I saw the revolutionary $1,600 Chinese robots that are shaking Boston Dynamics

For many months, my cousin, an electromechanical engineer, has been telling me about Unitree's Chinese robots. For him, they are formidable competitors to Boston Dynamics' robots, at a lower cost.

During CES 2025 in Las Vegas, I saw the article titled “ Here is the Chinese response to Boston Dynamics robots: $1,600 versus $74,500“. I then clicked on it, realizing that the Chinese stratup was present at CES! So I went straight to the Unitree stand to see if the promises were indeed true.

A “patrol and assistance dog”

The Chinese company announces that the Unitree Go2 is capable of playing the role of “ patrol and assistance dog“. All this from just $1,600. Why only? Because Boston Dynamics robots are sold from $74,500 for the Spot for example. And at this price, what can we expect?

Unitree's stand was clearly not huge, with no frills to catch the eye, except the robots themselves. We feel that this is a startup, which does not have the means to impress with visual or sound tricks. To provide sound for the stand, a Unitree employee used a microphone to capture music from her iPhone and output it to a small portable speaker. System D!

Robots loaded with sensors

But for robots, we are far from system D. They are loaded with sensors (including LiDAR) to avoid obstacles and find their way. They can also be remotely controlled via a fairly large controller. The crowd was very dense around the stand throughout CES, to come and see what the robots were capable of.

All day long, company engineers took turns piloting these robots and carrying out impressive demonstrations. The cheapest small quadruped Go2 was, for example, capable of performing forward and backward somersaults, walking on only two legs, or even climbing steps, jumping, and landing on its feet. If he was forced to lose his balance, he managed to stay standing. Truly impressive, especially given the smallness of the stand, which clearly demonstrated the responsiveness and performance of the robots to move around in this very limited space.

Every hour, the engineers brought out the big guns: a dance show, with all the robots present on the stand, including the humanoids, which imitate humans. A spectacle as stunning as it is embarrassing, as the resemblance to humans and animals is present.

The artificial intelligence of the game

Of course, it is possible to operate these robots without any human intervention, only thanks to artificial intelligence. AI is integrated into robots with GPT. Enough to allow them to understand their environment or the orders that their owners can give them. This demonstration was not carried out on the stand. For this, you must take the high-end version, equipped with an Nvidia Jetson Orin chip.

Clearly, this Chinese startup has gold on its hands. We could see numerous business cards exchanged with companies interested in using these robots. Individuals can place an order directly from the brand's website to have it delivered to their home. Be careful with the weight, the lightest Unitree robot still weighs 15 kg.

With this selling price starting at $1,600, Unitree is clearly making its revolution, and could well allow robots to make their forceful entry into homes.