At the welding workshop of Hebei Changan Automobile Co., Ltd. on January 6, employees were operating on the production line. The robotics industry chain represents a crucial component of the "Six Chains, Five Clusters" industrial synergy initiative in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. However, transforming robotics R&D achievements from laboratory concepts to market-ready products often faces challenges related to difficult conversion and lengthy cycles.
In Hebei, the Tangshan Baichuan Robotics Shared Manufacturing Factory (hereinafter referred to as "Baichuan Robotics Shared Factory") is emerging as a "converter" for turning robotics innovations into reality within the region. Since its commissioning in early 2024, the facility has served over 200 enterprises and institutions across the three jurisdictions, transforming more than 200 ideas into physical products. This outlines a new collaborative landscape for the robotics industry characterized by "R&D in Beijing-Tianjin, transformation in Hebei."
On February 5 in Beijing, at the Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chief Designer Guo Liang donned a passive exoskeleton bionic robot and steadily lifted a 50-kilogram box, walking forward with ease. The entire process showed no signs of strain, with stable movements throughout. This passive exoskeleton bionic robot is a typical example of "Beijing innovation, Tangshan transformation," being designed and developed at the Institute of Mechanics and produced and debugged at the Baichuan Robotics Shared Factory.
Guo Liang explained that the robot is specifically designed for heavy object handling scenarios. While his team excels at design and simulation, turning ideas into actual products requires finding suitable manufacturing partners. Early in 2025, the team initially looked toward the Yangtze River Delta region, but colleagues from the CAS Department of Science and Technology recommended the Baichuan Robotics Shared Factory. Although the Yangtze River Delta boasts a well-developed robotics industry chain, good cost-effectiveness, and prior collaboration experience, Guo noted, "The biggest issue was the distance, leading to inconvenient communication and high time costs." The process from blueprints to prototypes required repeated communication, mailing for verification, and sometimes on-site visits, resulting in a lengthy and inefficient process. "We always hoped to achieve transformation locally within the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region," Guo said.
Upon learning that Tangshan, just a two-hour drive from Beijing, could accomplish this robotics transformation, they immediately drove there with their designs. As the nation's first shared service platform established by the Baichuan Group focusing on the design, R&D, and production of non-standard robotics products, the Baichuan Robotics Shared Factory offers six major services, including design R&D and material procurement. There, Guo observed the shared factory's strong design, R&D, and manufacturing capabilities—featuring a R&D team of over 260 people and 800 sets of processing equipment. Furthermore, a large-scale procurement system allows even "a single screw to benefit from bulk purchase prices." Entities using the shared factory can also utilize government-issued innovation vouchers and creation vouchers to cover part of the costs, achieving higher efficiency and lower expenses.
"Let's trial-produce one set of the passive exoskeleton bionic robot first," Guo decided on the spot after thorough discussions. Through close collaboration and repeated optimizations, the first set was successfully produced in June 2025. After acceptance, Guo placed an additional order for nine sets. The Baichuan Robotics Shared Factory has now delivered all units. "These 10 robots are already fully booked. This year, we plan to collaborate with the factory to advance batch production," Guo stated.
"Most research institutions primarily focus on advancing scientific and technological achievements from concept to maturity, essentially progressing from '0' to '0.8'. Shared manufacturing platforms then push from '0.8' to '1', helping translate科技成果from the laboratory shelf to the market shelf, applying them in actual production and daily life," said Wang Mengzhao, head of the Baichuan Robotics Shared Factory. Leveraging the shared factory's capabilities, a batch of innovations including bath-assistance robots, rapid meal-serving robots, and integrated smart pharmacies have been successfully realized.
As a pilot demonstration platform for technological achievements in Hebei Province, the Baichuan Robotics Shared Factory has established pilot conversion collaborations with over 10 universities and research institutes, including the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing Institute of Technology, and University of Science and Technology Beijing. It has cumulatively provided more than 300 shared services to over 200 enterprises. In 2025, the shared factory generated an additional output value of 120 million yuan.
On January 28, the Tangshan robotics industry cluster welcomed another member with the registration and establishment of Feile (Hebei) Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Feile Technology") in Tangshan. This is a subsidiary of Sanshang (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Sanshang Technology"). Why did this Beijing-based company establish a subsidiary in Tangshan? The story also relates to the Baichuan Robotics Shared Factory.
