Today's Highlights
· Tactile-sensing company Yimu Technology completes Series E round exceeding RMB 1 billion, valuation tops RMB 10 billion to become new unicorn
· Shanghai's state-industry co-built humanoid pilot production platform launches, with an annual capacity of 2,000 full units and 40+ signed clients
· Zhiyuan Robotics declares "Year One of Deployment" at WAIC, with 60 robots on duty providing public services at the venue
· RoboScience's cloud-based embodied foundation model demonstrates a live 30-second hand swap, one brain controlling 10+ dexterous hand models
· The "world model" concept proliferates; at WAIC, academia and vendors collectively try to "set the record straight" on its meaning
I. Research Progress
ScaleBFM: Disentangling the Scaling Laws of Humanoid "Behavior Foundation Models" · locomotion
Humanoid whole-body control has long lacked a clear "bigger is better" curve like the ones seen in language models. ScaleBFM scales training data to 102 million frames and, for the first time, independently measures three separate dimensions — motion data volume, PPO sample volume, and model capacity — offering an actionable scaling recipe for where to direct resources in humanoid "Behavior Foundation Models" (BFMs). The work comes from a team including researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Chinese University of Hong Kong et al. · arXiv 2607.15163 source · Analysis: 具身智能研究室 source (WeChat, CN)
FreMotion: Using "Frequency Decoupling" to Break the Precision-Smoothness Dilemma, a 100M-Parameter Model Outperforms a 3.3B VLA · manipulation
The experiments reveal a counterintuitive fact: even a 3.3-billion-parameter, π0-class VLA sees its success rate collapse in fine-grained manipulation tasks lasting longer than 10 seconds, because vision and action are treated as a homogeneous information stream. FreMotion decouples high-frequency visual detail from low-frequency action intent, and with only 100 million parameters outperforms the larger model on fine manipulation. The paper appears in IEEE T-ASE.
Analysis: 具身智能制造 source (WeChat, CN)
CosFly-VLA: Adding 3D Spatial Priors for Drones, Recovering Targets Even After Occlusion · autonomy
General-purpose VLAs like OpenVLA "follow what they can see" but lack drone-specific altitude and distance geometric priors, so errors accumulate under prolonged occlusion and the target is eventually lost. CosFly-VLA introduces spatially-aware representations, enabling "occluded pedestrian tracking" in urban environments to precisely recover the target after it disappears — pointing to a real-world shortfall of VLAs in low-altitude scenarios.
Analysis: 视觉语言导航 source (WeChat, CN)
Open Source · Tools · Benchmarks
· Damo Academy Digital Teleoperation Data Collection Scheme: Alibaba's Damo Academy has open-sourced a "digital teleoperation" embodied data collection scheme that lowers the barrier for real-robot demonstration, targeting data scarcity — a core bottleneck for embodied AI deployment source (WeChat, CN)
· LeRobot Extension: NVIDIA and Hugging Face jointly add new tooling to the open-source robotics framework LeRobot, continuing to push the open-source embodied AI toolchain forward source
II. Funding and Deals
Yimu Technology (Chinese tactile-sensing startup) | Series E | Over RMB 1 Billion | Valuation Tops RMB 10 Billion · hardware
Yimu Technology, focused on robotic tactile perception, announced completion of a Series E round exceeding RMB 1 billion, with valuation surpassing RMB 10 billion, making it a new unicorn to emerge during WAIC; the round was jointly participated in by several leading RMB funds, top-tier USD funds, and industrial partners, with over ten cumulative funding rounds to date — Shunwei Capital and TCL Capital have both invested across multiple rounds. The company's flagship product is a biomimetic visual-tactile sensor, now iterated down to under 3 millimeters thick with force resolution of 0.005N, and claims 90% of its core tactile metrics reach human-like levels. What propelled the valuation from single-digit billions to over RMB 10 billion is not revenue but the market's repricing of its role as a "physical AI data gateway" — the company is simultaneously pushing VTLA (Vision-Tactile-Language-Action) and the open-source tactile dataset TouchNet, aiming to control this tactile data spigot. Founder Li Zhiqiang holds a PhD from Carnegie Mellon.Source: Robo百科 source (WeChat, CN)
Beijing Natural Will Technology | Angel Round | Amount Undisclosed · embodied
Natural Will Technology, founded by a Tsinghua PhD advisor, completed an angel round with Ant Group and CATL joining Sequoia China, Cathay Capital, Fountainvest, and Huakong Dianke; disclosures indicate the company secured three funding rounds within six months of registration, continuing the industrial-capital playbook of "binding to a core team, betting heavily and early."Source: 具身涌现 source (WeChat, CN)
Rushen Robotics | Pre-A Round | RMB Hundreds of Millions · embodied
Rushen Robotics, focused on embodied elder-care services, completed a Pre-A round in the RMB hundreds of millions (closed in late April), as an alumnus company of Miracle Plus's 2023 spring cohort; elder care is an embodied AI use case with clear demand but extremely high requirements for safety and compliant manipulation.Source: Miracle Plus source (WeChat, CN)
Zhuizhi Gongke | Seed Round | RMB Tens of Millions · industrial
Zhuizhi Gongke completed a seed round of RMB tens of millions, applying industrial agents to reshape materials processing so robots can learn "feel" in processes such as polishing; industrial robotics funding has been relatively cold over the past two years, so a seed round targeting a specific niche process signals industrial-side bets on "embodied AI entering the factory."Source: RecodeX source (WeChat, CN)
