List consumer electronics on large e-commerce marketplaces on the Internet is a key step in the “democratization” of products, allowing everyone to purchase them with a single click. It happened to cars (in the United States, you can buy a Hyundai on Amazon), and now it’s happening to humanoid robots.
The Chinese manufacturer Unitree Roboticsone of the most active robot manufacturers in the field, is preparing to bring its most affordable model, the Unitree R1, to international markets thanks to Alibaba Group Marketplace. According to reports from South China Morning Newsthe rollout will initially cover North America, Japan, Singapore and Europe. There’s no exact date yet for when the robots will go on sale, but the Post’s report says they’ll appear as early as this week.
This is not the first time that Unitree has used AliExpress as a global showcase. The company Model G1the more powerful and more expensive predecessor of the R1, is already listed at just under $19,000.
The G1 is already on sale on AliExpress.
This is a step as much symbolic as commercial; selling a humanoid robot in a global market positions the product as easily accessible. This is a step toward standardizing this technology, which is not yet widely adopted. The sale of the R1 simply lowers the threshold of access even further and moves humanoid robots from the territory of promise to that of concrete availability.
Lower price, higher demand
When it was announced last summer, the R1’s starting price was 39,900 yuan, or about $5,900. Today, the base version starts at 29,900 yuan, or about $4,370.
This price will fluctuate based on changes in exchange rates and shipping costs in addition to import taxes and tariffs. Still, this figure seems surprisingly low given that some of the R1’s other competitors in the humanoid robotics landscape are much more expensive.
The price of Unitree’s flagship H1 robot is approaching $90,000. Tesla’s Optimus The robot, which is not yet on sale to the public, is targeting a starting price of less than $20,000, but that price will only be reached when Tesla reaches production of one million units per year. Meanwhile, robots from Figure AI and Apptronik run around $50,000 per unit. The R1’s objectively low price makes it essentially a hatchback in the world of sedans.
The R1 stands 4 feet tall, weighs 50 pounds, and has 26 smart joints. You can talk to him and give him commands; Unitree’s large language multimodal model with speech and image recognition is integrated. Curious coders can program it using a software development kit. But the real calling card lies in the R1’s physical performance. The robot can cartwheel, lie down and stand up independently, and run downhill. Unitree calls it “born for sport” and videos of his presentation made the rounds months ago. Handstands and kicks on the steering wheel aren’t exactly what you’d expect from a robot that costs less than a used car.
Put it to work
As impressive as the Unitree R1’s movements are, it lacks hands with articulated fingers and its motors can’t generate much torque. It is not designed to be a household helper or to handle complex objects. The company presents it as an “intelligent companion” for interaction, research and software development.
The EDU model (Go2 EDU, G1 EDU) adds a Nvidia Jetson Music Module with more computing power for artificial intelligence tasks. This model also has two degrees of freedom for the head and optional right hands. In the case of this robot, the target market is laboratories and universities. The limitations of the base R1 place it largely in the same camp. It’s not a home robot that makes coffee and walks the dog, but it’s a good choice for researchers, labs, and anyone who wants to test robotic algorithms on solid hardware without spending a fortune.
It is true that offering a relatively high-performance humanoid on global markets at this price lowers the barrier to entry for developers, researchers and enthusiasts. This is a real leap from a few years ago, although some will buy it just to keep in the living room to greet arriving guests.
This story was originally published by WIRED Italy and translated from Italian.
