Just a heads up, the robot marathon is in 30 mins. 0730 hours Beijing time. There's various livestreams out there if you search. I'm watching on youtube.
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Robotics and humanoid robotics & civilian drones discussion
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The Tiangong robot, developed by the National and Local Co-built Embodied Artificial Intelligence Robotics Innovation Center, won first place in the humanoid robot half marathon. Congratulations to them!
PeoplesPoster
Junior Member
Yea not a very impressive showing for a many of them, some of those were down right hazardous, like that propeller driven one.
The unitree didn't look like it has a good showing either, really surprised me. I think this is a good reminder about the distance between practical application and company hype videos.
Unitree is not actually participating. This is just a fan team using the standard Unitree G1 to join the marathon. The standard G1 and the professional G1 have different degrees of freedom.
This photo taken on Jan. 2, 2025 shows untethered terrestrial-aerial micro-robots developed by a research team from Tsinghua University, in Beijing, capital of China. (Tsinghua University/Handout via Xinhua)
BEIJING, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Enabling robots to walk, run, jump, fly, climb and "lock" into arbitrary shapes in real-time is crucial for expanding their application scenarios.
A research team from Tsinghua University in Beijing has developed a thin-film-shaped small-scale actuator which enables micro-robots to continuously transform their shapes and "lock" into specific configurations, much like the "Transformers" seen in a famous cinema attraction, and thereby significantly enhancing their environmental adaptability. This breakthrough has been published online in Nature Machine Intelligence, a leading international journal.
"By integrating this actuator with our Lego-inspired design strategy, we created the world's smallest and lightest untethered terrestrial-aerial micro-robot known in the relevant literature, measuring just 9 centimeters in length and weighing 25 grams," said Zhang Yihui from Tsinghua University's School of Aerospace Engineering and the State Key Laboratory of Flexible Electronics Technology.
Actuators, the "heart" of micro-robots, are devices with controllable shape-morphing capability.
"Developing untethered, ultra-compact micro-robots with complex shape-morphing capabilities is extremely challenging," Zhang explained.
Existing actuators measuring under five centimeters in size typically face challenges in achieving continuous shape morphing and locking, severely limiting miniaturization and untethered control of multimodal robots.
Through innovative synergistic material-structure design, Zhang's team developed a miniature actuator as small as a few millimeters in size. Serving as a "morphable exoskeleton," it can integrate functional components like sensors and motors to build complex robotic systems.
Notably, this actuator can be electrically controlled to continuously morph into any desired shape and then "lock" the deformed configuration, which was difficult to achieve with previous small-scale actuators.
"Using the Lego-inspired design strategy, we constructed an untethered terrestrial-aerial micro-robot capable of agile aerial flight and land movement, and with a speed of up to 1.6 meters per second on the ground," Zhang said.
In addition, the team also developed a 4.5-centimeter-high, 0.8-gram mini-"Transformer" actuator employing more than ten actuator units, as well as a multi-functional wheeled robot that can morph into "sports car," "winged car," and "van" modes.
Inspired by grasshoppers and other insects, researchers incorporated biological morphologies and locomotion capabilities into their designs.
This work offers new ideas and routes for the development of micro-robots. "Future applications include equipment diagnostics, geological surveys, and hazardous environment operations," Zhang said. "The actuator can also be used in bio-electronic devices, enabling the development of deployable implantable medical devices and VR/AR haptic interfaces."
Chinese robotics star Unitree opens Hangzhou factory amid humanoid frenzy
Unitree opened the 10,000-square-metre facility this year, located just 15 minutes from its headquarters
Chinese humanoid robot maker Unitree Robotics has opened a new factory in Hangzhou as it races to meet soaring demand amid China’s craze for the human-shaped machines.
The factory, launched earlier this year, spans over 10,000 square metres, and it is expected to support the company’s expansion over the next three to five years, according to the company.
“We won’t expand production blindly,” Unitree’s marketing director Huang Jiawei told the South China Morning Post in a recent interview. “Instead, we’ll enhance capacity by increasing working hours and efficiency.”
A Unitree G1 humanoid robot carries an object with both hands at an exhibition hall of Unitree Robotics in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, April 23, 2025. The Unitree G1 humanoid robot demonstrated a series of newly updated actions Wednesday in Hangzhou. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)
A Unitree G1 humanoid robot shows a handshake action at an exhibition hall of Unitree Robotics in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, April 23, 2025. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)
A Unitree G1 humanoid robot performs a high-five at an exhibition hall of Unitree Robotics in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, April 23, 2025. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)
A Unitree G1 humanoid robot shows hug action at an exhibition hall of Unitree Robotics in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, April 23, 2025. (Xinhua/Han Chuanhao)
A Unitree G1 humanoid robot shows waves at an exhibition hall of Unitree Robotics in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, April 23, 2025. (Xinhua/Huang Zongzhi)
A Unitree G1 humanoid robot blows a kiss at an exhibition hall of Unitree Robotics in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, April 23, 2025. (Xinhua/Han Chuanhao)
