China’s robotics industry is entering beast mode.
One of the first commercially available six-legged robots just emerged in Shenzhen, the booming Chinese tech hub, as another major robotics player introduced a suite of humanoids and a new short king has arrived to rival Unitree G1.
Dobot’s Hexplorer
Dobot, the industrial automation leader pushing the 6-legged beast to market, has proven disruptive in the past.
The Kickstarter success story rose to the upper echelon of the robotics world in under a decade. Now, as it unleashes its humanoids into the workforce, Dobot says it’s bringing next level strength and capabilities to the robodog form factor.
With six legs, Dobot’s Hexplorer essentially acts as a quadrupedal robot on steroids. It always has three legs on the ground for rock solid posture with minimized fluctuations, even on steep or uneven slopes.
Six-legged robots, or hexapods, have been explored for decades, mostly in research and military settings.
Earlier this year, Chinese tech giant Lenovo’s Daystar GS successfully endured temperatures as low as 40° below Celsius in Antarctica’s Shongdong Station. Researchers outfitted it with special ice grip shoes to maintain traction without damaging the frozen surface. The Hexapod reportedly transported packages as heavy as 100 kg on icy terrain during the trek.
In the late 90s, Boston Dynamics started developing a six-legged robot named Rhex with funding from DARPA. The leading Massachusetts-based robotics firm officially unveiled Rhex in 2001. Rhex and its variants remain active in university research labs for experiments in mobility, autonomy, and terrain adaptation. Boston Dynamics, however, moved on to other robots like its quadruped Spot, its humanoid Atlas, and its logistics robot, Stretch.
Other notable hexapods include:
- The PhantomX by Trossen Robotics, a fully open-source robot kit for hobbyists
- Space Bok, a prototype by Swiss researchers designed to hop in low gravity for space exploration
- Lauron by the German FZI Research Center for Information Technology for hazardous area inspection
Unlike most previous heaopods, the Dobot Hexplorer is being actively marketed for real-world use for applications in emergency response, infrastructure inspection, energy site maintenance, and rugged outdoor exploration.
According to Dobot, the Hexplorer can transport loads up to 5x its weight, which hasn’t been disclosed. Assuming its weight is similar to Spot by Boston Dynamics, which is about 33 kg, it should be able to pull or carry 165 kg (360 lb). Spot’s base model has a payload capacity of 14 kg, which is 12x less than the Hexplorer.
The Hexplorer’s low-impact gait operates at library level noise levels around 50 to 55 dB. Dobot hasn’t specified its speed, but its pace appears moderate in demo footage. It likely sacrifices speed to support heavy loads over rough terrain. The Hexapod actively scans for obstacles with its integrated lidar and vision systems to adapt its paths in real time. Dot has not announced the price.
The company has a history of bringing novel robotic products to market.
Founded by Jerry Liu and Lang Xulin, Dobot launched its first product, a lightweight robotic arm on Kickstarter in 2015. The campaign was a runaway success, raising more than $600K against an initial goal of only $36K. The original Dobot featured a 4-axis design and weighed just 3 kg, about as much as a laptop or a bag of flour. Priced under $1K during crowdfunding, the collaborative robot filled a void between DIY kits and high-end industrial arms from vendors like ABB, KUKA, Fanuc, and Epson.
Dobot grew rapidly in the years that followed, becoming China’s top industrial robot exporter by 2021. With 13% of the global market share, Dobot is the largest Chinese cobot maker and the second largest globally, behind Denmark-based Universal Robots, which has more than 40% of the world’s market share. In December 2024, Dobot became the first Chinese cobot manufacturer to go public. It was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange after raising $87 million in its initial public offering.
Today, Dobot is one of at least dozens of Chinese companies rushing to bring humanoid robots to the masses. The company says it started mass producing its first bipedal humanoid robot, Atom, for use in industrial settings and service scenarios.
During a recent event in Nagoya, Japan, Dobot announced it delivered its first batch of Atom humanoids to ASKA Corporation. The major Japanese system integrator specializes in automotive components and control systems. It works closely with developers and manufacturers to build end-to-end automation ecosystems. ASKA will spearhead the industrial deployments of the robots in Japan starting with automotive electronics assembly, precision tasks, and broader factory automation.
