We first saw Unitree’s humanoid robot pulling some kung fu moves back in March when it kicked a baton out of the hand of its human opponent.
Fast forward six months and the G1 robot is showing clear signs of improvement, though admittedly it still needs a few tweaks to become an effective combatant … if that’s the goal.
A video (below) shared by RoboHub this week shows the G1 taking a battering from a human assailant while performing a few moves of its own. As you’ll see, the humanoid robot’s movement is incredibly natural, but what’s most impressive is its ability to stay upright. For example, check the speed at which it gets back on its feet after stumbling on a piece of flooring early on in the video.
The footage comes from a team at the Active Intelligent Systems (ACT) Lab at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) in Shenzhen, China, which has been working on improving the G1.
The video shows the humanoid robot taking a number of kicks to its torso, but each time it recovers with ease. The G1 also performs its own kicks and punches, but its human opponent is behind it, so all of the moves leave it looking a bit silly. If the engineers can refine the robot’s software to properly take on an opponent, Unitree’s G1 will become a lean, mean, fighting machine … at which point we can all start worrying.
Joking aside, while the creation of a bipedal robot soldier isn’t out of the question, dramatic videos like this are geared more toward showcasing their impressive design and human-like mobility, at the same time highlighting the exciting advancements being made in humanoid robotics.
Unitree’s robot — and other similar ones from the likes of Boston Dynamics, Tesla, LimX Dynamics, Robotera, and Figure — could be used to transform the workplace, especially production lines and warehouses. Mass production is the goal, but that still looks to be a few years away.
