Overview

The R1 is a particularly lightweight and comparatively affordable humanoid from Unitree Robotics, unveiled in July 2025. With a base price of 39,999 yuan, equivalent to around 5,900 US dollars, it significantly undercuts larger and more expensive models from the same manufacturer.

Construction

The R1 measures approximately 1.21 to 1.22 meters and weighs around 25 kilograms, making it possible for a single person to carry. It features 26 joints as well as two six-axis inertial sensors.

Technology and AI

A computer with eight cores and graphics unit sits in a backpack-like module, running Unitree's multimodal language model UnifoLM. This enables voice and image commands, gesture recognition, and locally executed learning procedures without cloud delay. A replaceable battery provides approximately one hour of runtime in mixed operation. In demonstration videos, the R1 showed sprints, cartwheels, and handstands, among other things.

Market Significance

The low price targets universities, hobbyists, and early adopters who lacked the budget for more expensive models such as the G1 or H1.