Chinese robotics company Unitree's humanoid development is progressing rapidly. After last year's brawl, the fast-walking H1 bot has recently gotten into its backflip groove. Now faceless, handless humanoids have joined the impressive all-rounder.
Until very recently, Unitree's focus seemed to be on developing even more capable robot dogs like the Go2 and B2. Commercially available quadrupeds were used as the basis for some rather worrisome applications, such as the flame-throwing Thermonator, and the then-US Marine Corps strapped the M72 light anti-tank weapon rocket launcher to its back. Robot Pucci has been put to good use since it was first discovered at ICRA 2019.
At the time of H1's entry into the humanoid sector, development was well underway at other companies such as Boston Dynamics, Figure, Sanctuary AI, and Tesla. However, Unitree has caught up very quickly and has now revealed the first few details about its second model, the G1 Humanoid Agent.
Introduction to Unitree | Unitree G1 Humanoid Agent | AI Avatar | Price starting from $16,000
The H1's price tag is set at US$90,000, including a standby time of up to 10 years, but the G1 comes in much cheaper at $16,000 (starting price). There's still a lot of change, but it's relatively affordable for those in the market for robotic assistants, assembly line workers, or research tools.
No doubt inspired by the somewhat creepy launch video of the new Atlas humanoids, Unitree's latest tin man begins his video demo like the victim of robot murder, but then rears up with his legs back and shows off his “super-large joint movements.”
The G1 seems like a much more complete package than the previous H1, with a helmeted head and illuminated face (packing a 3D LiDAR sensor and depth camera), human-like robotic hands for floor movements, and three-way handling. Finger grippers showing off their skills at home and work.
He can also take a beating, and recovers well after receiving brutal kicks and punches from someone he'll remember after the robot uprising.
Unitree notes that robots will be trained in simulated environments using reinforcement learning and copying other people, and any new skills will probably be deployed wirelessly to all humanoids. The processing brain benefits from eight high-performance cores and is also equipped with Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2.
The joints boast a total degree of freedom of 23 to 43 degrees and produce a maximum torque of up to 120 Nm. Running speed is 2 meters per second (4.47 mph) and battery life is estimated to be around 2 hours per charge for the 9,000 mAh pack.
And it weighs around 35 kg (the product page specifies 47 kg/103.6 lb) and can be folded to dimensions of 690 x 450 x 300 mm (27 x 17.7 x 11.8 inches) for compact portability. , as you can see above, it looks kind of cute if a little weird.
Unitree is working on a standard G1 and an enhanced training model, and the video notes that some of the features shown are still in development. Still, it's an impressive debut from G1 Humanoid Agent.
Source: Unitree