Zhiyuan Robotics Opens the Door to Application: From "Companion Chat" to "On Duty" How is Shanghai Building a High Ground for Embodied Intelligence Innovation?

At the Zhiyuan Robotics showroom, Expedition A2 interacts effortlessly with visitors: “I’m waiting for you! Always ready to chat.” Meanwhile, in the factory workshop, its “brother” spirit G2 is quite different — it initially took a long time for a single grasping action, but now it can smoothly complete a full set of tasks in about 20 seconds, achieving over 70% efficiency compared to human workers.

By 2026, the global embodied intelligence industry will enter a “key year for large-scale commercial application.” From prototype models developed in labs to mass production of thousands of units, the rapid growth of Zhiyuan Robotics is backed by Shanghai’s systematic layout around the “Four Chains” integration of innovation chain, industrial chain, capital chain, and talent chain. Now, at the start of the “14th Five-Year Plan,” embodied intelligence has been designated as a future national industry. Driven by technological depth and ecological breadth, this productivity revolution is accelerating in Shanghai, shaping China’s solutions.

From “Perception” to “Operation”: How do robots go from labs to workshops?

“Why are you here now?” “I’m waiting for you! Always ready to chat, shake hands, fist bump, or tell you about the latest in the showroom.” In Zhiyuan Robotics’ showroom, Expedition A2 acts as a guide, greeting visitors and introducing itself. Recently, Caixin Media reporters visited this Shanghai company, which is only three years old.

Inside the showroom, three major robot families—Expedition, Lingxi, and Spirit—are displayed side by side. There are humanoid robots with Nezha personalities, four-legged robots dressed in “panda coats,” and Lingxi X2 performing dance routines. On the other side, several robots demonstrate more hardcore capabilities—loading packages, folding clothes, packing boxes—moving from “demonstration” to real “operation.”

Zhiyuan Robotics folding clothes. Photo source: Caixin reporter

Data shows that by 2025, Zhiyuan Robotics will hold 39% of the global market share in shipments, ranking first worldwide in both humanoid robot shipments and market share, with annual revenue exceeding 1 billion yuan. The company has already deployed in eight major scenarios, including reception and explanation, entertainment and commercial performances, industrial manufacturing, logistics sorting, security patrols, commercial cleaning, data collection training, and scientific education.

Behind this, Zhu Jie, Vice President and General Manager of Public and Government Affairs, told reporters that the company’s “One Body, Three Intelligences” architecture—especially in operational intelligence—achieves full-process robot intelligence through continuous iteration of pre-trained foundational models, distributed reinforcement learning algorithms, and world models, providing a technical foundation for large-scale deployment and scenario-based applications.

Robots undergoing real-machine reinforcement learning. Photo source: interviewee provided

Rewinding to early 2025, Spirit G2 team engineers discovered in a production workshop that workers averaged 50,000 steps daily, with young workers rarely lasting more than three months, and recruitment calls never stopped. Upon entering the workshop, they began to consider whether robots could replace workers in this demanding environment. The core challenge was enabling robots to autonomously adapt and operate precisely in complex, high-frequency production lines—achieving true “operational intelligence.”

According to the project leader, operational intelligence means robots can go into production lines and commercial scenarios to perform actual labor output. This requires extremely high operational accuracy and high cycle times, as well as the ability to adapt to different production lines and processes, maintaining consistent performance across various stations.

This places very high demands on hardware. “For example, our force-controlled arm must be force-sensitive, with millimeter-level precision. It must also maintain accuracy after long operation hours, temperature changes, and mechanical fatigue. The chassis’s movement precision and speed are also highly demanding,” the leader added.

Through continuous iteration and refinement, algorithms, models, and system solutions have matured. Robots that initially took a long time for single grasping actions now complete entire operation sequences in about 20 seconds. Meanwhile, a single robot’s efficiency exceeds 70% of human labor, and two collaborating robots can fully replace workers with higher efficiency and stability, enabling 24/7 operation and accommodating subtle production line deviations. This robot was launched in October 2025, began pre-job testing, and delivered the first batch of commercial units under a procurement contract exceeding 100 million yuan with Junsheng Electronics, marking its entry into commercialization.

Zhu Jie revealed that this year, the company aims to focus on deployment mode. “In the past two years, a major change has been shifting from manual lab production to large-scale manufacturing. More importantly, we’ve moved from ‘motion intelligence’ based on visual perception to ‘operational intelligence.’”

“We are no longer just a ‘humanoid robot company,’ but a full-stack solution provider covering scientific research, industrial, commercial, and home scenarios. Recently, we partnered with Junsheng Security on industrial roll-up shell feeding, integrating multiple cutting-edge technologies for ‘hand-eye-body-network’ collaborative operation.” Zhu Jie said this is a significant step in transitioning from ‘perception intelligence’ to ‘execution intelligence,’ and future applications will continue to be delivered stably across more scenarios.

Deep Tech Stack, Broad Ecosystem

Behind Zhiyuan Robotics’ growth trajectory is Shanghai’s systematic layout of the “Four Chains” integration in the embodied intelligence industry.

Last August, Shanghai released the “Implementation Plan for the Development of the Embodied Intelligence Industry.” This plan is a key measure for Shanghai to implement the national “Artificial Intelligence+” initiative, to develop future industry clusters, and to seize the window of embodied intelligence development, aiming to build a global innovation hub for embodied intelligence.

Focusing on key practical scenarios, Shanghai’s economic and information systems are working to build a first-class industrial ecosystem, implementing the integration of innovation, industry, capital, and talent chains, to empower thousands of industries with AI and realize the “AI+” benefit for millions of households.

According to the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, support for relevant technological breakthroughs includes up to 30% of total investment, not exceeding 50 million yuan per project; companies purchasing language data services can receive up to 5 million yuan in data vouchers annually; and pilot applications of autonomous operating systems in industrial, logistics, and commercial fields are being promoted to accelerate technological iteration and ecosystem development.

Standardization efforts are also advancing. On February 28, the “Humanoid Robots and Embodied Intelligence Standardization (2026 Edition)” was officially released at the annual conference in Beijing. As China’s first comprehensive standard covering the entire industry chain and lifecycle of humanoid robots, it marks a new phase of standardized development. The standard includes six parts: basic commonality, brain and intelligent computing, limb and component systems, complete machines and systems, applications, and safety ethics.

However, rapid evolution also presents challenges. Zhu Jie admitted that the industry is at a critical transition from “factory mass production” to “large-scale deployment.” Issues such as insufficient coordination between “brain” cognitive models and “cerebellum” motion control algorithms, high costs of high-quality real data, lack of unified hardware interfaces and software standards, limited openness of real scenarios, and the need to build user trust remain.

Amid the momentum of the “14th Five-Year Plan,” Zhu Jie stated that Zhiyuan will further focus on cutting-edge embodied intelligence technologies, connecting “technology-product-scenario-industry” chains, cultivating new productivity, consolidating global leadership, and promoting large-scale technological deployment across industries. The goal is to establish Shanghai as a global embodied intelligence innovation hub, helping China transition from a “robot application power” to a “robot industry powerhouse.”

(Source: Caixin)