From stiff-limbed dances to Bruce Lee-style whirlwind kicks, China’s humanoid robotics race just took a cinematic turn.
Unitree Robotics, the Hangzhou-based firm behind the viral G1 robot , has open-sourced its cutting-edge algorithms and hardware designs, mirroring the collaborative ethos that propelled AI breakthroughs such as DeepSeek’s open-source models.
A month after its awkward debut at China’s Spring Festival Gala , the G1 robot executed split-second martial arts manoeuvres in Unitree’s latest demo released on Wednesday.
Priced 99,000 yuan (US$13,622), the bot – equipped with 43 joints and mimicry learning – launched a spinning back kick so fluid it drew comparisons to Enter the Dragon .
“What moves do you want next?” Unitree teased on social media, signalling ambitions beyond the scripted choreography of rival Boston Dynamics.
In a playbook reminiscent of China’s AI open-source surge, Unitree has released data sets, reinforcement learning training code and hardware specs for its H1 and G1 models on GitHub, a platform often used to open source development projects.