Chinese manufacturer Unitri Robotics, one of the most active robot-makers in the field, is preparing to bring its most affordable model, the Unitri R1, to international markets through Alibaba Group’s marketplace. The rollout will initially cover North America, Japan, Singapore and Europe, The South China Morning Post reports. There is no exact date for the robots’ sale yet, but the Post reports that it will appear as soon as this week.
This is not the first time Unitri has used AliExpress as a global storefront. The company’s G1 model, which is the R1’s predecessor and is more powerful and more expensive, is already listed for less than $19,000.
It is also a symbolic step before the commercial move; Selling humanoid robots in the global market makes the product easily obtainable. This serves as a step towards generalization of the technology, which is still not widely adopted. Sales of the R1 lower the reach threshold even further, and move humanoid robots from the realm of promise to the realm of concrete availability.
low price, high demand
When it was announced last summer, the starting price of the R1 was 39,900 yuan, or about $5,900. Today, the base version starts at 29,900 yuan, or about $4,370.
The price will fluctuate as import taxes and tariffs increase due to changes in exchange rates and shipping costs. Still, this figure seems surprisingly low, given that some of the R1’s other competitors in the humanoid robotics landscape are far more expensive.
Unitri’s own flagship H1 robot costs around $90,000. Tesla’s Optimus robot, which is not yet on sale to the public, aims to have a starting price of less than $20,000, but that price will only be achieved when Tesla reaches production of 1 million units per year. Meanwhile, figure AI and Aptronic’s robots are hovering around $50,000 per unit. The R1’s objectively low price essentially makes it a hatchback in a world of sedans.
R1 stands 4 feet tall, weighs 50 pounds and has 26 smart joints. You can talk to him and give him orders; Unity’s large-language multimodal model with voice and image recognition is on board. Keen coders can program it using a software developer kit. But the real calling card is the R1’s physical performance. The robot can run cartwheels, lie down and stand independently, and run downhill. Unity calls it “born for the game” and videos of its presentation circulated months ago. The handstand and wheel kicks aren’t exactly what you’d expect from a robot that costs less than a used car.
put it to work
As impressive as the Unity R1’s moves are, it lacks hand fingers, and its motors can’t generate a lot of torque. It is not designed to be a household assistant or to manipulate complex objects. The company bills it as an “intelligent companion” for conversation, research, and software development.
The EDU model (Go2 EDU, G1 EDU) adds an Nvidia Jetson Orin module with more computing power for artificial intelligence tasks. That model also has two degrees of freedom for the head and optional right hands. In the case of that robot, the target markets are laboratories and universities. The basic R1’s limitations keep it largely in the same camp. This isn’t a home robot that makes coffee and walks the dog, but it’s a good option for researchers, labs, and anyone who wants to test robotics algorithms on solid hardware without spending a lot of money.
It’s true that bringing relatively capable humanoids to global markets at this price does lower the barrier to entry for developers, researchers, and enthusiasts. This is a real leap forward from a few years ago, even if some people will only buy it to keep in the living room to greet guests when they arrive.
This story was originally published by WIRED Italia and translated from Italian.
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