I Found the Largest 'Underground Organization' in the Robotics Circle, Right at HIT
我找到了机器人圈最大的“地下组织部”，就在哈工大！
The article reveals Harbin Institute of Technology's (HIT) profound impact on the robotics industry, showcasing the dense industrial network formed by its alumni and faculty entrepreneurs. HIT-affiliated companies span multiple critical segments of the robotics supply chain, from perception layer to actuation and application. The article also analyzes HIT's unique advantages in talent cultivation, industry-academia-research integration, and cross-university collaboration, as well as its central role in embodied intelligence and the robotics industry.
This article provides an in-depth analysis of how Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) has cultivated a dense network of robotics companies across multiple layers of the industry, from perception to actuation and application. It highlights the university's long-standing role in robotics research and its influence on the broader robotics ecosystem through alumni and faculty entrepreneurship.
Source: RoboSpeak — WeChat · Read original article ↗
Article text · Machine translation into English
“
Robot circle? Harbin Institute of Technology's network!
Among robot investors, there is a circulated Excel sheet. The column names are simple, such as company, founder, graduate school, mentor, etc.
Following
Harbin Institute of Technology
Drag down that column, and you will drag out a list of key milestones in China's robotics industry. Leju, Stande, Woa'an, Suteng Jichuang, Liqun Automation, Faoyiwei, Junduo, Siling, Aifut... The table keeps getting longer, and the person who finally fills it out will stop and ask: is this list an alumni directory, or a map of the industry?
The answer is the latter. And this isn't just an ordinary map, it
has
layers
with annotations
.（
Robotics Hall of Fame compiled an incomplete statistics based on this, the list is attached at the end of the article)
Looking upstream, Suteng Jichuang makes LiDAR, and it was the first IPO on the Hong Kong stock market in 2024; Zerocha Yunkong makes joint modules, Junduo makes end-effectors and dexterous hands.
Looking at the whole machine, Leju makes humanoid robots, Stande makes industrial mobile robots, Liqun makes lightweight industrial arms, Woa'an makes home embodied robots. Looking at the brain, Ruyu Technology makes embodied intelligent large models, Juzhi Intelligence makes embodied operating systems, and Poxiao Intelligence makes tactile world models.
Looking at the scenarios, Sizhe Rui makes surgical robots, Boshis Co. makes industrial automation, Xuanchuang makes special scenarios.
It is hard to find a second university in China that can
have a company that is seriously considered by the capital market at every layer of the robotics industry chain.
01.
A university and a forty-year industry
The connection between Harbin Institute of Technology and robotics goes back much further than this round of embodied intelligence wave.
In the 80s of the previous century, China’s first arc-welding robot was developed at Harbin Institute of Technology. Its robotics institute was also among the earliest university institutions in China to conduct systematic robotics research.
Over the next forty years, Qi the root system of robotics has kept extending From industrial robots to space robots, from the “863” program to major national defense missions, Harbin Institute of Technology has accumulated extremely profound technical reserves in national major projects, and has long played the role of China's robot “national team,” and is therefore referred to by the industry as the “eldest son of Chinese robots” and “China Machine Person Yellow Pujun School.
When the embodied intelligence boom erupted in 2023, these technological reserves had already completed the laboratory validation phase. Compared to contestants who hastily formed teams to chase trends, Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) is far ahead by more than a step.
More interesting than history is HIT's talent cultivation mechanism. It is said that robot competitions have been a long-standing campus culture at HIT. Every few years, a batch of representative figures and companies emerge from here.
From the competition field to the workshop, from the laboratory to the production line, this channel has never been interrupted for decades.
More importantly, engineers trained at HIT possess a unique demeanor.
They don't chase trends, but when the trend arrives, they are precisely where it is.
Yu Wei has been deeply involved in Efft for nearly two decades before the boom period of industrial robots arrived; Jie Dangyang has continuously invested in the direction of dexterous hands, until the humanoid robot industry truly needed the 'last millimeter' end-effectors; Zhu Xiaorui has bet on the solid-state laser radar route for many years, which was initially considered by the industry to have high barriers and long cycles, yet ultimately allowed SuTeng JiuChuang to achieve cumulative sales of 1,314,800 units in the first three quarters of this year, exceeding the annual sales target for 2025 and setting a new quarterly record.
