Author: leewper

On the afternoon of August 19 in Beijing, a Unitree G1 humanoid robot stood on one side of a table tennis table at the company’s booth at the 2026 World Robot Conference (WRC 2026). As the ball came over the net, the robot stepped sideways and returned it with a backhand. A Unitree staff member said the G1 tracks the incoming ball’s position and movement in real time, then chooses a forehand, backhand or a shot after stepping into position. It adjusts its posture and striking motion as the ball’s position and trajectory change. Elsewhere at the booth, multiple G1…

Unitree Robotics has unveiled a new humanoid robot called “Superman”, which the company says can jump about 2 meters from a standing position and reach a peak running speed of 12.66 meters per second. The company released a 30-second video of Superman on August 17. In the video, Superman is shown with a leg length of 0.85 meters, reaching 12.66 m/s while running and performing a standing vertical jump of about 2 meters. At 12.66 m/s, Superman’s published peak speed is above the widely cited 12.42 m/s peak recorded for Usain Bolt during his 9.58-second 100-meter world-record run in Berlin…

The 2026 World Robot Conference runs August 19–23 at the Etrong International Exhibition & Convention Center in Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, better known as E-Town. This year’s theme is “Coexistence of Human and Machine, Integration of Industry and Demand.” The exhibition floor covers about 55,000 square meters, with more than 300 companies and over 2,000 exhibits. Organizers say more than 150 products will make their public debut, and more than 60 side events are scheduled. But for most attendees, the bigger change isn’t volume. It’s that the show has shifted further toward complete robot systems, embodied AI, core components, and…

When Washington slammed the door on fully assembled Chinese robots, engineers in Silicon Valley found a scrappier workaround: fly to Shenzhen, fill a suitcase with robot parts, and fly home on a commercial flight. On July 28, 2026, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission updated its “Covered List,” adding foreign-made advanced robotic equipment to the ban. New models of Chinese robots are now all but locked out of the U.S. market. But the restrictions target covered robotic devices rather than the broad range of components used to build them. Reducers, servo motors, sensors and other critical parts are largely outside the…

Global humanoid robot shipments reached roughly 19,100 units in the first half of 2026, more than triple the figure from a year earlier, according to Smart Analytics Global (SAG). Chinese manufacturers accounted for more than 97% of global shipments. The figures point to a market moving beyond lab demonstrations and trade-show prototypes toward commercial deployments. In 2026, the focus has shifted toward mass production and real-world use. AgiBot and Unitree Lead Global Shipment Rankings Chinese manufacturers hold a clear lead. Shanghai-based AgiBot shipped about 8,400 units in the first half, accounting for roughly 44% of global shipments. Hangzhou’s Unitree followed…

Workers at a Hyundai plant in South Korea recently staged a partial strike, but the dispute was not about wages or working hours. The union demanded a written guarantee from management that jobs would be safe as humanoid robots move onto the factory floor. It was the first labor standoff in the global auto industry triggered directly by the risk of humanoid replacement. In China, however, those robots are already clocking in. Xiaomi’s in-house humanoid robot has been operating at the company’s auto plant in Beijing’s Yizhuang district for less than six months. It has successfully handled a challenging assembly…

00. Key Takeaways / Company Highlights Founded in Hangzhou in 2016, Unitree Robotics has built a product portfolio covering quadruped robots, humanoid robots, and robotic components. The company gained global attention through its commercial quadruped platforms, including the Go series and B series, which helped lower the cost barrier for researchers, developers, and industrial users. Unitree expanded from quadruped robots into humanoid robotics with platforms such as the H1 and G1, focusing on making high-performance humanoid robots more accessible for research and early commercial applications. With in-house hardware development, manufacturing capabilities, and an open developer ecosystem, Unitree operates across quadruped…

It wasn’t a coincidence that the message landed simultaneously on both sides of the Pacific. On July 20, at the SIGGRAPH conference in Los Angeles, NVIDIA’s Neil Ashton stood on stage as a slide flashed four words: “Physical AI Day.” That same day, Google DeepMind’s Carolina Parada told WIRED something else: “This is a milestone toward physical AGI.” She was referring to Gemini Robotics 2—a model that can guide a humanoid robot to screw in a lightbulb, tie a trash bag, and restock shelves. NVIDIA’s counterpunch that day was Cosmos 3 Edge, a compact 4-billion-parameter world model designed to run…

Roughly eight out of every ten humanoid and quadruped robots sold around the world are now produced in China, according to China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country’s top economic planning agency — a figure that shows how Chinese manufacturers are moving beyond lab prototypes and into large-scale manufacturing. Jiang Yi, an NDRC spokesperson, disclosed the statistic recently, describing it as evidence of growing Chinese competitiveness across the robotics supply chain, from components to complete systems. At a separate briefing on July 20 covering industrial performance in the first half of 2026, Wang Weiming, chief engineer at the…

The 2026 World Robot Conference (WRC) is scheduled for August 19–23 at the Beiren Etrong International Exhibition & Convention Center in Beijing’s Economic-Technological Development Area (BDA). Now in its 11th year, the event is co-hosted by the Chinese Institute of Electronics (CIE) and the World Robot Cooperation Organization. This year’s theme focuses on human-robot symbiosis and stronger links between robotics innovation and real-world demand. More than 300 companies are exhibiting, up 36 percent from 2025, with over 2,000 products on display and more than 150 making their public debut. Nearly 30 international organizations are supporting the conference, including the UN…