Humanoid robots are clearly one step closer to the consumer market, with Chinese robotics company Unitree announcing the launch ofNew entry-level humanoid robot R1With a starting price of only RMB 3.99 or US$5900 (approximately NT$17), you can bring home an AI humanoid robot with a built-in multimodal large model and 26 degrees of freedom.
R1 is now available for purchase on the Yushu official website. It measures 1210 x 357 x 190 mm and weighs about 25 kg. It is made of aluminum alloy and high-strength plastic. The overall design is closer to practical humanoid robot applications. The whole machine has a total of 26 degrees of freedom, distributed in the arms (5 degrees of freedom each), legs (6 degrees of freedom each), and the head and waist (2 degrees of freedom each), to meet the needs of complex motion control and human body simulation.
In terms of the power system, the R1 joint uses a built-in low-inertia high-speed inner rotor permanent magnet synchronous motor, and is equipped with cross rollers and double hook ball bearings to improve stability and flexibility. The single arm can carry more than 2 kilograms, which is enough to handle simple object handling tasks. The power comes from a quickly replaceable lithium battery, which can support about 1 hour of operation on a single charge.
In terms of core computing hardware, the R1 has a built-in 8-core processor and can be equipped with high-computing modules such as NVIDIA Jetson Orin to accelerate multimodal perception and generation processing. The sensing system is equipped with an ultra-wide-angle binocular camera, 4-array microphones and dual 3W power speakers, with complete voice and image interaction capabilities, and can interact through voice commands and environmental understanding.
The biggest highlight of R1 is the integration of the multimodal large language model developed by Yushu, which has the ability to integrate voice and image comprehension, enabling natural conversations, object recognition, and simple task planning. From the demonstration video released by Yushu, R1 can perform high-degree-of-freedom movements such as upright walking, handstands, boxing, kicking, downhill running, and even cartwheels, demonstrating high mobility and algorithm optimization results.
For those who have been following the development of Yushu's technology for a long time, these movements may not be unfamiliar. In the past, Yushu has attracted attention for its high-performance quadruped robots. Now that the price of humanoid robot products has been reduced to the threshold of consumer level, it means that high-end robot products have gradually moved towards "practical" and "mass production", which is of indicative significance for the development of the overall humanoid robot market.
In the future, R1's application scenarios are expected to cover multiple scenarios such as education research, family companionship, and smart services. With the continuous evolution of AI models, its interactive capabilities will have the opportunity to be further expanded. For developers and early adopters, R1 is not only a technology experience platform, but also has the opportunity to become the first robot in the home with "understanding ability".
