Upright Walking Chinese Robot Sparking Interest

A Shenzhen-based robotics company, whose new humanoid robot model has drawn praise from an Nvidia scientist, has expressed its hope that a lower price will help it win in the intense industry competition in China, where firms face monetisation challenges.

A video of a humanoid robot made by Chinese start-up Engine AI has been circulating online after Jim Fan, a senior research scientist at US chip giant Nvidia, posted it on the social media platform X, asking, "Is this real?"

Fan, who also leads Nvidia's AI Agents Initiative, said he had seen posts of "very natural humanoid walking gaits" from the Chinese company, but added that it was hard to tell if the new clip was generated by artificial intelligence (AI).

"Walking gait's got swag but we need these robots to go firefighting [as soon as possible]," Fan wrote after confirming the authenticity of the video.

Engine AI originally posted the video a few days ago on Chinese social media platforms, showing the robot, called SE01, walking at a commercial complex and attracting onlookers.

The Shenzhen-based firm announced SE01 last October, positioning it as an industrial and home robot. Standing at 170cm tall, the robot can perform human movements including squats, push-ups, walking in circles and grabbing objects, and is designed to last for more than 10 years, the company said.

Engine AI, founded in October 2023, has already launched several humanoid robots, including SA01, an open-source bipedal robot meant for scientific research and educational use cases. That model is priced at only 38,500 yuan (US$5,250). The 138cm-tall PM01 is priced at a much higher 88,000 yuan.

The company has not disclosed its pricing for the more high-end SE01. Engine AI co-founder Yao Qiyuan told a Shenzhen news outlet last week that the company aims to keep the price of its full-sized humanoid robots between 150,000 yuan and 200,000 yuan.

The company also told Chinese outlet National Business Daily in November that it was working to keep the production costs of each humanoid robot under 100,000 yuan.

Engine AI was co-founded by Zhao Tongyang, who also founded another Chinese robotics start-up called Dogotix, which was acquired by the Chinese electric vehicle (EV) firm Xpeng in 2020. Zhao then co-founded the EV company's robotics unit before leaving to establish Engine AI.