On the vast, seemingly endless Gobi Desert, a group of entrepreneurs were resolutely "challenging themselves." In the procession, two "robot dogs" were particularly eye-catching; despite the complex and rugged terrain, they carried heavy loads steadily and kept up with the group without falling behind. These two robot dogs, named "Wukong" and "Xingzhe," are quadruped robots independently developed by Shandong YouBote Intelligent Robot Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "YouBote"), and they were the first service robots introduced since the inception of the "Entrepreneurial Gobi Trek on Xuanzang's Route." During the event, they undertook functions such as guiding, transporting, and patrolling, allowing participants to directly experience the convenience brought by high technology. Among the many participants, one stood out as slightly special—Fan Yong, the founder of YouBote. During this Gobi trek, Fan Yong, as a representative trainee from the Legend Star Entrepreneur CEO Training Camp, completed the entire journey with the Legend Star "team." "Over these few days, we not only demonstrated YouBote's technical strength to the outside world but also deepened the emotional bonds between me and my training camp classmates. The gains have been tremendous!" However, he expressed a slight regret: "We couldn't bring our self-developed humanoid robot 'Xingzhe Taishan' to participate."
Simultaneously, "Xingzhe Taishan" was taking a separate path from Fan Yong, heading to Beijing to participate in the first World Humanoid Robot Olympics. On this larger competitive stage, it faced a challenging 100-meter obstacle course and achieved the only zero-error performance in the entire event, clinching the championship in the 100-meter exhibition race, a third-place finish in the 4x100 meter relay, and several other honors... Whether it's the quadruped robot dogs "Wukong" and "Xingzhe," or the humanoid robot "Xingzhe Taishan," their outstanding athletic performances are underpinned by YouBote's comprehensive breakthroughs in core areas such as bionic mechanism design, joint modules, drive technology, and motion algorithms.
In 2014, Fan Yong, already past the age of 40, made a decision that surprised those around him: he resigned from his position as a senior executive in a state-owned enterprise to establish Shandong YouBote Intelligent Robot Co., Ltd. At that time, Fan Yong had worked at Datang Telecom for over ten years, rising from a grassroots employee to a technical director, enjoying a stable and promising career path. However, an inner passion for and pursuit of robotics technology prompted him to resolutely embark on the uncertain path of entrepreneurship. "I studied automation for my bachelor's degree, and both my master's and doctoral degrees focused on robotics. After working for more than ten years, I felt it was time to do something I truly love," Fan Yong shared. Fan Yong's career shift was not an impulsive decision. In 2014, China had already become the world's largest market for industrial robot sales, but the vast majority of products were imported from abroad, and the density of robot usage lagged behind the world average. Data showed that in terms of the number of robots per 10,000 manufacturing workers, China had only 23, less than one-tenth of Japan's figure. Against the backdrop of the "Made in China 2025" initiative upgrading to "Intelligent Manufacturing in China," robots held vast potential in the industrial manufacturing sector, and local enterprises had significant room for "import substitution."
Consequently, Fan Yong and the founding team, leveraging their accumulated experience in legged robot R&D, chose to enter the market starting with quadruped robots. This was quite forward-thinking at the time but also meant facing the significant challenge of an underdeveloped domestic supply chain. "Many supporting components, such as specific motors, were in short supply on the market, or simply unavailable," Fan Yong admitted. "We often had to start from the basic components, which significantly lengthened our R&D cycle." A year after its establishment, YouBote launched its first product, but market development proved equally challenging. "Early quadruped robots had limited functionality, and their capabilities were significantly inferior to today's products." In response, Fan Yong and his team had to start by educating the market, organizing robot competitions to help potential users understand and accept this emerging product. They worked on market development during the day and conducted research at night. In its early days, YouBote had limited staff, and everyone wore multiple hats. Fan Yong was involved in everything, often handling matters personally. Finally, a university, needing robots for practical training, placed YouBote's first order. Although the amount was small, it was immensely significant for YouBote—it validated the product's market value and gave the team the confidence to persevere.
