China's Unitree Robotics is a relatively recent entry in the general-purpose humanoid robot space, but its $16,000 G1 model is already proving itself to be quite the performer. So much so that the company has now revealed a version that's ready for mass production.
Until December last year, robot development at Unitree was pretty much focused on producing four-legged robo-beasts like the Go2 and B2. And by the time the first biped humanoid made its video debut, there was already stiff competition from the likes of Tesla, Figure, Boston Dynamics and Sanctuary AI.
But progress has been impressive, and the US$90k first effort was soon joined by a much cheaper and more capable model called the G1. This one has a visor-like face instead of an air gap and sports three-digit hands where once were stumps. It also looks less like a development platform and more like something headed for production – and now it appears to be ready to make that leap.
Unitree says that the few short months since its May reveal has seen engineers fine-tuning the general-purpose bot to meet requirements for mass production – including tweaks to its appearance and improvements in performance. The video demonstrates this by showing off the G1's leaping, twisting, hopping and dancing moves, along with its ability to climb stairs littered with debris and adjust gait in real-time, take varied-height obstacles in its stride, and break into a jog. It's even shown steadfastly refusing to tumble when faced with a seemingly vicious assault from one of the dev team.
A quick recap of the given specs doesn't reveal any obvious enhancements since we last checked in, though the simulated reinforcement learning environment has yielded new tricks and improved performance. So what we have is a humanoid that stands 1.32 m (4.33 ft) in height and can fold down to 690 x 450 x 300 mm (27 x 17.7 x 11.8 in) should an operator wish to pick it up and stow it away in a cupboard – though it's quite a heft at 35 kg (77 lb).
On its LED-ringed face are 3D LiDAR and a RealSense depth camera. There's noise-canceling microphone array included for voice commands and a 5-W stereo speaker for responses. All cabling is routed internally for clean lines and snag-free operation. A quick-release 9,000-mAh battery is included for around 2 hours of per-charge use. The joints offer 23 degrees of freedom in total and the humanoid can amble along at up to 2 m/s (4.5 mph).
As mentioned, pricing starts at $16,000. Unitree describes this latest update as a mass production version, though hasn't confirmed that mass production is actually underway. You can find out more via the source link below.
Source: Unitree Robotics
