Unitree Robotics returned to the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, this time with a performance that broke new ground for humanoid machines in territory traditionally reserved for human athletes. For the third year in a row, the Hangzhou-based company was an official partner, this time bringing a slew of its top-of-the-line G1 humanoid robots to center stage in a display that somehow managed to marry ancient Chinese martial arts with the precision engineering found in a modern sports car.
The main event began with a lengthy martial arts routine in which a few hundred Unitree G1 units demonstrated their abilities. These were no ordinary robots; they performed intricate fight routines with swords, poles, and nunchucks, and they moved in perfect unison with a group of children onstage. What was truly astonishing was how tightly they could regulate their movements, even when handling potentially dangerous items. We witnessed some impressive backflips and leaps, with some robots even launching from trampolines. They handled these insanely quick directional shifts and balancing recoveries like nothing.
- Sleek & Durable Design: Standing at 132cm tall and weighing only approx. 35kg, the G1 is constructed with aerospace-grade aluminum alloy and carbon...
- High Flexibility & Safe Movement: Boasting 23 joint degrees of freedom (6 per leg, 5 per arm), it offers an extensive range of motion. For safety, it...
- Smart Interaction & Connectivity: Powered by an 8-core high-performance CPU and equipped with a depth camera and 3D LiDAR. It supports Wi-Fi 6 and...
This year’s main event was a significant improvement on previous year’s offering, which featured 16 Unitree humanoids dancing in sync with the performers and waving handkerchiefs. The G1 model, which stands 130cm tall and weighs 35kg, seemed to shrug off all of the challenges imposed on it. So, what has changed? It turns out that the G1 has received significant advancements in terms of joint agility, torque, and real-time motion control, allowing it to perform actions that would cause any ordinary robot to leak oil.
The end result was the world’s first fully autonomous humanoid robot cluster Kung Fu routine, which stunned the audience with its lightning-fast moves and strained the current crop of hardware to its limits. While it all took place at the main Beijing site, Unitree also made an impression at a sub-venue in Yiwu, where the taller H2 humanoid appeared dressed as the Monkey King in full-on panoply and such.
The setup involved riding a “somersault cloud” built by some B2W quadruped robots, and the H2 was able to offer its New Year blessings from above, which was a great little theatrical flourish rooted in old legend. Four humanoid robot companies, Unitree, Galbot, Noetix, and MagicLab, all got some serious airplay across the early sketches, which suggested Beijing is keen to give the sector a bit of a showcase during the nation’s biggest live broadcast, but at the end of the day, it was Unitree’s contributions that really stood head and shoulders above the rest.
