The Chinese will flood the world with cheap robots. These humanoids are real acrobats

 "Although the most talked about are Tesla's intelligent bipedal machines, which Elon Musk recently presented, the Chinese are definitely leading in the production of such groundbreaking technology. Their humanoids are to far exceed human capabilities.

 

Such devices are to be more advanced and versatile, and at the same time cheaper. An example is the PM01 - a humanoid, the sales of which have just started. Experts - due to its agility - describe it as an ultra acrobat. The robot can turn 320° at the waist, it also has two walking modes and an advanced function of adapting to almost any environment. 

 

The company behind this project, EngineAI, sells the machines for $ 12,000. This is much cheaper than the price of $ 20-30,000 for which Elon Musk wants to offer Optimus.

 

What can the Chinese acrobat robot do?

 

EngineAI talks about a new generation of lightweight, dynamic robotic platforms based on an open source code. The PM01 is equipped with an interactive display and a skeleton made of aluminum alloy, as well as a neural network system. The Shenzhen-based start-up presented a prototype of its machine in October, and now a full-size humanoid, imitating human movement, is hitting the market. For now, only to programmers, researchers and engineers who want to develop the robot's capabilities as part of an open-source project.

 

NEO — a robot that can help with household chores regardless of whether the user is at home or not — is expected to be available on the market as early as 2025. Humanoids are entering homes, factories and warehouses.

 

The PM01 is about 1.4 m tall and weighs 40 kg. EngineAI engineers note that this device, equipped with Nvidia and Intel processors, is characterized by smooth movement. They expect to sell over a thousand such robots in the coming months. The so-called business and educational version of the PM01 is $ 3,000 cheaper than the G1 humanoid machine, from another Chinese company – Unitree. Today, this is one of the leading manufacturers of advanced robots of this type. But the Chinese have many more of them. Several companies from this country showed a total of about 30 different humanoids at the World Robot Conference 2024 in Beijing in August.

 

Car manufacturers are taking on humanoids

 

One of the next players in this industry will be the car manufacturer Li Auto, considered a rival to Tesla. The company has a plan to conquer the humanoid market (the company has even developed its own AI model, and the company's CEO Li Xiang argues that it could even become one of the three best in China). Another Chinese representative of the automotive sector – GAC (Guangzhou Automobile Group) also has great ambitions in the field of robotics. It has already announced that in 2026 it will start producing humanoids on wheels. The company wants to use new technology that will allow it to reduce the energy consumption of the GoMate robot by 80 percent compared to current structures of this type. The model was officially presented on December 26 at the China Robotics Network conference in Shanghai. The creators argued that the machine has advanced motion control, a navigation and localization system, and autonomous decision-making technology.

 

Bipedal robots are also being developed by Chinese companies Agibot and Pudu Robotics."