From then on, YouBote focused on developing more durable and reliable robot bodies as its core objective, continuously refining its technology. At the industry level, with technological advancements and growing market recognition, the application scenarios for quadruped robots gradually expanded from the initial research and education sectors to industrial applications such as inspection, search and rescue, and specialized operations. "Customers were no longer satisfied with just a reliable body; they wanted robots equipped with different sensors, possessing smarter functions like human-computer interaction, autonomous charging, and autonomous cruising," Fan Yong observed. As few companies in the market possessed the capability for secondary development of robots, YouBote began adjusting its strategy. "We shifted from simply providing robot bodies to gradually becoming overall solution providers, to better empower industrial development." This adjustment also meant that YouBote had to overcome more technical challenges. To address this, the company leveraged its early advantages in industry-university-research collaboration, accelerating the commercialization of research成果 to meet industry needs.
According to reports, YouBote's core team hails from prestigious institutions like Shandong University and the Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, all possessing over twenty years of robotics R&D experience. Furthermore, the company has established long-term cooperative relationships with these institutions, achieving accumulation in both talent and technology. "Industry-university-research collaboration can accelerate industrial upgrading and achieve complementary advantages within the industrial chain," Fan Yong stated. He explained that open-source projects from academic institutions could help YouBote lower R&D barriers and speed up technological iteration, while YouBote could provide better robot bodies and hardware resources to the institutions, avoiding redundant R&D and accelerating the update pace of algorithms. "More importantly, industry and academia can collaborate on innovation, jointly promoting standard co-creation and data openness to facilitate industry interoperability." Persistent independent innovation laid the foundation for YouBote's long-term development. To date, YouBote has established three core advantages: first, the capability for full-stack in-house R&D of key components, such as joint modules and robot controllers; second, a complete technical chain for large and small brain coordination algorithms, spanning from perception and decision-making to motion control; and third, a solid R&D team background依托 Shandong University's Robot Center and the Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences. R&D personnel account for over 60% of the company's staff, with 70% of them holding master's degrees or higher, and the average age is 28.
It was precisely these core advantages that gave Fan Yong the confidence to publicly commit to a daunting challenge. In October 2023, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued the "Guiding Opinions on the Innovative Development of Humanoid Robots," which直接从政策层面确立 the future strategic foundational industry status of humanoid robots and outlined a clear technical roadmap and industrialization blueprint. Subsequently, policies followed suit across the country, with the humanoid robot industry rapidly becoming a focal point for development, especially in first-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hangzhou. In early 2024, the Shandong Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology convened a symposium on the high-quality development of the humanoid robot industry. At that time, there were several robot companies in Shandong province, but none had developed a humanoid robot. In response, Fan Yong made a bold declaration at the symposium: "Having深耕 the field of legged robots for 10 years, we can develop a humanoid robot within two months." Subsequently, YouBote initiated the "Xingzhe Taishan" humanoid robot project on New Year's Day 2024. Structural drawings were finalized for processing on January 9, hardware architecture modification was completed on January 15, modeling and simulation were finished on January 23, unit assembly was completed on January 29, and "Xingzhe Taishan" achieved walking on February 18. The entire process took only 48 days, setting a record for the fastest development speed of a humanoid robot in the industry. Reportedly, "Xingzhe Taishan" stands 170cm tall, weighs 43kg, can perform various actions like walking, marching in place, running, raising hands, swinging arms, and turning, and can run stably at a speed of 7.2 km/h, reaching a domestically leading level with high flexibility and stable motion capability. "At the underlying technology level, humanoid robots and legged robots share common ground," Fan Yong said proudly. "Technologies like joint motors, controllers, software architecture, and algorithms were directly移植 from our quadruped robot technology."
