➡ China’s World Robot Conference 2024 showcased 13 advanced humanoid robots. These include Quafu, an AI robot that can cook and sort items, and X-Robots, which are designed to replicate human emotions. Other highlights include Navia, a robot with cutting-edge hardware and AI models, and the Galbot G1, a dual-arm robot that excels in tasks requiring precision. These robots are expected to be used in various industries, from manufacturing to home assistance.
➡ The company Tian Gong is making its robot technology open to everyone for study and improvement. Their robot, Qinglong, is tall and heavy, with a human-like body and movement, and can do many tasks with its 43 movable parts. It’s very powerful and runs on a large battery, and can walk quickly, handle different surfaces, and do precise tasks. There’s also another robot shown that might be from Qinglong, but it’s not certain, and it’s designed to be used in many different situations.

While humanoid robots in the West are advancing at breakneck speeds, China’s World Robot Conference 2024 just previewed their best competitors, so here are the top 13 humanoids that may be coming to a job near you. Number 1. Quafu by Leiju Robot and Huawei This is an AI robot that can cook, prepare drinks, sort items, and has even been deployed in car factories. Quafu also integrates its Pangu Embodied Intelligence with its open-source Hongmen robot operating system, giving this humanoid visual perception as well as the ability to jump, walk, and navigate throughout various uneven terrains.

In fact, Quafu is the first open-source Hongmen humanoid robot in China that can jump and adapt to its environment. It weighs about 45 kilograms, has 26 degrees of freedom, can walk at a maximum speed of 4.6 kilometers per hour, and can jump quickly and continuously at a height of over 20 centimeters using its integrated joints and depth cameras. Quafu can also tackle generalized operation within industrial and home scenarios. To complement this, the robot’s Embodied Intelligence has three core functions, understanding semantics, making judgments, and creating plans. This demonstrates the full effect of the company’s new Embodied Intelligence algorithms, such as Vision Language Action, which trains vision, language, and action through native multimodal large models.

Furthermore, the robot’s Scalable Diffusion Transformer architecture uses the Pangu Model 5 to effectively solve the problem of action diversity. The robot uses large-scale open-source datasets and simulation environment data for self-supervised pre-training, image object and background enhancement of real data, and efficient fine-tuning under new tasks to ensure the generalization capabilities of dual-arm collaboration and multitask concurrent processing. Currently, the company is running Quafu’s brain using Huawei Cloud’s computing power and AI capabilities. Number 2. X-Robots These are China’s most realistic-looking humanoid creations designed around replicating human emotions and behaviors. These robots take between two weeks and a month to produce while apparently costing upwards of $280,000.

And while these humanoids are mostly just used for displays and entertainment currently, X-Robots also aims to integrate its robots into various real-world service positions as their technology matures. Number 3. Navia from Zhejiang’s Humanoid Robot Innovation Center This humanoid stands at 1.65 meters and weighs 60 kilograms, featuring cutting-edge hardware such as a planetary reducer, lightweight humanoid arms, and a dexterous hand with 15 finger joints and six active degrees of freedom. The hand’s fingertip force is 10 newton meters, achieving a joint speed of 150 degrees per second, all within a lightweight 600-gram design.

But the robot also excels in mechanism control, imitation learning, and reinforcement learning by leveraging large-scale AI models. Its 14.5-amp-hour battery provides a two-hour runtime and supports a walking speed of 6 kilometers per hour and a 5-kilogram payload per arm, with 0.1 millimeters of precision. On top of this, the robot is equipped with environmental perception, a deep learning camera system, and touch sensors while its onboard computer can perform 275 trillion operations per second. Number 4. The Galbot G1 Standing 173 centimeters with an arm span of 190 centimeters and a reach range of up to 240 centimeters, this dual-arm robot excels in tasks requiring precision and adaptability.

In manufacturing, the G1 can sort and package parts while handling materials of any texture or shape. In retail environments like supermarkets and malls, it continuously performs stock-taking and restocking and assists with delivering goods, ensuring seamless operations. In pharmacies, particularly during late hours, the G1 plays a crucial role in delivering medicines and maintaining inventories. At home, the G1 is a versatile assistant, taking on tasks such as cleaning, decluttering, finding and fetching items to make living spaces more comfortable. And with its generalizable manipulation abilities, the G1 achieves a high rate of success across these diverse applications, making it one of China’s leading dual-arm robots.

Number 5. The Tora 1 by PaxiniTech This is a second-generation tactile humanoid robot that redefines the boundaries of robotic perception and interaction. Equipped with ITPU’s multi-dimensional haptic sensing technology, Tora 1 can sense pressure, friction, texture, weight and temperature, providing precise object perception and interaction. Its advanced multi-degree of freedom bionic hand is integrated with nearly 2,000 tactile sensing units, enabling it to operate safely and efficiently in complex environments. And in terms of real-life applications, Tora 1 offers personalized 24-7 support in museums, hotels and security patrols, leveraging its PX-Core multimodal perception and voice interaction system.

At home, it provides assistance with chores, home security and even emotional companionship. Additionally, Tora 1’s multi-dimensional tactile sensing technology also improves accuracy when gripping, handling and sorting of goods. Number 6. The S1 by Astrobot This household robot mimics human movements with extraordinary accuracy and speed, executing household tasks at a pace that challenges current robotic standards. By leveraging the latest in imitation learning, this robot excels in tasks like opening a bottle of wine and pouring a glass, all by simply observing and mimicking human actions. The robot can also shave cucumbers with precision, flip sandwiches in a frying pan, or even do calligraphy that could be mistaken for the work of a master.