UBTECH | Hong Kong Share Placement | HKD 436 Million · humanoid
UBTECH plans another share placement of approximately HKD 436 million, its second such placement in under a year since its Hong Kong listing, to fund ammunition for mass production and delivery of humanoid robots — the company had previously disclosed that orders for its Walker S and U-series robots already exceed ten thousand units, straining cash consumption in tandem with capacity ramp-up.Source: Futu Niuniu source
III. Commercialization and Deployment
Zhiyuan Robotics' "Year One of Deployment": Five New Products + 60 Robots On Duty for Venue Services · humanoid
Under the theme "Year One of Deployment," Zhiyuan Robotics (Chinese humanoid robot maker) released five new products built around its "Three Intelligences in One" architecture, and deployed roughly 60 robots at the WAIC venue to handle public services such as guided tours and duty stations; its Yuanzheng A3 Ultra was named one of the conference's "Ten Treasures of the Venue," the only humanoid robot selected, and Thailand's prime minister also visited the booth. Zhiyuan is pushing toward being "deployable, replicable, and scalable," though 60 units still represents exhibition-scenario operation, and the pace toward large-scale commercial deployment awaits confirmation from actual orders.Source: 智元朋友圈 source (WeChat, CN)
JAKA (Dobot) × Tencent: Physical AI's "Shenzhen Solution" Runs End-to-End on a Real Production Line · industrial
Dobot Robotics and Tencent deployed a full-stack embodied AI solution on a real production line, demonstrating end-to-end operation from perception, decision-making to execution, packaged as a replicable Physical AI "Shenzhen Solution." Compared with booth demos, running the full chain at production-line scale is closer to actually "working in the factory," and represents one data point in this year's WAIC narrative shift "from performative demos to actual work."Source: Sina Mobile source
WeRide: Driverless Robotaxis Cover Three Emirates in the UAE, Selected as National-Level Overseas Expansion Case · autonomy
WeRide's fully driverless robotaxi service has expanded to cover three emirates in the UAE, and was named the only autonomous-driving company among WAIC's ten flagship cases, listed as a national-level model for AI's global expansion. The Middle East remains the largest-scale destination for Chinese robotaxi companies' overseas expansion, and the broadening of real overseas operating range carries more weight than opening a single new city.Source: Stock Titan source
Mech-Mind: 27,000 Embodied AI Deployments, Emphasizing "One Brain, Many Forms" Generality · industrial
Mech-Mind Robotics disclosed at WAIC roughly 27,000 cumulative embodied AI deployments, emphasizing a single general-purpose intelligence system that adapts to multiple robot bodies, including robotic arms and composite robots, so robots are no longer tied to a single task or object. Shipment volume in industrial manipulation is currently one of the few deployment metrics that can be backed by hard numbers.Source: 甲子光年 source (WeChat, CN)
JD.com × Zhiyuan Robotics' Genie G2 Max: Package Pickup, 24-Hour Hauling (Previously Reported) · industrial
The deployment of the JD Logistics × Zhiyuan Robotics Genie G2 Max at JD's "smart wolf warehouse" was previously reported; today's coverage adds demonstration details such as "first-ever package pickup" and "24-hour continuous hauling," with no new milestones.Source: 驱动之家 source
IV. Industry Developments
RoboScience's Cloud-Based Embodied Foundation Model Visics: Live 30-Second Hand Swap, One Brain Controlling 10+ Dexterous Hands · world-model
Making its first WAIC appearance, RoboScience (Chinese embodied AI startup) used a single "brain" — Visics — to drive over 10 dexterous hand models from different brands on stage, completing detachment, swapping, and regrasping in just 30 seconds, with no need for recollecting data or on-site training, which the company calls the industry's first "one brain, multiple hands, plug-and-play" system. Its VLOA architecture treats "how an object should be manipulated" (Object Trajectory, the continuous 3D point-cloud trajectory of an object) as a new token: an upper-level world model previews the object's trajectory, while a lower-level manipulation model translates it into actions for the current robot body, enabling reuse across different robot bodies, objects, and tasks. Visics is also delivered as pure software deployed to the cloud, which the company claims is the world's first cloud-deployable embodied foundation model (EaaS). It reportedly maintains a multi-SKU grasping success rate stable above 99% and has piloted with several retail and logistics companies. Both the hand-swap challenge and success rate figures come from live demonstration and vendor disclosure; scaled stability still awaits third-party verification.⚠️ Demonstration figuresSource: 机器之心 source (WeChat, CN)
Shanghai's State-Industry Co-Built Humanoid Robot Pilot Production Platform Launches, Annual Capacity of 2,000 Full Units · industrial
