How do Chinese robots outperform Boston Dynamics?

China! As an internet user who frequently browses YouTube, this word has been appearing more and more often on my homepage recommendations. As someone who mainly watches technology and digital videos, I can sense that foreigners are indeed paying more and more attention to Chinese technological products.

During the Spring Festival, Unitree's Unitree H1 humanoid robot gained widespread attention through its yangko dance performance during the Spring Festival Gala, making many ordinary people aware of the existence of domestically produced robots. However, netizens on YouTube may have known the names of Unitree and other Chinese robot companies even earlier than everyone else.

Are Chinese robots already a hit overseas?

First, let me show you a set of data. Below is the official YouTube account of Unitree Technology. With only 83,000 subscribers, it's quite ordinary on YouTube, but Unitree Technology's video views often exceed one million, which has garnered envy from many YouTubers.

The surge in video views for Unitree Technology basically started with the release of the Unitree H1 and Unitree Go2. These two robots' videos garnered 1.32 million and 4.1 million views, respectively. Even on YouTube, such view counts are quite impressive, and since then, the lowest video view count has been above 100,000, with millions becoming the norm.

Some popular videos, such as the recent Unitree B2-W mobility demonstration and Unitree G1 agility test, have even garnered more views on YouTube than on Bilibili. It can be said that as early as a year ago, Unitree had already become one of the hottest brands in the robot field, even earlier than it became popular in China.

Source: Lei Technology Note: Left is Bilibili, right is YouTube

Recently, Mark Raibert, the founder of the famous robot company Boston Dynamics, stated in an interview that he had purchased several Unitree robots and hoped to understand how Unitree achieved their success and what they could do. As the world's most renowned robot company, Boston Dynamics was once synonymous with humanoid robots, but now it has come to the point of studying its peers.

In the YouTube comment section, the most frequently mentioned competitor is also Boston Dynamics. In addition to comparing their sensitivity, appearance, and functional performance, the price difference between the two is also often mentioned. Unitree's G1 is priced at 99,000 yuan, the H1 at 650,000 yuan, and the quadruped robot dog Go2 is as low as 9,997 yuan, with future prices expected to be even lower. Frankly, this price has indeed shocked foreigners.

Boston Dynamics' similar quadruped robot dog product, Spot, is priced at $75,600, which is approximately 540,000 yuan. In the words of foreigners, "54 vs. 1, I can't imagine how we could lose." Perhaps you may ask, with such a large price difference, shouldn't there be a significant difference in performance?

Source: Lei Technology

Regarding this, last year's ICRA2024 held in Japan put these robot dogs on the same track for testing. In the competition, Boston Dynamics' Spot leveraged its larger size and more flexible joint design to gain an advantage in stability, but its performance in getting up after falling and obstacle self-recognition was only average. Spot took more than 40 seconds to stand up after falling, while Go2 bounced up from the ground in less than 3 seconds after a brief stop.

Source: Lei Technology

In the comment section of this video, you can see foreigners' frustration and sympathy towards Boston Dynamics. They are frustrated that a robot company founded in 1992 still hasn't been able to produce consumer-grade products after more than 30 years. They are sympathetic because, from the current situation, Boston Dynamics may be "destroyed" by Unitree.

Source: Lei Technology

In fact, "Unitree" has become another traffic password on YouTube. Just like the influx of videos titled "Traveling to China, I discovered xxx" that emerged recently, buying a Unitree robot to unbox and try out can easily garner a lot of traffic, to the point where Unitree has become a "hot item" overseas.

During my conversation with Unitree staff at MWC, they mentioned that currently, almost no models are in stock. Even domestic buyers have to wait about a month for delivery, and it takes even longer for international buyers. In fact, many overseas bloggers placed their orders after CES and only received their goods at the end of February or early March. Even so, it can still easily attract a lot of attention overseas.

At the same time, during our visit to the exhibition at MWC, we also focused on Unitree's exhibition area and reported on the situation on-site. We found that Unitree Technology's robots, especially the GO2 robot dog, have become a traffic password for technology exhibitions. Not only was Unitree Technology's booth packed with people, but other booths that could display the GO2 also attracted a huge amount of attention. Those interested in a deeper understanding can read this report: "Unitree Go2 Robot Steals the Show at MWC: Hidden Booth Location, Unbelievably High Popularity".

