Dobot is bringing the entry price into Spot-like quadrupedal robots to a new low.
The Shenzhen-based robotics firm, which rose from a Kickstarter campaign to a publicly traded industrial automation leader in under a decade, just launched its new Rover X1 robodog.
Priced at $1,030 USD, the Rover X1 undercuts Unitree’s Go2 quadruped, which starts around $1,600. However, the Dobot Rover’s specs are more comparable to higher-end Unitree configurations priced around $2,800.
The Rover X1 is billed as an open platform for applications like home security, STEM classes, and personal companionship. According to Dobot, the new four-legged bot has two cameras so it can see in all directions and safely follow people and objects. It features a unique leg-wheel hybrid design to move smoothly over diverse indoor and outdoor surfaces. The robot can haul small items and serve as a mobile photographer, capturing pictures and videos as it moves.
While robotic dogs can be found for as little as $50 on Temu, they lack serious autonomy, rugged hardware, advanced sensing or payload capacity. They’re designed for fun and novelty, while the Rover X1 is pitched as a functional home robot with real mobility and utility.
Unitree’s quadrupeds have surged in popularity among researchers, developers, and hobbyists in the last few years thanks to their relatively low prices. Before they hit the market, quadrupedal robots like Spot by Boston Dynamics and ANYmal by ANYbotics, built for mobility and autonomous tasks cost starting in the upper five figures.
Founded by Jerry Liu and Lang Xulin in 2015, Dobot has proven disruptive in the past. Its first product, a desktop robotic arm simply called Dobot, was a runaway success on Kickstarter, raising more than $600,000 against an initial goal of just $36,000. The original Dobot featured a 4-axis design and weight just 3 kg (6.6 lbs). Priced around $400, the cobot filled a void between DIY kits and high-end industrial arms from vendors like ABB, KUKA, Fanuc, and Epson.
Dobot grew rapidly and became the top Chinese industrial robot exporter by 2021. With 13 percent of the global market share, Dobot is China’s largest cobot manufacturer and is vying for second place globally with Taiwan’s Techman Robot, behind the clear leader, Denmark-based Universal Robots with more than 40 percent market share. Dobot became the first Chinese collaborative robot maker to go public in December 2024, entering the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX).
Dobot has also started mass producing its flagship humanoid robot, Atom, which is priced starting around $27,000.