Author: Jack Lee
Jack Lee
Jack Lee is an editor at Robots Daily and a graduate of Northwest University in Xi’an, China. He covers China’s robotics industry, with a particular interest in robot design, engineering and the technology behind new products. His reporting spans humanoid robots, quadruped robots, industrial automation and embodied AI, with a focus on how robots work and how their capabilities translate into real-world applications.
Machines under a meter tall accounted for more than half of global humanoid sales by unit in the first half of 2026, and under 4% of the money. Ask someone to picture a humanoid robot and you will get roughly the same drawing: a machine about the height of a person, two legs, two arms. For three years that was also the industry’s answer. Tesla’s Optimus helped establish the full-size humanoid as the industry’s default image. Founders pitched it, investors sized the market around it, and conference stages filled with machines standing somewhere between 1.6 and 1.9 meters, doing their…
The October 12–16 exhibition will cover industrial automation, mobile robotics, machine vision and core components, alongside expanded zones for humanoid and elderly-care service robots. The Robotics Show (RS), the robotics-focused exhibition at the 26th China International Industry Fair (CIIF), will run from October 12 to 16 at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai). This year’s exhibition will put greater emphasis on embodied intelligence, with expanded zones for humanoid robots and intelligent elderly-care service robots, according to the organizers. The event covers a broad section of the robotics industry, from factory automation equipment and mobile robots to machine vision, motion-control…
The IP5 filing data show China's lead widening quickly. The harder question is whether a lead in robot bodies turns into control of robot brains, and of the factories that build them. China's grip on humanoid robot patents tightened again this year, and the margin is no longer small enough to dismiss as a blip. Under the IP5 dataset, China's share of humanoid robot patents reached 60.8% in the first half of 2026, up from 51.8% in 2024. The United States slid from 27.3% to 21.8%. South Korea, once seen as a natural challenger in robotics hardware, fell to 4.6%.…
Sharpa unveiled three products on one table at booth 514 at Pittsburgh’s David L. Lawrence Convention Center this week. The D01 is a humanoid robot with whole-body tactile sensing. The W02 is a dexterous hand. The AE01 is an exoskeleton data glove for teleoperation. The lineup, announced on September 28 at IROS 2026, the IEEE/RSJ conference that skews academic rather than commercial, is Sharpa’s first coordinated release since the company started shipping hardware. Most exhibitors here bring one thing. Sharpa brought a chain. The detail worth stopping on is buried in the W02 spec sheet. The hand has 21 active…
Frost & Sullivan’s latest market research puts UBTECH, AGIBOT, Unitree Robotics, Galbot and Leju Robotics at the top of the global humanoid robot revenue rankings. The bigger question is where that revenue is actually coming from. China’s position in the humanoid robot industry is no longer a matter of how many companies can build a prototype. According to Frost & Sullivan’s 2026 Global Humanoid Robot Market Research Report, all five of the world’s leading humanoid robot companies by revenue are Chinese. The ranking includes UBTECH, Unitree Robotics, AGIBOT, Galbot and Leju Robotics. The revenue figures, however, do not tell the…
Unitree, AGIQUAD, GENISOM AI and DEEP Robotics account for more than three-quarters of global quadruped shipments. Boston Dynamics got there first. China is the one selling them. For most of the past decade the quadruped robot was a demo. It could trot across a stage, take a kick without falling over, then go back in its crate. That phase is ending. Counterpoint Research expects global shipments of four-legged robots to roughly double in 2026, passing 90,000 units for the first time. Vendors shipped 46,000 units in all of 2025, generating just under $700 million across the category. In the first…
Tesla is getting closer to the point where Optimus has to become a manufactured product rather than a robotics demonstration. In mid-September, Tesla’s robotics team began auditing suppliers in China’s Yangtze River Delta, including Ningbo-based Tuopu Group, Sanhua Intelligent Controls and Joyson Electronics, according to Chinese financial media reports. The companies are already part of Tesla’s automotive supply chain and have been developing components relevant to humanoid robots. The timing is notable. Just weeks earlier, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission had added foreign-produced advanced robotic devices to its Covered List, creating a new regulatory barrier for qualifying foreign-made robots seeking…
PrimeBOT wants to put a personal robot in your living room. The company’s real challenge isn’t building one — it’s giving people a reason to keep it there. On September 20, PrimeBOT launched two personal robots in Shanghai, the Q1 and T1, both priced from RMB 19,999 (about $3,000). The Q1 is aimed at home companionship, interaction, and developer use. The T1 adds a transformable design that switches between a wheeled humanoid form and a quadrupedal mode. At RMB 19,999, both models sit firmly in the consumer-robot market. But for PrimeBOT, the harder problem isn’t hitting a sub-$3,000 price point.…
A humanoid robot hit the floor of a boxing cage in Shanghai on Sept. 19 as a referee counted down the seconds. Then it got back up. An EngineAI T800 nicknamed “White Eagle” pulled off a kip-up, using its hands and feet to push itself back onto its feet almost immediately. It then went back into the fight. The move was one of several new demonstrations at the Shanghai stop of the URKL City Tour Challenge, a humanoid robot combat event launched by EngineAI. The company is using the competition to showcase what its robots can do under physical stress,…
When Unitree Robotics put its H1 humanoid robot on sale in August 2023, the sticker price was around RMB 650,000. The industry average that year hovered near RMB 590,000. By 2026, the company’s G1 base model was going for RMB 85,000, and its new R1 dual-arm machine started at just RMB 26,900. That’s a drop of more than 95% in under three years. Overseas, the story is the same: average humanoid robot prices have slid from roughly $85,000 to $25,000. Across the industry, the average selling price (ASP) is down about 70% in two years. Unitree’s average selling price has…