robots have entered its smart factory to easily perform material handling, product inspection, and glue dispensing processes. Behind this, the team has collected real data from the production environment, accumulating millions of high-value training samples. “These data restore the physical interactions of the real world, allowing humanoid robots to evolve from ‘understanding’ to ‘acting’,” Wu Changzheng explained.
Luming Robotics is also developing rapidly. After settling in Wuzhong in April this year, the company launched two high-performance products within just two months, and the team expanded from a dozen to over a hundred people within six months. This team, composed of top talents from Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, has developed the world’s first “one-second get-up” full-size humanoid robot, a “powerful embodied giant” with a load capacity of 50 kilograms, and the Luming AI companion robot.
“Suzhou’s strong manufacturing base not only provides complete component support for the ‘Robot + Artificial Intelligence’ industry cluster but also offers rich application scenarios,” said the company’s founder and CTO, Cao Junliang. With the help of Wuzhong District, the team is collaborating with well-known companies such as Mitsubishi Electric to deeply participate in their smart manufacturing.
The cluster effect is giving rise to more innovative results. Twin Intelligence’s industrial-grade humanoid robot has broken through four-dimensional space planning and nano-sensing technology, demonstrating batch application capabilities; Kegong Technology has secured the top spot in global household companion robot shipments, with products covering 150 countries and regions, achieving a closed loop from technology to business.
While promoting breakthroughs in the scientific innovation capabilities of enterprises, Wuzhong is also focusing on cultivating an innovative ecosystem. Shen Bin, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group of the Wuzhong District Science and Technology Bureau, introduced that by introducing a number of major research institutions such as Harbin Institute of Technology Suzhou Research Institute and Zhejiang University Suzhou Intelligent Manufacturing Research Institute, Wuzhong has established a diversified innovation platform. Last year, it was approved to build the first batch of Jiangsu Province’s future industry (humanoid robots) pilot development zones, landing the Jiangsu Province Intelligent Robot Technology Innovation Center and Suzhou Embodied Intelligence Research Institute, among other “one institute and three centers” platforms, providing solid support for industrial innovation.
In the training ground of the Jiangsu Province Intelligent Robot Technology Innovation Center, humanoid robots are walking slowly on gravel roads, slopes, and stairs, simulating different scenarios such as household services, industrial production, and medical rehabilitation. “Initially, it can support over 200 robots training simultaneously,” said Guo Junwei, director of the Harbin Institute of Technology Suzhou Research Institute. The center is co-built by the research institute and 12 universities and enterprises, forming a “1+12+X” system, with a team of nearly 200 people tackling new products such as hydraulic humanoid robots and robotic guide dogs.
With policies as the guide and capital as the wings, Wuzhong continues to inject momentum into industrial development. Currently, the district has established 39 robot cooperation funds, forming an investment scale of 16.3 billion yuan through government-enterprise collaboration. Customized financial products such as the “Dongwu Technology Talent Loan” cover the entire lifecycle of enterprises. Lexiang Technology, established only nine months ago, recently completed 200 million yuan in “angel++” round financing, with a total of nearly 500 million yuan raised in three rounds, setting a record in the industry; global pool cleaning robot leader Xingmai Innovation completed a new round of financing of 1 billion yuan at the end of September, with a total of 1.5 billion yuan raised in three rounds, becoming a “potential stock” in the eyes of capital.
“Let ‘making robots in Wuzhong’ become a distinctive industry identifier,” said Ding Lixin, Vice Chairman of the Suzhou Municipal Political Consultative Conference and Secretary of the Wuzhong District Committee. Looking ahead to the 15th Five-Year Plan, Wuzhong will continue to promote embodied intelligence from the laboratory to the production line, integrating into daily life, and from chain aggregation, strengthening the chain to optimizing the chain, striving to build a global innovation highland for embodied intelligence industry.
