China’s AI-powered robots are playing a prominent role as the country rings in the 2025 Lunar New Year.
The People’s Republic is kicking off the Year of the Snake with plenty to celebrate. As the West assesses the fallout from DeepSeek’s new open-source AI model that reportedly matches OpenAI’s capabilities with a lot less computing power, China is kicking off 15 days of festivities.
Expect China to use the occasion to demonstrate its AI prowess with its next-generation robots for the duration.
Beijing Robot Park
Beijing’s first robot-themed park made its debut as part of the city’s pre-New Year festivities.
The Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, more commonly known as Beijing E-Town, hosted humanoids, tea-serving robots, and robotic dogs as part of the park’s debut.
The city’s indigenously built humanoid robot, Tiangong, was front and center during the celebration, while humanoids and quadrupeds from the likes of Unitree Robotics, UBTECH, Weilan, and Booster Robotics entertained the crowd.
Beijing E-Town is preparing to host the world’s first half marathon pitting human runners against robots in April. Over 12,000 people will run alongside dozens of bipedal humanoids from more than 20 Chinese robotics firms.
For robots to qualify, they must have a human form factor and bipedal locomotion capabilities. No wheels allowed. The human and robot runners will traverse just over 21 kilometer (13.1 miles) in the hub for aviation, semiconductors, and high-tech industries.
Tiangong, which China calls the world’s first fully electric running humanoid robot, is a likely participant. The AI-powered humanoid was developed by the Beijing Humanoid Innovation Center, also known as X Humanoid, which says it’s focused on making the robot’s movements as humanlike as possible in real-world scenarios.
UBTECH Adopts Tiangong
UBTECH released a happy new year video message featuring Tiangong, which the Shenzhen-based robotics leader is integrating into new AI and robotics programs for education and research.
The company showcased the open-sourced humanoid as part of its exhibit at Bett 2025 in London, a leading education technology conference.
According to the South China Morning Post, UBTECH intends to mass produce its next-generation humanoid robots by the end of 2025. The company plans to deliver between 500 and 1,000 units of its Walker S industrial robots to high-profile customers like Foxconn and logistics firm SF Express.
Foxconn, the world’s largest electronics manufacturer, plans to use UBTECH robots for iPhone assembly tasks. UBTECH has said it’s received more than 500 preorders for its flagship industrial humanoid, the Walker S1.
Humanoids from UBTECH’s Walker S line have also been deployed at automotive plants throughout China, including BYD, Zeekr, and FAW Volkswagen.
Booster Robotics
In Booster Robotics’ new years video message, two of its T1 humanoids dance to the song Bless You by Chinese folk act The Landlord’s Cats.
The Beijing-based startup made the pint-sized humanoid, which is intended for developers, available for purchase in late 2024. Booster Robotics recently announced its partnership with Robo Cup.
The leading international robotics competition aims to develop fully autonomous humanoid robot soccer players that can compete against human World Cup champions by 2050.
PNDBotics is Classy
Calling it a tribute to culture through innovation, PNDBotics rang in the new year with a video of its humanoid, Adam, writing the Chinese character Fu.
PNDBotics says Adam incorporates joints and actuators that mimic natural human motion. The robot uses reinforcement learning methods to mimic human behavior and improve over time.
In December 2024, PND shared this footage of Adam touring the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing.
Astribot S1’s Firecrackers
Shenzhen-based Astribot shared a video of its S1 humanoids decorating for the spring festival celebrations. The Astribot S1 robots are shown spring cleaning, preparing tangyuan, and setting off firecrackers.
Announced at the 2024 World Robot Conference, the Astribot S1 is designed for household tasks like folding clothes, cooking, and cleaning. In November 2024, the Astribot demonstrated the ability to make coffee autonomously with training from Physical Intelligence’s buzzy AI model that helps robots see, understand, and act.
Estun’s High-Speed Rail Display
A collaborative robot by Estun Automation is shown here writing the Chinese characters for Blessing at a high-speed rail station. The cobot was developed by Estun subsidiary, Estun CoDroid, which focuses on embodied intelligence for industrial applications.
Nanjing-based Estun is developing a humanoid robot called the CoDroid 01. Estun says it’s aiming to future-proofed AI in physical form.
BridgeDP Robotics Gives AgiBot Rhythm
Shenzen-based startup BridgeDP Robotics is also in a celebratory mood. The Shenzen-based startup, which provides control system solutions for bipedal and quadrupedal robots, shared this fun demo of an Agibot A2 humanoid dancing to club music.
When we bought this humanoid robot, added our control system magic, not just a robot, but a performer. … 💃🤖 "Bringing rhythm to real robots!" "#BridgeDP_Robotics #AI #Humanoid #EmbodiedAI #Dance #Motion #Control #sim2real pic.twitter.com/EHGfglgez1
— BridgeDP Robotics (@BrigdgeDP_Robot) January 25, 2025
BridgeDP says its humanoid robot locomotion system facilitates whole body motion tracking, agile lower body motion, natural dynamic walking, and multi-sensor fusion perception capabilities. The startup has also developed what it calls China’s first open-source humanoid motion control algorithm, which is available on Github.
The robot in the dance footage is from Shanghai-based Agibot, which says it’s already manufactured more than a thousand humanoid robots. Agibot, also known as Zhiyuan Robotics, operates one of at least two major training centers in Shanghai for humanoids.
The other is the new Humanoid Robot Kylin Training Ground, which was just opened by the National and Local Co-Built Humanoid Robotics Innovation Center.
Today, it reportedly houses 100 robots, and plans call to scale to 1,000 by 2027.
Unitree Humanoids at Spring Gala
And finally, details are emerging about Unitree’s viral humanoid robot performance at the Spring Festival Gala, China’s most-watched TV show.
Sixteen Unitree H1 full-sized humanoids danced alongside real people for the high-tech performance. More than a billion people viewed the broadcast. Decked out in floral red and white vests, the robots performed a traditional Chinese folk dance.
According to the South China Morning Post, Alibaba Cloud powered the performance, providing AI-driven real-time spatial processing. The AI enabled the robots to synchronize with the music, processing high-frequency spatial data in real-time to adjust positioning.
Unitree’s smaller humanoid, the G1, and its quadrupeds also appeared in backstage footage shared by the robotics. The G1 also just went viral thanks to popular Twitch streamer Kai Cenat.
In a livestream, Cenat and others aggressively try to knock down the robot, which reportedly cost $70,000. The footage sparked discussions online about bullying robots.
Some expressed discomfort, saying that even though it’s a machine the actions appeared sinister. However, the abuse is mild compared to what Unitree’s robots endure in its own marketing videos.
Year of the Snake
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