This
Digging deep, accumulating grain widely
The patience, perhaps, is precisely the fundamental reason why the Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) entrepreneurial team can form a systematic advantage in the robot competition track.
Another hidden thread is
one university with three campuses
. The three campuses in Harbin, Weihai, and Shenzhen are spreading this talent network across the country: the Shenzhen campus has produced Shunteng Juchuang and Ruoyu Technology; the Weihai campus has co-built an innovation development base with Qingdao, with 23 research teams from the three campuses having joined, and conducting over 70 collaborations with more than 50 local enterprises. The university's research supply, local industrial policies, and capital's city preference have formed a closed loop on this network.
In the current fervent development of embodied intelligence and the robot track, this old northeastern engineering university, with its forty years of accumulation, has finally solidified into the densest circle of years in China's robot industry, and built a complex network of personal connections.
02.
Alumni line: from engineering geeks to hard tech leaders
In 2009, a candidate from Heilongjiang Helong saw the HIT robot team win the championship at the Asia-Pacific University Robotics Competition on TV and immediately changed his college major. Later, he not only entered HIT but also became the captain of the competitive robotics team, winning the only special award in the Chinese regional competition.
Later, he started with four HIT classmates from a derelict factory in Shenzhen, making
Stanley Robotics
which is now submitting an IPO application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. This person is Wang Yongkun.
His path is almost the standard template for HIT entrepreneurial entrepreneurs—being ignited by a competition, finding partners in the competition, and starting a business with his teammates.
Leng Xiaokun
's story is the same. In 2012 Spring Festival Gala, the HIT robot team danced for a minute and a half, and Leng Xiaokun was part of that team. Four years later, he founded Leju.
Leju has now completed the acceptance review of its IPO guidance. Its actual controllers are 3 Harbin Institute of Technology classmates, Leng Xiaokun, Chang Lin and An Ziwei, and the 3 together control 33.72% of the company’s shares. Its Pre-IPO round raised nearly 1.5 billion yuan, with investors ranging from Shenzhen Investment Holdings Capital to Tuopu Group.
Wuo'an Robotics Li Zhichen
The story goes even earlier. At 16, he was admitted to Harbin Institute of Technology's Electronic Information Engineering major. He met Pan Yang, a classmate, during a robot competition. The two, being the only undergraduate team, won the national first prize on their first trip south to Shenzhen. Years later, they returned to Shenzhen to found Wu'an. In December 2025, the company went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, becoming the first 'AI embodied family robot' company to list, with a market value that once exceeded 18,000,000,000 Hong Kong dollars.
Harbin Institute of Technology's strong engineering foundation, combined with 'strict specifications'
Grades, effort
The school motto of 'home' has shaped a large number of technical geeks with extremely strong engineering implementation capabilities.
While these alumni, together with their classmates, constitute
the foundation of the founding team
. Leju has 3 founding partners, Standard Robots has a team of 5, and Woan has 2 founders…
The hardest step in starting a business has never been technology, it's
finding people you can trust enough to hand over equity to
. Many listed companies have faced equity disputes, often related to this.
The robot competition at Harbin Institute of Technology is equivalent to pre-selecting students for this ten years ahead.
Those who have worked together on servos, stayed up all night, and blown up boards are the partners who have passed the stress test.
This is also why the companies affiliated with Harbin Institute of Technology have an unusually high “Harbin Institute of Technology rate.” The partners are those who fought together during their university days.
Except for classmates, “Advisor + Student Creation of the 'Life' character Business model played a decisive role in the development of RoboSense. The company, now with a market capitalization exceeding 10 billion and described as the “first Hong Kong-listed lidar company”, was founded by Qiu Chunxin, a doctoral student at Harbin Institute of Technology’s Shenzhen Graduate School. Behind him were his supervisor Zhu Xiaorui, a former professor at Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen) and former chief scientist at DJI, and fellow junior researcher Liu Letian.
The rise of Speedtong Juchuang not only marks China's breakthrough in core sensor technology, but also validates the tremendous potential of the Harbin Institute of Technology's industry-academia-research integration model.
A younger generation is now taking over the baton.
