Chinese robotics company Unitree has made a significant breakthrough with its G1 humanoid robot, which walks and runs in a convincingly natural way, thanks to its advanced hip joint design. Check out the G1's movement in action!
Unitree Robotics has been operating since 2016. The company initially focused on quadrupedal robots after its founder, Wang Xingxing, developed the XDog during his postgraduate studies at Shanghai University in 2013.
We first encountered Unitree's quadrupedal robot Go1 in 2021 and reported on its successor, Go2, in 2023. Meanwhile, Unitree started a humanoid robot project in February 2023 and developed its first model, the H1, in just six months. An enhanced version, the H2, followed a year later.
While the H1 is a full-sized robot, standing 180cm tall, the G1, which Unitree describes as a "Humanoid agent AI avatar," is smaller. Both models are in production, but currently, only the G1 is available outside China. Although Unitree claims a starting price of $16,000, this only applies in China; resellers in other countries charge about $28,000.
Achieving a human-like gait is important for Unitree, and the latest video shows the G1 walking and running over various terrains, indicating it's close to this goal. This impressive ability is due to the G1's advanced hip joint design, which allows for a greater range of motion and more natural movement. This is partly because of a new type of motor that is more powerful and efficient than previous models. The G1's hip joint also includes a new type of sensor that helps the robot better understand its position and orientation in space, allowing for more precise movement control.
In fact, the G1 is more flexible than the average human. With an exceptionally wide range of joint movement and up to 43 joint motors, it surpasses the agility of a typical person.
Currently, neither the H1/2 nor the G1 can be considered autonomous. Both robots need programming and often some level of human supervision or control to perform specific tasks. They are not yet designed to make complex decisions independently or navigate entirely unstructured environments without guidance. However, Unitree's robotic systems are continuously being developed, and AI integration is increasing, making them more capable of tasks like motion planning, object recognition, and basic decision-making.
Just as we noted that ChatGPT was being incorporated into the Unitree Go2, enabling it to respond to voice commands and reply, we can be confident that the G1 will also have these capabilities.