Taking a further step in the platformization strategy, ZHIYUAN has launched its first embodied intelligent operating system.
The evolution of embodied intelligence is accelerating. The hardware bodies are continuously pushing the boundaries, and the embodied models are gradually taking shape through data and interactions. However, at the system level, a general and collaborative operating base is still lacking.
ZhiYuan Robotics attempts to fill this industry gap with "Lingqu OS". At the just-concluded 2025 World Artificial Intelligence Conference, Peng Zhihui, the co-founder and CTO of ZhiYuan Robotics, announced the open-source plan for "ZhiYuan Lingqu OS". This is an operating system reference architecture for embodied intelligence scenarios and is currently the industry's first embodied intelligence operating system.
ZhiYuan Robotics' launch of Lingqu OS at this time is not only a crucial step in integrating its own software and hardware technology stack and accelerating its platform transformation. For the entire embodied intelligence field, it also indicates that the industry is beginning to show a trend of standardization and collaboration amidst the scattered early exploration.
Connect the Entire Link of Embodied Intelligence from the Body to Applications
Embodied intelligence is in its early stages of development. Most enterprises are busy building closed-loop systems around specific hardware configurations and have no time to create operating system platforms or build ecological collaboration.
The direct result of this industry situation is that the current embodied intelligence systems are fragmented, the cost of software and hardware adaptation is high, and the phenomenon of repeated development is common. Especially in complex implementation scenarios involving multi-task scheduling and multi-device collaboration, the lack of unified middleware and standardized interfaces has become an important reason for slow R & D and difficult implementation.
Another major pain point is the gap between simulation and deployment, which greatly limits the efficiency of migrating and verifying the "brain" in the robot body.
Lingqu OS aims precisely at these series of pain points in the current development of the embodied intelligence field. From the system architecture design of Lingqu OS, we can glimpse ZhiYuan's ambition to connect the entire link of embodied intelligence from the body to applications.
In terms of the underlying architecture, Lingqu OS continues to evolve based on the previously open-source middleware AimRT of ZhiYuan. It has core functions such as distributed communication, real-time scheduling, and hardware abstraction, laying the foundation for multi-device collaboration. The upper layer opens a standardized intelligent agent service framework, supporting the standardized docking of intelligent base models for interaction, operation, and movement, thus reducing the application threshold. At the same time, the operating system is also equipped with a complete toolchain, supporting development and debugging, simulation verification, data management, and model deployment, assisting developers in quickly building a technical closed-loop from virtual simulation to physical deployment.
In terms of its architectural role, Lingqu OS is located in the system central layer between the body hardware and intelligent applications. It can connect to embodied intelligence components such as CPU/GPU/MCU chips, sensors, drivers, and dexterous hands at the bottom and support core capability models such as interaction intelligence, operation intelligence, and movement intelligence at the top, further serving various types of robots in industries, commerce, and households.
ZhiYuan summarizes this ecological architecture as "adapting to embodied hardware in the south and supporting intelligent applications in the north". Its ultimate goal is to establish a unified system base and ecological interface for the embodied intelligence industry.
According to the plan released by ZhiYuan, Lingqu OS is planned to be gradually open-sourced in the fourth quarter of this year. It is expected that this move will encourage more enterprises to build applications on the unified technical base, providing a practical path for industry developers to reduce repetitive work and improve system adaptation efficiency.
ZhiYuan's Platform Strategy Deepens Continuously
In addition to its significance to the industry, the most direct effect of Lingqu OS is undoubtedly on ZhiYuan Robotics itself.
Firstly, the launch of Lingqu OS may feed back into ZhiYuan's existing product system. Lingqu OS itself is derived from the system framework of ZhiYuan's mass-produced and verified products and from the R & D practice of building a unified system base for self-developed robots such as Lingxi X in the ZhiYuan series. As Lingqu OS matures, ZhiYuan Robotics can improve the universality and collaboration efficiency among different product models and more efficiently complete the scenario adaptation and verification of new products in multi-scenario applications.
Meanwhile, Lingqu OS can be regarded as a packaged encapsulation of ZhiYuan Robotics' full-stack capabilities, a systematic integration of its R & D achievements scattered across the hardware, algorithm, and application layers. Therefore, the process of polishing Lingqu OS is also a process of collaborative optimization of internal technologies and resources, laying the foundation for external cooperation and ecological expansion. As Lingqu OS gradually becomes open-source, ZhiYuan's capabilities will be further optimized and improved when facing higher engineering system requirements.
Combined with a series of actions such as ZhiYuan Robotics' cooperation with listed companies and external investment in industrial chain enterprises, the release of Lingqu OS is also a deepening of its platform strategy.
As a startup company founded only two years ago, ZhiYuan Robotics seems to have taken a different path from the beginning. It not only adheres to the independent R & D of software and hardware but also starts the platform layout commonly seen in mature companies at an early stage. The release of Lingqu OS and the subsequent open-source plan are manifestations of this platform strategy at the technical level.
In the long run, ZhiYuan Robotics' ecological position in the embodied intelligence field is transitioning from a single product provider to an infrastructure builder and an industry collaboration organizer, further expanding its future imagination space as a leading player in this emerging field.
As shown by the development history of the smartphone industry, the system platform leader often has stronger discourse power and ecological control. ZhiYuan hopes to build an "Android + Linux" system for embodied intelligence with Lingqu OS to dominate the next-generation intelligent hardware ecosystem.
Whether ZhiYuan Robotics' ambition for an embodied intelligence operating system and its aspiration for its industry positioning can be truly realized depends on whether it can attract enough developers and terminal integrators after the implementation of the open-source plan in the fourth quarter.
However, it is certain that in the early stage of the embodied intelligence industry when the leading platform has not emerged, ZhiYuan has taken the first step in establishing an ecological position centered on the operating system.