On December 19th, Pudu Robotics, a global leader in service robotics, officially unveiled its pioneering full-size bipedal humanoid robot, PUDU D9. Developed by the Pudu X-Lab, this marks the team's third product launch of the year, following the humanoid-inspired PUDU D7 and the dexterous five-fingered hand PUDU DH11. Designed with the vision of "practical embodied intelligence," PUDU D9 is now available for pre-order, and inquiries are welcome through the Pudu Robotics official website.

Standing at an impressive 170cm tall and weighing 65kg, PUDU D9 boasts 42 degrees of freedom across its joints, with a maximum joint torque of 352Nm. Equipped with the advanced five-fingered hand PUDU DH11, it excels in human-like bipedal walking and dual-arm manipulation. In its latest demo video, PUDU D9 showcases its bipedal prowess, performing actions such as standing, walking, resisting interference, climbing slopes, and operating another Pudu product, the PUDU SH1, to complete floor cleaning tasks.

PUDU D9: Born to Serve in Human Form

Designed entirely based on adult human proportions, PUDU D9 embodies the core design philosophy of "born to serve humans." Its humanoid form enables capabilities that closely mimic human actions, making it poised to become a fully embodied intelligent being capable of a wide range of tasks.

Reaching New Heights in Mobility

In terms of mobility, PUDU D9 excels with its bipedal design, capable of walking on flat ground at speeds comparable to adults, reaching up to 2m/s. It navigates stairs, slopes, and rugged terrain with ease, seamlessly transitioning between standing, walking, and running modes. Additionally, it optimizes energy consumption for ultra-light gait and minimizes noise in human environments.

PUDU D9 leverages an industry-leading visual-semantic navigation solution, utilizing high-precision sensors to capture panoramic geometry and semantic perception information, constructing real-time 3D semantic maps. This allows the robot to understand its environment, precisely locate itself, and autonomously plan routes, enabling flexible navigation and real-time obstacle avoidance.

Performing Human-Like Tasks

In terms of manipulation, PUDU D9 features two 7-DOF robotic arms with a payload capacity exceeding 20kg, equipped with the 11-DOF dexterous five-fingered hand PUDU DH11. This allows it to perform delicate manipulation tasks flexibly, catering to various scenarios. Drawing on Pudu's years of research and development, along with its self-developed full-body deep reinforcement learning algorithm, PUDU D9 rapidly learns and evolves from vast amounts of data, achieving end-to-end task planning and execution.

Natural Human Interaction

In terms of interaction, PUDU D9 is equipped with high-precision visual, tactile, force, and auditory sensors, capturing multimodal information from the real environment. This information is processed by the "brain + cerebellum" system for feedback execution. Connected to a large model, PUDU D9 achieves multimodal natural human-robot interaction, comparable to real humans, better serving people.

A Comprehensive Lineup for Embodied Intelligence

Zhang Tao, founder and CEO of Pudu Robotics, previously stated that the second half of the commercial service robot industry has arrived, with specialized, humanoid-like, and humanoid robots forming the future ecosystem. According to his concept of "degrees of freedom per unit work area," these robots have distinct roles, complementing each other to address various customer pain points:

• Specialized Robots: Excel in large-area, long-distance, and high-load tasks like item transportation and floor cleaning, providing cost-effective solutions.
• Humanoid-Like Robots: Combine features of specialized and humanoid robots, enhancing generalization capabilities in a cost-effective manner, ideal for scenarios like industrial production and experimental research.
• Humanoid Robots: Best suited for complex environments with diverse tasks and high human-robot interaction requirements, such as commercial services and home care.

PUDU D9 marks Pudu Robotics' completion of a comprehensive product lineup encompassing specialized, humanoid-like, and humanoid robots. Adhering to a "customer-centric" philosophy, Pudu's technological exploration aims to solve real-world problems. With the goal of practical embodied intelligence, Pudu will continue to innovate in AI, mobility, and manipulation, promoting the continuous evolution of robot products in real-world scenarios, ultimately realizing autonomous intelligence with practical application value.

In specialized robots, Pudu has established a product matrix for service delivery, professional cleaning, and industrial delivery, providing commercial value with over 10 specialized service robots well-received by the market. In 2023, Pudu Robotics led the global market with a 23% share and dominated Chinese manufacturers' overseas expansion with nearly half of the market share.

Pudu continues to explore cutting-edge technologies in humanoid-like and humanoid robots, expanding future possibilities. In 2022, Pudu introduced the quadruped robot D1 and the meal delivery robot A1 with a robotic arm, showcasing early exploration and long-term research and development layout. This year, the Pudu X-Lab launched three products: the humanoid-like robot PUDU D7, the dexterous five-fingered hand PUDU DH11, and the full-humanoid robot PUDU D9, demonstrating the team's profound technical accumulation and commercialization focus.

Citibank's latest report predicts that by 2050, the global humanoid robot market will reach USD 7 trillion, with 648 million humanoid robots worldwide. Amid the explosion of embodied intelligence technology, the practical application of humanoid robots remains a challenge. Besides technical hurdles, practical issues related to product design, production, supply, sales, and after-sales maintenance need industry-wide exploration and resolution.

As a global leader in commercial service robots, Pudu has gained customer recognition for its robust products and rapidly identifies and iterates on market needs, forming a positive growth cycle. Pudu's accumulated technology, products, supply chain, and market channels will accelerate the commercial application of humanoid robots.

Zhang Tao, founder and CEO of Pudu Robotics, said, "Customer-centricity is Pudu's core value. In the future, Pudu will continue to explore technology based on customer needs and pain points, leveraging its deep expertise in the commercial service field to rapidly mature humanoid-like and humanoid robots, enabling more people to enjoy the convenience of robotic services."

About Pudu Robotics:

Shenzhen Pudu Technology Co., Ltd. (Pudu Robotics) is a leading brand in the global service robot industry, dedicated to creating truly useful robotic products that enhance human productivity and quality of life. Guided by the "inventor's spirit," Pudu Robotics focuses on the research, design, production, and sales of service robots, holding over a thousand authorized patents worldwide. Since its inception eight years ago, Pudu Robotics has established hundreds of service outlets globally, with businesses spanning over 60 countries and regions. Pudu's products are widely used in various industries, including catering, retail, hotels, healthcare, entertainment, sports, industrial manufacturing, and education, with cumulative shipments exceeding 80,000 units.