Post-00s
Qin Shentao, graduated with a bachelor's degree from the School of Mechatronics Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, once led the team to win all robot competition championships, founded in 2025 Yuan Che Taichu (OriginFlow), reportedly raised over 500000000 yuan in funding within several months of operation. Born in 2004 Huang Yi, built a bipedal robot with a cost of less than 20000 yuan in his dormitory during his first year of university, graduated early in 2025 and founded Luobo Party, securing financing on the order of 10 million US dollars from Matrix Partners and Xiaomi’s strategic investment arm.
It can be said that, in the robot industry, the HIT alumni have already achieved a complete team of
old, middle-aged, and young generations
successive entrepreneurship.
the complete hierarchy.
In addition, Yu Wei of Efte is a bachelor's, master's, and doctoral graduate from the School of Mechatronics Engineering at HIT, who earlier participated in the joint development of a spot welding robot project between HIT and Qiche, and now leads this industrial robot listed company.
Yu Wei from Evt is a graduate of the School of Mechanical Engineering at Harbin Institute of Technology, with a bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree. He participated in the joint development of a spot welding robot project between Harbin Institute of Technology and Qiche in his early career, and now leads this industrial robot listed company.
comprehensively entering the robot industry in various forms.
Comprehensively involved in the robotics industry in various forms.
Jianda Robot's Jie Dangyang PhD, who studied under Professor Liu Hong, graduated from the HIT-DLR (German Aerospace Center) joint laboratory, and focuses on robotic dexterous hands and end-effectors, which are recognized as technical bottlenecks in the industry.
In correspondence with him is
Ji Dangyang, the doctor, studied under Professor Liu Hong, and came from the joint laboratory of Harbin Institute of Technology and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). He focuses on the field of dexterous hands and end-effectors, which is recognized as a technical bottleneck in the industry.
In correspondence with him is
Siling Robotics, the founder Chen Zhaopeng also comes from the joint training system of Harbin Institute of Technology and DLR. He once served as the deputy director of the laboratory at the German Aerospace Center. Siling Robotics, supported by SoftBank Vision Fund, has achieved a post-investment valuation exceeding 1000000000 USD. Two DLR-background doctoral graduates from Harbin Institute of Technology have formed technical barriers in two sub-sectors: dexterous hands and force-controlled robotics.
In special hazardous operations such as special hazardous chemical scenarios, the Harbin Institute of Technology system is also deeply rooted.
Professor line: Breakers within the ivory tower
Founder Fu Zhe has an educational background from Harbin Institute of Technology, University of Birmingham, University of Sheffield, and Imperial College London. The company has been deeply involved in oil and gas, chemical industries, and other special hazardous scenarios, and has secured over 100 units of orders within the China National Petroleum Corporation system.
03.
Professor line: Breakers within the ivory tower
The professors from Harbin Institute of Technology are the pioneers in this wave of entrepreneurship. They directly apply their long-term research accumulations from universities into industrial transformation, driving China's robotics industry from 'follow-up innovation' toward 'original breakthroughs'.
The JiZhi Intelligent, founded by Professor Li Zhijun from the School of Computing at Harbin Institute of Technology, giving robots a 'soul'. Li Zhijun led his team to fully self-research and develop the insightOS general-purpose embodied intelligent operating system, striving to transform robot development from a 'craftsmanship' activity for a few experts into an engineering endeavor accessible to the general public. Embodied intelligence relies on Harbin Institute of Technology's research accumulation, building a complete technical system covering 'underlying system—scenario adaptation—application ecosystem'.
Professor Yang Shuo, a tenured professor at the School of Computer Science at Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), founded Break Dawn Intelligence
(PHANES AI), focusing on tactile perception and world model research. At the age of 98, he became the youngest entrepreneurial professor, being appointed as a tenured professor and doctoral supervisor at the age of 26. The company's TouchWorld tactile world model enables robots not only to 'understand' the world visually, but also to predict and adjust actions through tactile feedback and high-frequency corrections, truly 'touching' the world.
Professor Nie Liqiang, Director of the School of Information Technology at Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), leads Ruiyu Technology,, is another notable example of a startup founded by professors. Established in 2023 and incubated at Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), the company is currently the only embodied-intelligence robot-brain company in which that university holds a publicly named equity stake. Nie Liqiang is chairman, while co-founder and chief scientist Zhang Min is a specially appointed assistant to the president of Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen). Ruoyu Technology completed a Pre-A financing round on the order of 100 million yuan in October 2026. Its self-developed Ruoyu Jiutian robot brain has 13 billion parameters and provides open-world perception and autonomous decision-making capabilities for specialized operations.