Fan Yong revealed that "Xingzhe Taishan" has now been upgraded to the second generation, integrating technologies like active vision and multimodal large models, and has achieved small-scale trial production. Humanoid robots integrate cutting-edge technologies from multiple fields and肩负 the mission of replacing humans in high-risk, repetitive, and high-intensity labor. They also represent a crucial breakthrough in addressing global labor shortages due to population aging, promoting the "flexible intelligence" upgrade of manufacturing, and重构 household and public service scenarios. The MIIT stated that during the "16th Five-Year Plan" period, it will open up new tracks like humanoid robots and create a number of future industry pilot zones. From an industry perspective, humanoid robots primarily consist of the "brain," "cerebellum," and "body." Among these: The "brain" is responsible for task-level capabilities such as environmental perception, behavior control, and human-computer interaction. Currently, this is mainly based on large AI model technology, and cloud-edge collaboration can also be used to enhance the robot's intelligence level. The "cerebellum" controls the motion of the humanoid robot, primarily based on technologies like artificial intelligence, automatic control, and robot operating systems to achieve motion control in complex environments. The "body" is responsible for achieving high-dynamic, high-power, and high-precision movements. It integrates numerous technologies including human body movement kinetics, mechanical structure design, new materials, and sensors, encompassing key structures like humanoid mechanical arms, dexterous hands, and legs/feet. By integrating sensors and long-endurance power units, it achieves energy-structure-perception integration. In terms of the cerebellum and body, YouBote is already at an industry-leading level. Its current R&D efforts are倾斜 towards the brain, specifically implemented through a "three-step" strategy: First, in the initial stage, YouBote integrates existing large models, such as Qwen and DeepSeek, combined with reinforcement learning interfaces, to achieve basic "brain-cerebellum coordination" and accomplish simple human-computer interaction tasks. "This is the method we used to quickly develop a prototype," Fan Yong said. "It allowed us to validate technical feasibility in a short time." Second, at the current stage, YouBote is deploying a modular Vision-Language-Action (VLA) model solution. Based on pre-trained Vision-Language Models (VLM), expert models like position estimators, trajectory planners, and visual planners are deployed at the next layer. Through training with small amounts of data, this compensates for the execution deficiencies of large models. "This can form a cost-effective path for brain-cerebellum coordination," Fan Yong explained, noting that this method ensures intelligence while improving the accuracy and reliability of action execution. Third, in the current and future stages, YouBote will focus on developing an end-to-end integrated Vision-Language-Action (VLA) large model. This model融合 frame-level data, video data, teleoperation data, etc., enabling end-to-end intelligent closed loops for video understanding, teleoperation, and fine manipulation. "It requires massive data accumulation and algorithm innovation and is our long-term goal," Fan Yong added.
Driven by both policy support and technological breakthroughs, humanoid robots are entering the public eye with unprecedented热度. However, regarding their commercial prospects, Fan Yong maintains a more rational perspective. "The cost of humanoid robots is significantly higher than that of quadruped robots, reflected in aspects like degrees of freedom and the number of joints," he explained. "Humanoid robots typically have over 20 joints, while quadruped robots generally have only 12 joints, all contributing to increased costs." Technological maturity is another major challenge. "Especially in terms of stability and fine manipulation, they haven't yet reached the desired level," Fan Yong further elaborated. Humanoid robots need to handle more complex balance issues and finer motion control, technical challenges that are not fully resolved. "Therefore, commercial adoption won't happen that quickly." He predicts that humanoid robots might first find applications in specific domains, honing their technology through practical use before gradually expanding to broader scenarios. Based on this assessment, YouBote has formulated a product strategy combining pragmatism and foresight: building upon the existing industry applications of its quadruped robots, it will continue to expand into diverse scenarios such as industry, logistics, agriculture, firefighting, cultural tourism, and health care, promoting the deep integration of robot technology with the real economy. Simultaneously, it will continue to invest in R&D for humanoid robots and plan for independent production capacity, expecting greater returns in the future.
Regarding the future form of humanoid robots, Fan Yong believes the industry will see a trend towards customization for different scenarios. "A completely general-purpose robot is very difficult; it needs to be both strong enough to lift heavy objects and dexterous enough for fine work. This is challenging even for humans, let alone robots." However, he believes that as related technologies mature, standardized robot platforms similar to Windows or Android will likely emerge within the industry. "This will most likely happen among B2B enterprises, where leading companies form alliances with partners to协调 standards in this way." Given that humanoid robot development is still in its early stages with significant differences in technical routes among companies, he estimates this integration process might take over five years. "This赛道 has just begun; we still have a long way to go." In Fan Yong's view, the development of the humanoid robot industry will be a gradual process requiring the joint promotion of technology, talent, market, policy, capital, and other factors. "We need both patience and confidence."
