Chinese robotics company Unitree has made a significant breakthrough with its G1 humanoid robot which walks and runs in a convincingly natural way. This is thanks to its advanced hip joint design. See the G1's locomotion in action!

Unitree Robotics has been in operation since 2016. The company's first focused on quadrupedal robots since its founder Wang Xingxing developed the XDog during his postgraduate studies at Shanghai University in 2013.

We first met Unitree's quadrupedal robot Go1 in 2021 and the reported on its successor, Go2, in 2023. Meanwhile Unitree embarked on a humanoid robot project in February 2023 and developed its first model, the H1, in just six months and an enhanced version, the H2, followed a year later.

Whereas the H1 is a full-sized robot, 180cm tall,  the G1, described by Unitree as a "Humanoid agent AI avatar", is smaller in stature.

While both models are in production, at the moment only the G1 is available outside China and while Unitree claims a starting price of $16,000 that only applies in China and resellers in other countries charge around $28,000.  

Achieving human-like gait is important for Unitree and the latest video, which shows G1 walking and running over a variety of terrains shows that it is close to this goal. 

This impressive ability to walk and run is thanks to the G1's advanced hip joint design, which allows for a greater range of motion and more natural movement.  This is due in part to the use of a new type of motor that is more powerful and efficient than previous models. The G1's hip joint also features a new type of sensor that allows the robot to better understand its position and orientation in space. This information is then used to control the robot's movements more precisely. 

In fact the G1 has far more flexibility that an average human. With an exceptionally wide range of joint movement and up to 43 joint motors, it exceeds the agility of a typical human.

Currently neither the H1/2 nor the G1 can be considered autonomous. Both robots require programming and often some level of human supervision or control to perform specific tasks. They are not yet designed to independently make complex decisions or navigate entirely unstructured environments without guidance. However Unitree's robotic systems are continuously developed and AI integration is increasing making them more capable of tasks like motion planning, object recognition, and basic decision-making.

And just as we noted that ChatGPT was being incorporated into the Unitree Go2, making it able to respond to voice commands and to answer back, we can be confident that the G1 will also be endowed with these capabilities.

More Information

Unitree G1

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