Established in 2024, Sanshang Technology spent two years developing a coffee-serving robot. "We integrated embodied AI technology into the product and conducted two iterations. The equipment currently operates unmanned but hasn't yet reached the ideal human-machine interaction stage," said Wang Yuanyuan, a director at Sanshang Technology. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is a hub for robotics industry development, offering advantages like high collaborative R&D efficiency and relatively lower production costs. After the New Year, Wang and her team focused on the region, seeking partners with both collaborative innovation and production capabilities.
While visiting the Baichuan Robotics Shared Factory, they discovered that Tangshan offers substantial policy support for the robotics industry, including relevant industrial funds—resources sorely needed by many small and micro-enterprises. What truly convinced Wang was the compatibility between the technical teams: initial discussions sparked ideas for collaborative innovation regarding product optimization. The current product is relatively large and functionally limited; future iterations could focus on miniaturization, multi-functionality, and enhanced intelligence.
As a startup, Sanshang Technology faces limitations in funding, manpower, and production capacity. "The Baichuan Robotics Shared Factory正好填补了我们的产业链断点，帮助企业加快成长," Wang expressed. Registering Feile Technology in Tangshan was precisely to integrate into the local robotics industry cluster and leverage the shared factory to strengthen the industrial chain and accelerate development.
By providing testing grounds, experimental equipment, shared data, talent support, and other contextual resources and supporting services, the Baichuan Robotics Shared Factory can help enterprises shorten R&D cycles by 15% and improve efficiency by 10%. By locating here, a company can effectively access a thousand-person team overnight. The shared factory has currently signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Nankai District, Tianjin, extending its service capabilities to Tianjin's scientific innovation center area. It has also reached a preliminary agreement with the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area to establish an order reception window in Beijing, enabling innovative, growth-potential SMEs to operate lightly and quickly without worries.
The Baichuan Robotics Shared Factory effectively enhances the local industrial supporting rate for robotics enterprises and continuously attracts external robotics companies to establish a presence. In 2025, the robotics industry in Tangshan High-tech Zone achieved revenue of 9.57 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 31.1%. The net increase in robotics enterprises was 60, bringing the total to 260.
On February 3, inside the debugging workshop of the Baichuan Robotics Shared Factory, a nearly 2-meter-tall rapid meal-serving robot stood out. Staff were testing its heating module. This robot was developed by a retired professor from the University of Science and Technology Beijing and produced at the shared factory. "It will be delivered for use soon," introduced Han Lulu, the factory's production manager. Does delivery mark the end of cooperation? "Not at all," said Wang Mengzhao, opening his WeChat to show recent intensive chat records with the professor. They are exploring how to commercialize this product. Currently, the shared factory primarily focuses on collaborative innovation and production manufacturing. Wang noted that their partners are mostly universities, research institutes, and startup teams, who possess R&D strengths but lack experience in areas like market promotion. In the future, the shared factory plans to extend its services further, supporting the commercial landing and demonstration applications of client products. This rapid meal-serving robot might be the beginning of their efforts to help clients achieve product commercialization.
Application scenarios serve as a bridge connecting technology and industry, linking R&D with the market, playing a crucial role in promoting the large-scale commercial application of new technologies and products. Wang Mengzhao observed an increasing trend in embodied AI robotics R&D, which requires vast amounts of real-world end-user interaction data for training and validation. Continuous evolution through "perception-action-feedback" cycles enhances intelligence levels. The cultural tourism industry, with its ability to attract crowds and客流, provides ideal training and validation scenarios for embodied AI products like robots.
Duoma Park, under the Baichuan Group, is a theme park focused on activities like fishing, crab catching, and clam digging, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors annually. This year, the Baichuan Robotics Shared Factory will create a "Robotics + Cultural Tourism" open demonstration zone within Duoma Park. It aims to establish a full-chain service system covering "scenario demand release - technical verification - product iteration - industrial application," continuously iterating and promoting new products developed in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, such as coffee-serving robots and rapid meal-serving robots, until they achieve industrialization.
Talent is key to high-quality industrial development, yet SMEs commonly face challenges in "finding, affording, and retaining" industrial engineers. To deeply empower industrial upgrading through "shared intelligent manufacturing," the Baichuan Robotics Shared Factory is collaborating with the SME Development Promotion Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to create an online "Shared Engineer" platform. By establishing a three-dimensional sharing mechanism encompassing "talent sharing, technology resonance, and equipment sharing," it aims to promote talent synergy within the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, further optimize resource allocation, drive collaborative innovation, accelerate industrial upgrading, and turn more "unthinkable" ideas into "visible" realities.