In December 2025, YouBote announced the completion of a nearly 100 million yuan Series A funding round, formally entering a new stage of scaled development. It is reported that this round of financing will be主要用于 technology and industry aspects: first, to build a complete "brain-cerebellum coordination" embodied intelligence architecture, advancing system-level optimization of hardware and software, and creating a full-link technology closed loop from self-developed joint actuators and high-computing-power embedded platforms to perception-decision-control; second, facing the mass production demands brought by储备 of orders worth hundreds of millions of yuan, the focus will be on promoting production line construction, strengthening independent production capacity, improving cost control systems, and enhancing product delivery capabilities to guarantee scaled commercial落地. In the development process of YouBote, social capital played a crucial助推 role. Among them, Legend Star, as YouBote's first市场化 investor, not only provided financial support but also offered a series of assistance in post-investment management. In June 2024, YouBote participated in the first Humanoid Robot Conference with its humanoid robot "Xingzhe Taishan" and the quadruped robot "Y30," where it "encountered" Legend Star. Subsequently, from due diligence to making the investment decision, Legend Star took only a little over two months. "As one of the earliest domestic companies in legged robot R&D, YouBote possesses very领先 technical accumulation and market applications in the quadruped robot field," said Wang Mingyao, President and Managing Partner of Legend Star. He believes that quadruped and humanoid robots share strong technical relevance, and YouBote can移植 this advantage into the humanoid robot field, allowing it to better participate in early-stage industry competition. Meanwhile, as the company expands its布局 from Shandong to nationwide, its development scale is expected to see further breakthroughs. When discussing the empowerment provided by Legend Star, Fan Yong described it as "professional, efficient, and贴心." In his view, Legend Star not only provided financial support but also offered all-around assistance in corporate governance, strategic planning, and resource对接. Beyond that, the learning experience from the Legend Star Entrepreneur CEO Training Camp provided him personally with a series of entrepreneurial "soft skills." Fan Yong admitted that he had rarely participated in customized professional training for CEOs before and had not specifically studied corporate governance topics like corporate culture and team motivation. "When I signed up, my main goal was to learn about business management and understand the qualities a CEO needs to possess." After attending the training, Fan Yong found that the course content was all derived from real cases, many of which involved challenges he had encountered while running his own company. "Through the teachers' analysis and discussions with classmates, I gained many management insights and learned how to approach solving many problems." The exchanges among classmates also brought Fan Yong "unexpected收获." In his class, entrepreneurs with a hard tech background accounted for over 70%, including companies from related robot industry chains like power supplies and drivers. This cross-industry exchange碰撞 provided YouBote with new resources and offered fresh ideas for its product innovation.
Having been an entrepreneur for over ten years, Fan Yong has profound reflections on this journey. "The biggest challenge lies in one's comprehensive personal ability and resilience," he shared. Recalling a recent "darkest moment," he described how, to participate in the world's first Humanoid Robot Olympics, YouBote commissioned an upstream partner to process a batch of humanoid robot prototypes. However, due to certain reasons, the prototypes could not be delivered as agreed, seriously risking disruption of the conference schedule. "We had prepared for so long beforehand. If we missed the competition due to加工 and delivery issues, that would truly be the darkest moment of my life." To Fan Yong's relief, the team urgently formulated a contingency plan. Through intense overtime work, they finally managed to debug the prototypes just before the competition. "Even at the competition venue, our engineers were still adjusting the machine's algorithms." On the day of the event, YouBote's "Xingzhe Taishan" unexpectedly fell during the 1500-meter race. Subsequently, it continued running to the finish line with a broken arm, a scene that moved countless viewers online, and the nickname "Iron-Willed Robot" instantly went viral. In that moment, Fan Yong seemed to see his own entrepreneurial life reflected—"Even if you fall, even if you break an arm, you have to get up and keep rushing towards the finish line!"
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