UBTECH, a Chinese humanoid robotics company, unveiled its latest full-sized commercial robot, Walker C, and panda-themed robot, Youyou, at BEYOND Expo 2025 in Macau, a global tech innovation event held from May 21 to 24.
In a playful twist, Walker C and Youyou opened the event with a “reverse cosplay” performance, impersonating BEYOND Expo co-founders Jason Ho and Dr. Gang Lu. The two co-founders spoke backstage, while the robots waved and turned their heads on stage.
For the first time, BEYOND Expo hosted an AI Summit showcasing China’s cutting-edge AI ecosystem. During a roundtable titled, “The Rise of Humanoid Robots: From Science Fiction to Reality”, UBTECH Chief Brand Officer Tan Min shared opinions on the company’s path toward the real-world deployment of humanoid robots.
Tan brought up the importance of embodied intelligence in advancing the field, while he acknowledged that current applications remained at an early stage. Until artificial general intelligence matures, humanoid robots are best suited to structured environments such as smart manufacturing, which has become a focal point of global tech competition, he said.
To accelerate real-world adoption, UBTECH is combining simulation-based training with real-world data collection through practical deployment, said Tan. Its Walker S series has completed initial training in auto factories, making progress in software and algorithm stability for industrial scenarios.
In March, UBTECH announced a milestone by deploying dozens of Walker S1 robots in the world’s first multi-robot, multi-task collaborative training session. Using swarm intelligence, the robots worked in harmony across complex settings such as final assembly lines, SPS (the German term for Programmable Logic Controller) instrument zones, quality inspection areas, and door installation stations, according to the company.
