China’s top industrial humanoid robot is now equipped for 24/7 service. It just needs an occasional three-minute break to swap out its own battery.
UBTECH Robotics shocked the world earlier in 2025 with footage of a large fleet of its Walker S1 humanoids performing a wide range of tasks at Zeekr’s smart automotive factory. The robots work together as what UBTECH calls an intelligent swarm using the firm’s self-developed BrainNet AI System. According to UBTECH, the robots self-organize and distribute tasks without needing human involvement.
With cross-field fusion perception, the robots combine vision, touch, and AI decision-making to understand their surroundings and take actions. The video also shows one of the robots recharging another member of its swarm after it runs out of power suddenly.
Now, the Shenzhen-based robotics firm just shared footage of its next-generation industrial humanoid with a sleeker design and more humanlike walking gait. The second iteration of UBTECH’s flagship industrial humanoid, first introduced in fall 2024, features a novel hot-swappable power system, a major step toward around-the-clock operation.
While robots like Tesla’s Optimus and Honda’s ASIMO have demonstrated the ability to self-dock to charge themselves, UBTECH’s approach virtually eliminates the required downtime. According to UBTECH, the humanoids can perform full battery exchanges in about three minutes. It remains powered on thanks to its dual battery architecture. Each battery runs for about 2.5 hours per charge.
In demo footage shared by UBTECH, a Walker S2 uses its dual arms to remove a depleted battery from its torso and insert a charged module from a docking station, all without human intervention. High-precision positioning and compliance algorithms ensure the connectors align correctly.
UBTECH notes that its Walker S2 humanoids use standardized batteries across units so a single station can serve multiple robots. The robotics firm likened the breakthrough to techniques employed by Chinese EV makers like NIO and Geely. According to the company, the humanoid robots can even decide whether to swap or recharge in place depending on the situation.
Founded back in 2012, UBTECH initially focused on robots for education and service applications. Their first Walker humanoid debuted in 2018 with a design geared toward consumer and service applications. The company expanded into logistics as it shifted its Walker line more toward industrial tasks.
UBTECH plans to ship up to a thousand of its Walker industrial humanoids by the end of 2025. They’re aiming to scale to up to 10,000 units in 2026. Companies who’ve placed preorders include BYD, Foxconn, Geely, SF Express, and Dongfeng Liuzhou. Pricing per unit is estimated at between $68K and $100K, with costs expected to go down as production is scaled.
UBTECH also recently unveiled its Walker C commercial humanoid, a panda themed social robot named YouYou, and its first ultra-realistic android, Una.