If you haven’t already seen this humanoid from China do cartwheels and handstand walk, or pull off semi-pro level kung-fu skills and fake a fall, you are away from where the future of robotics is headed. This fully customizable humanoid robot may seem harmless and fun to watch pulling off physical acrobatics that I haven’t managed in 40 years of my life, but beneath the surface, it’s also scary. If a robot can mimic complex human movements, behaviours, and even emotions, as this is trained to do, the question isn’t what it can do next, but what it will do if it is customized to do.
Okay, let’s not jump the gun! China-based Unitree is racing ahead of the others, aiming to devise humanoids with unrealistic abilities. Just last week, on July 25, it released a demo video of its R1 humanoid robot. This is more remarkable than many. Yes, it cannot swap its battery pack like the UBTech’s Walker S2 robot, but it does pull off some tricks that have been far from robotic prowess.
Designer: Unitree
Unitree R1 humanoid robot is capable of walking, running, cartwheeling, doing kung-fu, falling on its own will, and getting up like nothing ever happened. Generally, a robot capable of doing half of what the R1 can would set you back upward of $10,000. Unitree has been able to keep the expensive hardware out of the R1’s guts: the entire robot with all its abilities is designed to be lightweight, pretty reliable at what it can be customized to do, all within a very affordable $5,900 price tag. It comprises an 8-core CPU, a 4-microphone array, stereo speakers, and Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 for connectivity.
The affordable, ultra-lightweight, and fully customizable robot is aimed at developers, research labs, and educational institutions, but Unitree does not limit tech enthusiasts from getting their hands on the R1, though it cannot shake hands. It is designed to stand 47.6 inches tall and weigh as little as 25 kgs. For its construction, the R1 comprises 26 functional joints, which allow it to do many strenuous exercises with utmost ease and agility. Making it even more capable is the robot’s inherent ability to respond to voice commands using integrated AI-powered speech recognition.
Unitree powers the capable R1 humanoid with a built-in lithium battery pack, which provides up to an hour of runtime before requiring recharge. And its built-in cameras ensure the R1 stays visually aware, balanced, and ready to react, whether it’s doing a handstand or showing off its kung-fu skills. At the time of writing, it isn’t clear what ambitious and practical usage the R1 can have, but it does come with a remote control, so just in case things go south, you can turn the robot off and maybe restructure. Hoping it doesn’t ever come to that!
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