On May 12, 2026, the Chinese company Unitree Robotics (宇树科技) unveiled a product that, until recently, would have belonged exclusively to the realm of science fiction: the GD01 — the world's first mass-produced, transformable, residential mechanical exoskeleton. The machine can switch between upright bipedal walking and smooth quadrupedal locomotion. When activated, it weighs approximately 500 kilograms, and its starting price is 3.9 million yuan. (The Paper / 澎湃新闻, May 12, 2026) Anyone who grew up watching films like Avatar or anime series featuring giant robots must have felt a strange sense of vertigo when seeing footage of the company's founder, Wang Xingxing, sitting inside the steel giant, which effortlessly punches through a brick wall — the line between fiction and reality has definitively blurred.

Years of Catching Up

The Chinese technological industrial revolution was not a matter of a single day. At the turn of the millennium, China was significantly behind Japan, the United States, or Germany in the field of robotics. It lacked both domestic components — servomotors, sensors, control software — and the research base and capital infrastructure needed for long-term projects. It was from these conditions that the first pioneering companies emerged. UBTECH (优必选) was founded in March 2012 as one of the first Chinese startups focused on AI robotics and the commercial deployment of humanoid robots (UBTECH official profile).

The founder of Unitree Robotics, Wang Xingxing, followed a similar path: in 2013, he assembled the first quadrupedal robot, XDog, and in 2016, after receiving angel investment, he formally launched the company. (Baidu Baike – Unitree) A representative of UBTECH summarized the situation: "In the initial phase, there was no industrial ecosystem. Even before the company was founded, we were developing key components such as servomotors in a factory in Shenzhen's Longgang, because there was no relevant industrial chain in China at that time." It was hard work in the truest sense of the word.

Breakthrough: Robots Dancing on New Year's Eve

The turning point was not a laboratory or a conference. It was a television broadcast. In 2016, 540 Alpha robots from UBTECH performed simultaneously on the Chinese New Year's show CCTV — and the company broke through from behind the scenes to the public stage in a single evening. (Zhihu – UBTECH). Years later, on CCTV's New Year's Eve broadcast in 2025, Unitree's humanoid robots performed the traditional Yangge dance in the 秧BOT program, and at the turn of the years 2025/2026, they showcased martial arts in the 武BOT program — robots as full-fledged performers, not just technical curiosities. (36氪). Behind this spectacle lie concrete data. According to Omdia's statistics, global shipments of humanoid robots exceeded 14,000 units in 2025 — five times higher than the previous year — with Chinese manufacturers accounting for more than 80% of the market share. Analysts predict that the Chinese market will grow by another 94% in 2026, with Unitree and Zhiyuan together covering nearly 80% of the shipments. (Omdia / 金融界)

Today and Tomorrow: A Marathon as a Mirror of Progress

We don't have to work in the technology industry to feel the change. We just need to follow current events. In April 2026, the second edition of the humanoid robot half-marathon took place in Yizhuang, Beijing. Compared to the first edition, which featured 20 teams and 6 finishers, this year saw over 100 teams from 11 Chinese provinces, with 47 of them successfully completing the race. (Xinhua, April 19, 2026) The winner of the first edition recorded a time of 2 hours, 40 minutes, and 42 seconds; this year, the robot from the Qitian Dasheng team, named 201eBlesk201c, completed the course in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, breaking the world record for human runners in the half-marathon (57:20, Kiprimo, Uganda, March 2026). (Xinhua / 新华网, April 19, 2026). It's worth remembering that in the first edition, many robots were unable to finish the race, falling, stumbling, or having to be carried away on stretchers – as happened this year with two of the favorites, the Unitree H1 and Tiangong Ultra robots, which collapsed from overheating after crossing the finish line. Such progress in just one year. Nella.Ni

Translation: legacy (English)

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