Behind Unitree, Chinese robots are rising as a group

If you frequently follow overseas news, you may have noticed a sentiment spreading on some technology media and related YouTube channels: "Chinese robots are so strong, how can we compete?" Behind this sentiment, Unitree Technology is not the only driving force. For example, CloudMinds Technology, also based in Hangzhou, has its "Lynx" all-terrain off-road robot that is equally popular in communities like YouTube.

Source: Lei Technology

Looking through CloudMinds' product list, it's not hard to find that they are quite similar to Unitree Technology, but there are many differences in the details. For example, the most popular "Lynx" has a significantly slimmer body, weighing only 30KG, and its four-wheel foot structure has also been improved, giving it higher passability and flexibility in complex terrains such as mountains.

Source: Lei Technology

On this basis, this product can still achieve a range of 3H/15KM and supports a quick-release hot-swappable battery replacement design, making it practical for emergency rescue, search and rescue, and daily patrols in the wild. This has also shocked many overseas bloggers.

There is also a company that many may be less familiar with: LIMX, known in Chinese as Zhuji Power. This is a robot company from Shenzhen, and in addition to the traditional humanoid robot race, they have also launched a bipedal robot named "TRON1" that can switch between wheeled and legged modes.

Source: Lei Technology

If you've watched the Star Wars series of movies, you might think that TRON1 is very similar to the AT-ST, which has also garnered considerable attention for this robot. After all, in European and American countries, the popularity of Star Wars is comparable to our Journey to the West, which can be described as "well-known to everyone."

Moreover, Zhuji Technology has also demonstrated with actual machines that if the robot's size is reduced and equipped with a bird-leg-structured motion system, its mobility in various complex terrains is actually very outstanding, and it moves very stealthily, leading commenters to say directly: This is the best jungle reconnaissance robot of the future.

The existence of TRON1 has also made many people start to think that the non-humanoid design of bipedal robots seems to enable them to achieve better mobility. Of course, for the robot market, humanoid robots will always be the hottest topic, but from a practicality perspective, quadrupeds or bipedal robots similar to TRON1 may be better choices.

Source: Lei Technology

More importantly, these robots originate from China, not Boston Dynamics or other overseas robot companies, and most of them are already available for public purchase. Unitree's Go2 has a minimum selling price of only 9,997 yuan, CloudMinds' Jueying Lite3 is priced at 16,894 yuan, and Zhuji's TRON1 is priced at only 69,800 yuan.

Can Chinese robots be bought, and are they good quality and cheap?

Besides Unitree Technology, there is still plenty of room for price reductions for other robot companies. To some extent, this is still limited by production scale and sales volume, making it impossible to reduce manufacturing and R&D costs through large-scale sales like Unitree.

In other words, once China's robot industry gets on track, its downward trend in pricing and costs may replicate the drone market of years past. If this is indeed the case, the impact on the entire robot industry will be tremendous. Optimistic friends can even envision in advance that companies like Unitree and CloudMinds will control a large portion of the robot market, just like DJI.

Although it's still too early to celebrate, from an industrial chain perspective, indeed, no other country can match China in the robot field. The key not only lies in robot technology and algorithms but also in batteries. In the field of batteries, China is the country that has gone the farthest and achieved the most significant economies of scale, and it has already directly caused the price of pure electric vehicles to plummet by more than 50% compared to two years ago.

In the field of robots, electric drive has become the recognized mainstream, and as the core of endurance and power, battery performance can be said to directly determine the upper limit of the robot experience. It's no exaggeration to say that currently, in terms of cost, performance, and other aspects of small, high-performance batteries, China is leading by a landslide.

At the same time, progress in solid-state batteries is also far exceeding expectations. If such batteries achieve true mass production and reduce costs through technological optimization, then we may not be far from owning robots with all-day endurance.

However, from a realistic perspective, the biggest problem in the current robot market is not cost but rather purpose. The reason why ordinary drones can flatten costs through sales is essentially because they can provide video footage from an aerial perspective, which is something that traditional cameras and mobile phones cannot do.

Therefore, robots also need their unique advantage range to activate the entire market, such as robot dogs that provide entertainment, companionship, navigation, and other functions, or portable robots that can assist ordinary people in their work. This, in turn, relies on breakthroughs in AI. Personally, I estimate that it may take another two to three years to see a truly prosperous robot market, at which point companies like Unitree may also become synonymous with robots, just like DJI.