How does Shenzhen's 'Robot Valley' achieve its innovation speed?｜Vibrant Guangdong

Recently, a humanoid robot marathon in Beijing captured widespread attention. The champion was "Tiangong Ultra," jointly developed by Shenzhen's UBTECH Robotics and the Beijing Innovation Center of Humanoid Robotics, and the "heaviest" entrant of 55 kg from Leju Robotics in Shenzhen, also finished the race steadily.

Both UBTECH and Leju Robotics are native Shenzhen companies. They are headquartered in an area known as "Robot Valley", which spans from Xili Lake International Science and Education City through the Liuxiandong Headquarters Base to Nanshan Zhiyuan (Intelligent Park). There, over 30 robotics enterprises cluster together, including EngineAI, Pudu Robotics, UBTECH, PaXiniTech, and others. With fields ranging from humanoid robotics and LiDAR to tactile sensors and industrial robotic arms, this valley truly resembles a real-life "Transformers Metrobase."

Why do so many robotics companies flock to Shenzhen? The secret lies in its industry-academia-research collaboration. Taking PaXiniTech as an example, its multi-dimensional tactile sensors, capable of sensing pressures as light as 0.1 grams, are tested next door in the biomimetic robotics laboratory of the Southern University of Science and Technology and then immediately supplied to UBTECH just a street away. This collaborative rhythm of "develop in the morning, test in the afternoon, and iterate in the evening" propels innovation at rocket speed.

Such progress is undoubtedly closely linked to robust policy support. Shenzhen has outlined plans to cultivate over 1,200 companies in the embodied AI robotics cluster by 2027, with related industries reaching a scale of more than 100 billion yuan. Nanshan District, where the "Robot Valley" is located, has even pledged to "drive entrepreneurial costs down to zero", supporting companies in talent recruitment, space provision, funding, and more, so that startup costs are virtually nil. In addition, Shenzhen Capital Group (SCGC) has also been involved. By the end of last year, it had invested in 48 robotics projects, with a total investment of 1.43 billionyuan, 410 millionyuan of which (nearly 30%) went to Shenzhen. With the combined force of policies and capital, upstream and downstream players in the industry chain have formed a "strategic alliance," emboldening enterprises to explore "uncharted territory" and accelerating the journey of robots from labs to real-world marathons.

Source: Lingnan on the Cloud

“机器人谷”的深圳速度是怎样炼成的？

最近，北京的一场人形机器人马拉松火了。冠军出自深圳优必选联合北京人形机器人创新中心研制的“天工Ultra”，55公斤的“最重量级”选手深圳乐聚机器人也稳稳完赛。

优必选和乐聚，都是土生土长的深圳公司。它们都坐落在一个人称“机器人谷”的地方，这块谷地从西丽湖国际科教城、留仙洞总部基地、南山智园，聚集了众擎、普渡、优必选、帕西尼等30多家机器人企业，从人形机器人到激光雷达，从触觉传感器到工业机械臂，堪称现实版的变形金刚基地。

为什么机器人企业都爱扎堆深圳？秘密就藏在“产学研”三个字里。就拿帕西尼科技来说，能感知0.1克压力的多维触觉传感器就在隔壁的南方科技大学仿生实验室进行测试，然后直接供应给一街之隔的优必选。这种“上午研发、下午测试、晚上迭代”的协同节奏，让创新像坐火箭一样快。

当然，这样的局面离不开政策的鼎力支持。深圳明确提出，到2027年，要培育具身智能机器人产业集群相关企业超过1200家，关联产业规模达到1000亿元以上。“机器人谷”所在的南山区更是提出“成本归零”，从人才引入、空间供给、资金等方面予以支持，将企业创业成本压缩至趋近于零。深创投集团也来了，截至去年底，累计投资机器人产业链项目48个，总投资额达到14.3亿元，其中在深圳投资达4.1亿元，占比近30%。有了政策和资本“双保险”，产业链上下游企业形成“共生联盟”，企业自然敢闯“无人区”，让更多的机器人从实验室走向真实的马拉松赛道。

文案｜李妹妍

译｜柯妃娟

英文审校｜林佳岱