But the S1’s standout feature is its raw accuracy. For perspective, human accuracy is limited to about one millimeter, while the S1 achieves repeatability within just 0.03 millimeters, making it over 30 times more precise. And the team behind the S1 has experience working with tech giants like Tencent and Baidu, as well as the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, contributing to the robot’s design. And while Astrobot has remained tight-lipped about the robot’s technical details, they claim the S1 is the closest product to human performance available today, with the S1 being set for a commercial release later this year.

AGI Bot Just unveiled several new commercial humanoid robots as part of the company’s new Yuanjun and Lingxi series. These robots include the Yuanjun A2, an interactive service robot, the Yuanjun A2W, which is tailored for flexible manufacturing, the heavy-duty Yuanjun A2 Max, the Lingxi X1 open-source robot as developed by Jihuan XLAB, and a specialized data acquisition robot, Lingxi X1W. In addition to the new models, AGI Bot introduced its embodied intelligence data system. These developments highlight the company’s advancements in power, perception, communication, and control technologies, with a particular point of interest being the Lingxi X1 robot, which AGI Bot is offering as a fully open-source product at no cost to developers.

This includes access to its design schematics, software frameworks, middleware source code, and basic operational algorithms. Furthermore, its bipedal humanoid robots are expected to enter mass production by the end of the year, with an estimated monthly output of 100 units. The company forecasts total shipments this year to be around 300 units, comprising approximately 200 humanoid robots and 100 wheeled robots, with expectations that final production numbers will exceed these projections. Number eight, the Booster T1, a nimble robot capable of performing advanced acrobatics and even push-ups. While details are scarce, reports indicate that this robot is 1.6 meters tall and weighs 43 kilograms, with an impressive ability to handle up to 145 kilograms of pressure on its legs, with this strength mainly being attributed to the robot’s innovative joint design.

Number nine, Wanda from Unix AI. This wheeled dual-arm humanoid robot was most recently seen working as a chef, showcasing its latest skills in the kitchen. For now, this humanoid robot looks to be positioned as a home service robot, assisting humans in completing simple household tasks such as laundry, folding clothes, and making breakfast. But with further updates, the robot will likely continue to learn new skills too. Number 10, the Walker S robot by UBTEC stands 1.7 meters tall and features a newly designed body with force-compliant drive joints and a rigid flexible coupling hybrid structure, ensuring stable walking even in dynamic environments.

Equipped with 41 servo joints providing force feedback and a range of visual, audio, and distance sensors, the Walker S is designed for comprehensive perception. Its multimodal sensor fusion and dynamic environment exploration enable it to navigate complex surroundings with precision, perceiving both humans and objects effectively. And by using high-resolution RGBD visual sensors, the Walker S creates 3D semantic maps, allowing it to efficiently plan walking routes and avoid obstacles for safe and precise operation. Additionally, the Walker S also integrates with a large language model enhancing its ability to understand intent and perform complex tasks across various environments, making it a versatile tool in industrial applications.

Number 11, Tian Gong from Beijing’s humanoid robot innovation center. This robot stands at 1.63 meters tall and weighs 43 kilograms, all powered by a 48 volt battery pack with 15 amp hours of energy. But its mobility is what truly sets it apart, achieving a steady running speed of 6 kilometers per hour. This speed and agility is partly thanks to the robot’s unique algorithm called state memory-based predictive reinforcement imitation learning. This enables the robot to not only run quickly, but also navigate challenging environments like slopes, stairs, and uneven terrain, all while operating in blind mode, without relying on 3D vision sensors like most humanoid robots.

On top of this, the robot can also dynamically adapt its gait and balance in real-time using predictive force modeling, which uses sophisticated inertial and six-axis force sensors. As for Tian Gong’s processing power, it crunches 550 trillion operations per second to serve towards a wide variety of applications and procedures, from manufacturing and logistics, to construction and search and rescue, making Tian Gong a versatile and smart solution for industries requiring dexterity and safety. Additionally, this robot runs on an open-source development model as the company aims to democratize robotics by allowing programmers, researchers, and companies to freely study, modify, and build upon Tian Gong’s architecture.

Number 12. The Qinglong robot, standing at 185 centimeters tall and weighing 80 kilograms, it boasts a bionic torso and anthropomorphic motion control, plus multimodal mobility, perception, interaction, and manipulation with 43 active degrees of freedom. Impressively, the robot has a peak joint torque of 200 newton meters per kilogram and with 400 trillion operations per second of computational power, all running on a 2,052-watt-hour battery. And Qinglong’s performance is equally impressive, with agile lower limbs for rapid walking and lightweight high-precision upper limbs for diverse tasks, allowing it to navigate obstacles, manage inclines and declines with stability, and resist impact interference.

And finally, number 13. A robot that we couldn’t positively identify, but we decided to show you anyways, our best guess was that it was also possibly from Qinglong, but the insignia on its chest seems to be different. This humanoid demonstrates an impressive level of dexterity and a sleek design that seems to be for general purpose use cases across a wide variety of settings, so comment down below if you have any ideas about which company this humanoid belongs to. [tr:trw].