Notably, entrepreneurship by professors affiliated with Harbin Institute of Technology has another characteristic, that they
Not only did he take the field himself, but he also formed a generational inheritance of “mentor + student.”
The story of Zhu Xiaorui and Qiu Chunxin has become a legend in the industry. After ShuTeng JiuChuang, Zhu Xiaorui, as an individual investor, has continued to invest in projects such as DaDao ZhiChuang, replicating her experience in nurturing unicorns from a single point into a systematic capability. Looking at Liu Hong's team, Jie Dangyang founded JunDao Robotics, and Chen Zhaopeng founded Siling Robotics. One mentor, two people, one managing hands, one managing arms.
This
Internal technical inheritance and interpersonal trust within the laboratory, which enables entrepreneurs from the Harbin Institute of Technology system to naturally possess cohesion and complementarity when building teams.
There is also a
cross-campus collaboration trigger line
In 2004, Li Zexiang collaborated with the Shenzhen Graduate School of Harbin Institute of Technology to establish a teaching reform class. Later, this class produced Shibin Shi, who is Li Zexiang's student and also a fellow student of Wang Tao. She, together with five classmates, founded this light industrial robot company. Li Zexiang is not a graduate of Har, but the Shenzhen campus of the institute served as the soil for him to experiment with the 'academic entrepreneurship' model.
This reminds us that the network of Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) is never closed off; it intentionally introduces external star nodes, and then lets students carry the energy of these nodes outward.
04.
When networks become industrial chains
The most subtle aspect of companies affiliated with HIT is that the alumni line and the professor line have closed in the capital domain. The list of external investments by Joyu includes Juzhi Intelligent. An alumni company investing in a professor's company is not a coincidence.
Companies affiliated with HIT are forming a nested structure of internal procurement, mutual equity participation, and joint R&D.
This is a
positive cycle from basic research to scene implementation
. The Liuzheng Chuanchuang's LiDAR provides perception solutions for embodied intelligent enterprises. The complete products of Joyu and Stanley accumulate real data in industrial and service scenarios. The tactile models and multimodal large models developed by Baixiao Intelligent and Ruoyu Technology feed back into the intelligence of the complete products. Core component enterprises continue to focus on breakthroughs in areas such as reducers, dexterous hands, and micro-special motors.
This
The upstream and downstream
Even without formal alumni organizations facilitating connections, the commonality of technical language and low trust costs have already formed a kind of
implicit transactional advantage.
This step is crucial. Relationships will dilute as the dinner ends, but equity and BOM tables will not. When alumni relationships begin to solidify through equity structures, supply chain orders, and joint products, the network of the Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) system evolves from a social network into an industrial network.
This is also the essence that distinguishes the HIT system from general alumni circles. Most elite universities' alumni networks are capital networks, for example, the Tsinghua system has a vast alumni fund and investment team. However, the HIT system can bind alumni together through upstream and downstream relationships in the industrial chain, allowing trust to directly convert into production capacity.
An investor once stated bluntly that to look at the internet and AI, you can't avoid Tsinghua, but to look at robotics, aerospace, and high-end manufacturing, HIT is a safe bet that investors are willing to bet on.
Of course, the halo of the HIT system is not a universal pass.
There is still a wide gap between technical capabilities and business capabilities.
Enterprises affiliated with Harbin Institute of Technology are good at achieving technological breakthroughs from 0 to 1, from the dexterous hand's joint module to the world model of tactile perception. These 'hard technologies' precisely match the most scarce capabilities in embodied intelligence today. However, in the scaling process from 1 to 100, building a sales system, managing the supply chain, fine-grained cost control, and compliance in overseas markets—these capabilities are not inherently linked to engineering training.
Some of them have already rang the bell and went public, others are racing towards IPO, and more are quietly positioning themselves in their respective niche markets.
Regardless of whether the outside world notices them, the name of Harbin Institute of Technology has become ubiquitous on the social map of the robotics community.
A northern city with temperatures as low as minus thirty degrees is continuously heating up China's robotics industry.