Led by the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, and jointly built by the National-Local Joint Humanoid Robot Innovation Center and Shanghai Electric, the Shanghai Humanoid Robot Pilot Production Service Platform has officially launched. Located in Pudong's Robot Valley, with a floor area of roughly 6,800 square meters, it houses two flexible full-unit pilot production lines with an annual capacity of 2,000 full units, plus capacity for 2,000 sets of joint/dexterous-hand core modules per year. The testing area includes equipment such as the industry's first comprehensive dexterous-hand test bench, covering 400+ verification items. The platform lowers the tens-of-millions-RMB barrier to pilot production for small and mid-sized teams through a shared public model, establishing unified assembly and inspection standards, directly addressing the gap between "hard-to-productionize prototypes" and "unstable mass production." Over ten companies have already signed on, including Zhuoyide (pilot production of thousands of units of its fully biomimetic robot Moya) and Zhenghe Industrial. This is government-and-industry-led infrastructure, not a single vendor's figures, and points to a common bottleneck in the "last mile" of mass production.Source: 人形机器人世界 source (WeChat, CN)
The "World Model" Concept Proliferates; Academia and Vendors Collectively "Set the Record Straight" at WAIC · world-model
"World model" became this WAIC's most frequently used — and loosest — label: teams doing video generation, 3D reconstruction, and robot simulation are all attaching the term to their own models, with multiple parties pointing out it is becoming a new catch-all buzzword following "metaverse" and "large models." Yao Maoqing, a partner at Zhiyuan Robotics, argued at the main forum that the essence of a world model is "accurately predicting the next state of the physical world," requiring multimodal fusion and causal understanding, framing it as moving "from virtual generation to physical truth-seeking"; Shen Yujun, chief scientist at Ant Group's Lingbo, and Huang Tiejun of the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence, among others, drew the line by distinguishing world models from VLA's "statistical fitting," arguing they must genuinely understand physical laws. For industry readers, the key distinction is: being able to generate coherent visuals ≠ being able to reason about physical consequences — the latter is what embodied AI deployment actually needs.Source: 老冯云数 source (WeChat, CN)
Tencent Rounds Out Its Full Embodied AI Stack at WAIC: Three Hunyuan Foundation Models + Tairos Agents + ADP 4.0 Goes Overseas · embodied
Tencent released multiple embodied foundation models in one go (the Hy-Embodied series' "left brain, right brain") along with agents Apexio and TairosAgent, integrating perception, decision-making, and action into a continuous closed loop, and upgraded its full-stack embodied AI solution to ADP 4.0, launching an overseas version and a full upgrade of its "Tailuo" platform; the company said related AI call volume surged 68-fold year over year. Previously keeping a relatively low profile, Tencent used WAIC to round out its full-line capabilities across robotics, office productivity, and overseas expansion in one move, formally joining the competition for embodied foundation models.⚠️ Vendor figuresSource: Sina Finance source
Galbot (Chinese embodied AI startup) Releases WAM-TTT: Compressing Post-Training Cost from Teleoperation Down to "Phone-Recorded Video" · world-model
Galbot released at WAIC WAM-TTT, a test-time training framework for its World-Action Model, positioned as a key module for scaling deployment of its "Xingnao" system. The company claims it addresses the pain point of "generalization decaying whenever the environment changes upon deployment," compressing the data needed for post-training from real-robot teleoperation-level down to ordinary video-recording level. The WAM approach (fusing world models with VLA) was previously debuted jointly with Peking University at ICCV and is seen as one direction for next-generation embodied AI; the actual generalization gains remain vendor-demonstrated disclosures.Source: NetEase Mobile source
Joyson Electronics Releases Production-Grade "Brain-Hand-Capability" Full Stack, Debuts Dexterous Hand · hardware
Joyson Electronics, a leading auto-parts manufacturer, debuted at WAIC a production-grade "brain-hand-capability" full-stack solution along with a proprietary dexterous hand and semi-solid-state battery, stating that its robot controllers are already in mass-production supply; this kind of Tier 1 supplier bringing automotive-grade manufacturing and mass-production experience into embodied hardware is one of the main threads on the supply-chain side at this year's event.Source: Sina Finance source
Goldman Sachs: Humanoid Robots Becoming the "Next Monetization Frontier," Issues Buy Ratings on 5 Names · adjacent
A Goldman Sachs research report judges that the AI investment narrative is shifting from infrastructure to the application layer, stating directly that humanoid robots are becoming "the next clearest monetization frontier," and issuing buy ratings on 5 names; however, it also projects that widespread commercial deployment will not arrive until 2027–2029.⚠️ Institutional viewSource: 云知观点 source (WeChat, CN)
Hardware · Supply Chain
· AGLINK: Cumulative deliveries of its dexterous hand series exceed 8,000 units, ranking first in the global dexterous-hand market in Q1 2026; debuted its flagship Ultra-M at WAIC source (WeChat, CN)
· STMicroelectronics: Promoting highly integrated chips to lower humanoid robot costs, while targeting the South Korean supply chain source
· AgiBot Dexterous Hand × Shanghai Electric: Released industrial-grade five-finger dexterous hand DexHand021 Pro at WAIC, and established a joint venture with registered capital exceeding RMB 100 million (Series A previously reported) source
Top comments (0)