China’s Unitree Offers a Humanoid Robot for Under $6,000

Unitree Robotics is marketing one of the world’s first humanoid robots for under $6,000, drastically reducing the entry price for what’s expected to grow into a whole wave of versatile AI machines for the workplace and home.

The startup, among the frontrunners in Chinese robotics, on Friday announced its R1 bot with a starting price of 39,900 yuan (or $5,900). The machine weighs just 25kg and has 26 joints, the company said in a video posted to WeChat. It’s equipped with multimodal artificial intelligence that includes voice and image recognition.