Appendix: List of robotics lectures (incomplete) statistics:
END
Industrial robot companies
Eston Automation
|
Efte Robot
|
Fao Robot
|
Yuexiang Robot
|
Jieka Robot
|
Songling Robot
|
Luoshi Robotics
|
A Tongmu Robot
|
JiZhiJia
|
Hikvision Robot
|
Yifei Technology
|
Ailite Robot
Service and special robot companies
Yijiahe
|
Jingpin Tieshang
|
Qitem Robotics
|
Shihe Robot
|
Pudu Robot
|
Shiluo Robot
|
Kuma Technology MAMMOTION
Humanoid robot companies
UBTech Robotics
|
Unitree
|
Yunchedu
|
Xingdongjinyuan
|
Weijing Robot
|
Zhujidongli
|
Leju Robot
|
Daxiang Robot
|
Magic Atom
|
Zhongqing Robot
|
Pasi Ni Perception
|
Cyborg Robot
|
Digital Huaxia
|
Fourier Intelligent
|
Tianlian Robot
|
Kepler Humanoid Robot
|
Lingbao CASBOT
|
Qingbao Robot
|
Zhejiang Humanoid Robot Innovation Center
|
Dongyi Technology
|
Zhishi Technology
|
PNDbotics
|
Zhuoyide Robot
|
Qinglang Intelligent
|
Galileo GALILEO
|
Songyan Power
|
Tianji Intelligent
|
Woaan Robot
|
LiGong Huahui
|
Jiace Jinhua
Embodied intelligence companies
Cross Dimension Intelligent
|
Galaxy Universal
|
Qianxun Intelligent
|
Lingxin Qiaoshou
|
Ruierman Intelligent
|
Microintelligence
|
Tuisheng Technology
|
Zhongke Silicium Records
|
Shutu Technology
|
Lingqiao Intelligent
|
Xingchen Intelligent
|
Qiongche Intelligent
|
Fangzhou Infinite
| iFLYTEK |
Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center
|
National and Local Co-built Humanoid Robot Innovation Center
|
Daimeng Robot
|
Shibitu Robot
|
Xinghaitu
|
Yuequan Bionics
|
Zeroth Power Robot
|
Zhongke ShenGu
|
Zhi Fangping
|
Daka Robot
|
Haocun Technology
|
Ju Shi Intelligent
|
Xynova Xiner Future
|
Feixi Technology
|
Weilu Power
|
Boden Intelligent
|
Qianjue Technology
|
Lingsheng Technology
|
Ji Cui Intelligent Manufacturing
|
Xinbeit Technology
|
Chen Hunxian Technology
|
Dexmal Original Power
|
Youliqi
|
Self-variable
|
Ruiyan Zhikong Lingqiao Hand
|
Qiwu Technology
|
RoboScience Machine Science
|
Zhongke Fifth Dynasty
|
Critical Point
|
Danghong Technology
|
Qiaojie Shu Wu
|
Vbot Veta Power
|
Tashan Technology
|
Ju Brain Pan Shi
|
Youai Zhijhe Robot
|
Zhixing Jian
|
Aimiao Robot
|
Lu Ming Robot
|
Quantum Intelligent
|
Ruoyu Technology
|
Tiehu Robot
|
Zhi Wuji
Medical robot companies
Yuanhua Intelligent
|
Tianzhihang
|
Sizhe Rui Intelligent Medical
|
Jingfeng Medical
|
Tuo Dao Medical
|
Zhenyida
|
Shuru® Robot
|
Luosenbot
|
Shuimu Dongfang
｜
Kangnuo Sistem
|
Disight Medical
Upstream industry chain companies
Lvde Harmonic
|
Yinshi Robotics
|
Kunwei Technology
|
Muta Intelligent
|
Qingpou Vision
|
Benmo Technology
|
Lan Dian Touch Control
| Xinjingcheng Sensor
|
BrainCo Strong Brain Technology
|
Yuli Instrument
|
Jiya Jingji
|
Sila Technology
|
Shenyuan Sheng
|
Feipu Navigation Technology
|
Inks
|
Juxi Intelligent Drive
|
Lingyun Guang Yuanke Vision
|
Xuanji Power
|
Yiyou Technology
| Ruiyuan Precision |
Lingzhu Era
|
HIT Huawei Ke
|
Xinghui Sensor
|
Lingdi Technology
|
Quan Zhi Bo
|
CubeMars Robot Power
|
Wanglong Robot Elevator
|
Hangkai Microelectronics
|
Wutong Sensing and Control
Source：RoboSpeak — WeChat · mp.weixin.qq.com