Who will win the race to build a humanoid robot?

To be useful, humanoid robots need to be strong, but that also makes them potentially dangerous – if they simply trip at the wrong moment, it could endanger someone.

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Unitri G1 charms people at trade fairs, Photo: Getty Images

Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

27.04.2025. 18:00h

Keri King and Ben Moris

BBC News

It's a bright spring morning in Hanover, Germany, and I'm on my way to meet a robot.

I was invited to see G1, a humanoid robot made by the Chinese company Unitri, at Hannover Messe, one of the largest trade fairs in the field.

Standing at around 130 centimetres tall, G1 is smaller and more accessible than other humanoid robots on the market and possesses such a fluid range of motion and dexterity that footage of it dancing and engages in martial arts have gone viral.

Today, Pedro Zheng, sales manager at Unitri, is remotely operating the G1.

He explains that customers must program each G1 themselves for autonomous functions.

Passersby stop and actively try to communicate with the G1, which cannot be said for many of the other machines on display in the cave-like conference room.

They reach out to shake his hand, make sudden movements to see if he will react, laugh when G1 waves or leans back, apologize if they bump into him.

There's something about his human form that, as spooky as it is, puts people at ease.

Unitri is one of dozens of companies around the world that make robots in human form.

The potential is huge – for companies it promises a workforce that doesn't need holidays or raises.

It can also be the ultimate home appliance.

After all, who wouldn't want a machine that can do laundry and load the dishwasher.

But the technology is still far from the goal.

Although robotic arms and mobile robots have been common in factories and warehouses for decades, conditions in these workplaces can be controlled and workers can remain safe.

Introducing a humanoid robot into less predictable environments, such as a restaurant or a private home, is a much bigger problem.

To be useful, humanoid robots need to be strong, but that also makes them potentially dangerous – if they simply trip at the wrong moment, it could endanger someone.

And that's why a lot still needs to be done on the artificial intelligence that would control such a machine.

"AI has not yet reached that milestone," a Unitry spokesperson told the BBC.

"For today's robotic AI, basic logic and reasoning – such as understanding and completing complex tasks – pose a major challenge," they say.

At the moment, G1 is being marketed to research institutions and technology companies, which can use Unitri's open source system for development.

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For now, entrepreneurs are focusing all their efforts on humanoid robots for warehouses and factories.

The most famous among them is Elon Musk.

His car manufacturing company Tesla is building a humanoid robot named Optimus.

U In January he said that "several thousand" will be made this year and expects them to do "useful things" in Tesla's factories.

Other car manufacturers have followed a similar path.

BMW recently introduced humanoid robots to its American factory.

Meanwhile, the South Korean car company Hyundai orders tens of thousands of robots from Boston Dynamics, a robotics company it acquired in 2021.

Thomas Anderson, founder of research firm STIK, tracks 49 companies that make humanoid robots – those with two arms and two legs.

If you expand the definition to include robots with two arms but standing on wheels, then it studies more than 100.

Anderson thinks Chinese companies are most likely to dominate the market.

"The supply chain and the whole ecosystem for robotics is huge in China, and it's very easy to iterate development and do research and development," he says.

Unitri emphasizes this advantage – its G1 is cheap (for a single robot) with an advertised price of $16.000.

Also, Anderson points out, investors favor Asian countries.

A recent STIK report highlights that nearly 60 percent of funding for humanoid robots was raised in Asia, while the US managed to attract most of the rest.

Chinese companies have the added advantage of support from national and local governments.

For example, in Shanghai there is a state-supported robot training facility, where dozens of humanoid robots learn to complete tasks.

So how can the American and European markets compete with that?

Bristol robot creator Bren Pearce has funded three robotics companies, the latest of which is Kinisi, which has just launched the KR1 robot.

While the robot was designed and completed in the UK, it will be manufactured in Asia.

"The problem you have as a European or American company is that you have to, first of all, buy all those sub-components from China."

"And then it becomes stupid to buy motors, batteries, resistors, ship them to the other side of the world to assemble them there when you can assemble them right at the source, which is Asia."

In addition to manufacturing his own robots in Asia, Pierce keeps the price down by not making an effort to achieve their full humanoid form.

Built for warehouses and factories, the KR1 has no legs.

"All of these places have flat floors. Why would you want the added expense of a very complex form factor when you can just put it on a mobile base?" he asks.

Wherever possible, his KR1 is built with mass-produced components – the wheels are the same as you would find on an electric scooter.

"My philosophy is to buy as many things as I can off the shelf. So all of our motors, batteries, computers, cameras, they're all commercially available, mass-produced parts," he says.

Like his competitors at Unitry, Pearce says the real "secret ingredient" is the software that allows the robot to work with humans.

“A lot of companies put out high-tech robots, but then you need a doctorate in robotics to actually install and use it.

"What we're trying to do is make a robot that's very easy to use, where your average warehouse or factory worker can actually learn how to use it in a couple of hours," says Pierce.

He says that KR1 can perform a task after a human has put it through it 20 to 30 times.

The KR1 will receive trial customers to test it this year.

So, will robots ever leave factories and move into homes?

Even the optimistic Pierce says that's still a long way off.

"My long-term dream for the last 20 years has been to make a robot for everyone. I did my PhD on that and I really think that's the ultimate goal, but it's a very complicated task," says Pearce.

"I still think it will eventually be achieved, but I think we need at least another 10 to 15 years to get there."

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