HONG KONG/TOKYO — For the second time in a year, Unitree Robotics caused a stir on social media recently with videos of its humanoid robot’s acrobatic accomplishments. This time around, the G1 robot completed a standing side flip and a kung fu move known as a carp jump — both more complicated than the standing front flip that the startup’s H1 model performed last year.
The H1 also appeared on state broadcaster CCTV’s Lunar New Year Gala this year, while Unitree’s founder Wang Xingxing took part in a high-profile meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping that included such tech heavyweights as Alibaba founder Jack Ma. All this recent publicity underscores the excitement gathering around humanoid robots as Beijing positions the sector as a new growth engine in the vein of electric vehicles.
