All posts tagged: Mecha

The Unitree GD01 Is a Giant Mecha Robot You Can Actually Buy

The Unitree GD01 Is a Giant Mecha Robot You Can Actually Buy

Published by skeptic

Unitree is a Chinese company known for making adorable, relatively affordable robots that dance and shuffle and such. Last night, it revealed its latest creation, which is something of a departure: a giant, walking, crawling, transforming, wall-smashing “mecha” called the GD01. An introductory video for the GD01—set to a thundering rock guitar soundtrack—shows the company’s founder and CEO, Xingxing Wang, holding hands with the robot before climbing into its prodigious, open-air belly. A disclaimer added to Unitree’s social media post reads: “Please everyone be sure to use the robot in a Friendly and Safe manner.” The video cuts to a view in which GD01 has no human pilot on board, but still manages to smash a wall of cinder blocks. Unitree later shows the red-limbed robot contorting itself by bending backwards and crawling on its hands and legs. (In this crabwalk position, the human operator would be lying on their back, looking at the ceiling or sky, but honestly who cares at that point.) Unitree is a fast-rising robotics startup based in Hangzhou, China. The …

Unitree Shows Off Fully Functional Mecha Suit

Unitree Shows Off Fully Functional Mecha Suit

Published by José Betancourt

Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech Chinese tech company Unitree has quickly established itself as the brand to beat in the humanoids robotics industry, wowing observers with a string of headline-grabbing demos of its bots’ abilities in everything from acrobatics to basketball to manual labor to public rizz. Now the outfit has further differentiated itself with an explosive new offering: a fully functional 500 kilogram mecha suit called the GD01 that a human operator can climb inside and operate like a much larger body. Sure, it’s smaller than the towering fictional warriors of “Neon Genesis Evangelion.” And instead of a mighty robotic physique, it’s got spindly arms and legs that give it a vaguely goofy vibe. But it’s also an unmistakable feat of engineering, with a video showing the bot striding confidently, knocking over a brick wall with its mighty fist, and even clambering down into a gait that might euphemistically be described as a horse — and perhaps more accurately as a demon …