Atom, which is priced starting at $2K, is powered by Dobet’s proprietary Neuro Driven System, which the company says enables precise coordination between upper and lower limbs.
ROKAE’s Embodied Intelligence Series
Another major Chinese industrial automation player with an increasingly global reach is also entering the humanoid robotics fray.
ROKAE Robotics just announced its new embodied intelligence robot series featuring humanoids designed for real-world factory work. The series includes a robotic humanoid called the HumanX, a wheeled dual-arm bot named Helios, and fixed robotic arms. The announcement did not specify pricing or availability dates.
ROKAE was founded in Beijing in 2015. Initially focused on flexible collaborative and industrial robots. The startup is on track to reach unicorn status, having raised around $210 million, including $69 million during its Series E round in April 2024.
It just opened its new Shandong smart manufacturing facility with automated production lines that can reportedly assemble units in as little as 37 minutes. The factory is engineered to scale to 50,000 robots per year.
Spirit AI’s Moz1
Meanwhile, the founder of ROKAE is actively developing fake humans at Spirit AI.
Han Fengtaoleft left ROKAE in early 2024 to launch the new startup that aims to merge advanced AI models with humanoid hardware. Its commercial humanoid is the Moz1, a wheeled robot with 26 degrees of freedom in its body. An official release is expected soon.
MagicLab’s Z1
Another startup, MagicLab, just unveiled its short king to rival a growing army of AI-powered machines about the size of middle schoolers.
The startup, officially known as Magic Atom Robotics Technology, was launched in Wuxi in December 2023 after the Chinese government laid out its vision for mass-producing humanoids by 2025 and ruling the emerging market by 2027. In early 2024, MagicLab unveiled its third generation Magic Bot designed to rival the world-famous Atlas humanoid robot from Boston Dynamics. The robotics firm reportedly raised $21 million in an angel funding round after showcasing a fleet of its MagicBots training for factory work in December 2024.
According to MagicLab, the robots are mastering industrial automation tasks like product inspections, material transport, precision assembly, barcode scanning, and inventory management. The startup has also begun testing its humanoids in commercial service scenarios for tasks like greeting customers and offering shopping guidance.
MagicLab calls its latest creation, the Z1, a clever and brave mini hero. The startup unveiled the robot with a short video showcasing its lifelike walking and running abilities, reaching speeds up to 2 m/s (or about 5 to 12 mph).
At 1.4 m, the Z1 robot stands slightly taller than competing Chinese humanoids like the G1 by Unitree Robotics, the PM01 by Engine AI, the N1 by Fourier, the T1 by Booster Robotics, and AgiBot’s Lingxi X2. Weighing about 40 kilos, the Z1 boasts between 24 and 50 DoF, depending on the configuration.
According to MagicLab, the robot’s lightweight yet sturdy frame balances reach, agility, and maneuverability. On its website, MagicLab pitches the Z1 for use cases in scientific research, tourism, and home assistance.
The Z1 integrates with MagicLab’s dexterous hand, called the S01, introduced earlier in 2025. With 11 degrees of freedom, the robotic hand can reportedly replicate around 70 percent of human gestures. It uses advanced hybrid force and position control, combining electric motor feedback and tactile sensing for smooth and precise interaction with objects. Each finger delivers a grip strength of around 2.5 kg, while the hand supports a payload of 5 kilos individually and 20 in coordinated arm tasks.
MagicLab says the Z1 has zero blind spots. It’s equipped with a 3D LAR system, stereo cameras, and depth sensors for full situational awareness in real-world settings. The startup’s proprietary Magic Atom positioning and navigation system enables precise localization and adaptive path planning.
The Z1 humanoid supports up to 5 hours of continuous operation during walking and task execution. Magic Lab hasn’t publicly disclosed pricing yet, but robots in its class start around $15K.
The Future of Robotics
Another Chinese robotics firm, which has reportedly already started mass-producing its industrial humanoids, is teasing its next generation robot that can swap out its own battery. Shenzhen’s UBTECH Robotics, whose humanoids are reportedly helping assemble iPhones for Foxconn, also recently unveiled its first hyper-realistic android.
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