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  • 5/15/2025
Unitree just upgraded its robot with an advanced brain, making it behave more like a human! Explore this breakthrough and catch the latest updates in AI and robotics shaping the future. From smart machines to cutting-edge tech β€” the revolution is here! πŸŒŸπŸ€–
#Unitree #RobotBrain #AIRevolution #Robotics #ArtificialIntelligence #TechNews #FutureTech #SmartRobots #Innovation #MachineLearning #AI
Transcript
00:00In just the past few days, the robotics world has exploded with news that sounds completely unreal.
00:08Except it's all completely real.
00:11Unitree's G1 Humanoid just got a major upgrade with a system called Ammo
00:15that lets it clean your house, pick up toys, open the fridge, and even load the dishwasher
00:20like it's been living with you for years.
00:23Their B2 robot dog now got redesigned for firefighting
00:27with a water cannon that can blast foam nearly 200 feet.
00:31Lenovo stepped into the game with its first humanoid, LΓ©gion No One,
00:36which performed Tai Chi live on stage and answered real-time business questions.
00:42And Beijing just announced it'll be hosting the World Humanoid Robot Sports Games this August
00:48inside actual Olympic venues with robots competing in track, gymnastics, and even soccer.
00:55So let's talk about it.
00:56All right, by now, pretty much everyone in the robotics space knows the Unitree G1.
01:02But what really flipped the narrative wasn't the hardware.
01:05It was ammo.
01:07And not just some marketing buzzword.
01:08Ammo or adaptive motion optimization is probably the most advanced real-time,
01:14whole-body control system we've seen on a consumer-level humanoid.
01:19It's what turned G1 from an impressive machine into a robot that genuinely understands how to move like a living thing.
01:26Most robots struggle with complex motion because humanoid bodies are hard to control.
01:32You've got 29 degrees of freedom, nonlinear physics, contact dynamics.
01:36All of that makes it extremely difficult to balance flexibility with stability.
01:41Older methods relied on rigid control systems or motion capture data that didn't really translate well into dynamic environments.
01:49They'd train robots to copy how people move, but not how people adjust in real time.
01:55That's where ammo changes everything.
01:58AMO is built differently.
02:00It combines reinforcement learning and trajectory optimization in a way that lets the robot not only learn how to move,
02:06but how to adapt on the fly.
02:08First, the system runs millions of motion tests in simulation using sim-to-real learning
02:13so the robot can fail over and over without breaking anything.
02:18It learns how to pick things up off the ground, reach high shelves, twist its torso, crouch low,
02:23or even stretch sideways without losing balance.
02:26Then, those lessons get translated into real-world behavior that works.
02:30Not just in theory, but in your kitchen.
02:32So, when you see G1 bend down to pick up a toy or carefully adjust its balance to slide a bottle onto a high shelf,
02:41that's AMO in action.
02:42It's controlling the robot's entire body, legs, torso, waist, everything,
02:48based on an internal plan, not just isolated joint movements.
02:51And it does this in real time, responding to changes in its environment and adapting to unpredictable inputs.
02:58You can even throw it into a teleoperation mode using a VR headset,
03:02and it'll track your movements like a shadow.
03:04But what's crazy is that once you let go, it doesn't freeze.
03:09It keeps going.
03:10It understands the goal and keeps executing,
03:13smoothly transitioning from human guidance to autonomous action.
03:17Under the hood, AMO uses what's called a hybrid motion synthesis pipeline.
03:22That means it blends human-like arm movements from motion capture data
03:26with sampled torso commands to generate new kinds of whole-body actions that weren't even in the original data sets.
03:32The robot isn't just imitating, it's generalizing.
03:35Whether it's yaw, pitch, roll, or height control,
03:40AMO gives the G1 way more flexibility than previous systems.
03:43For instance, it doesn't rely solely on waist motors to tilt the upper body.
03:48Instead, it shifts its legs, bends the knees, and uses full-body posture to reach angles that older robots couldn't even attempt.
03:56There's also a ton of work behind the scenes to make sure this control works out of distribution,
04:01which basically means G1 can handle commands in situations it never saw during training.
04:06You can tell it to stretch further, crouch lower, or rotate more than it was trained to,
04:11and it still finds a way to do it.
04:13One test had it picking up baskets from both sides at floor level,
04:17then walking forward and placing them on a shelf at eye level.
04:21That kind of full-body coordination, from crouching to twisting to reaching to placing,
04:26used to be science fiction.
04:28AMO makes it routine.
04:30In fact, they ran detailed evaluations comparing AMO to older control strategies.
04:35Across the board, YOW pitch, roll, base height tracking, it outperformed everything else.
04:41Even when pushed into untrained territory, AMO showed minimal tracking error.
04:46That means the robot wasn't just guessing, it was adapting with precision.
04:51In trash throwing tasks, it smoothly twisted its torso 90 degrees and nailed the throw.
04:56In another setup, it picked up a paper bag by aligning its torso,
05:01maneuvering its hand through the loop,
05:02and then lifting and placing it without losing grip or posture.
05:06And the whole system worked with both teleoperation
05:09and full autonomy, depending on the task.
05:12What's even more impressive is how AMO builds that behavior.
05:16During training, they use a two-stage learning framework.
05:19A teacher policy gets access to all the ideal data.
05:22Then a student policy learns from that in a more restricted setup,
05:28basically mimicking what the robot would experience in the real world.
05:31This approach lets the final system perform reliably without needing perfect conditions.
05:37So yeah, this isn't your average walking bot.
05:40The G1 with AMO isn't just reacting.
05:42It's planning, adjusting, and executing complex tasks that most robots still fumble.
05:48It stretches, crouches, twists, walks, balances,
05:51all while coordinating 29 joints across its entire body.
05:54And with AMO driving it, you don't get that weird mechanical stiffness you usually see.
06:00You get motion that feels smooth, deliberate, and honestly kind of human.
06:05This is where humanoid robotics is heading.
06:07Not just mobility, but full-body dexterity with the kind of responsiveness
06:11that makes real-world deployment finally possible.
06:14But Unitree didn't stop there.
06:17They've now got a four-legged firefighting robot dog,
06:21a modified version of their B2 robot,
06:23and it's actually made for emergency scenarios.
06:25This firefighting version comes with a water or foam cannon
06:29that can shoot up to 60 meters away at 40 liters per second.
06:34That's intense.
06:34Its joints are upgraded by 170% over the regular model,
06:40so it can climb obstacles up to 15 inches
06:43and handle steep stairs at a 45-degree angle,
06:47perfect for broken buildings and chaotic scenes.
06:51And it's not just muscle.
06:53The B2 firefighting dog is loaded with tech, live video,
06:57LiDAR sensors, and communication gear for sending updates to human teams.
07:01It has a built-in cooling sprinkler system to survive the heat,
07:04plus swappable batteries that won't mess with its waterproofing.
07:08This thing is meant to go where humans can't.
07:11Collapsed buildings, toxic zones, zero visibility areas.
07:15It can map surroundings, locate fires, carry modules,
07:18even support rescue operations.
07:20Now, let's jump from the real world into the corporate world.
07:24Lenovo just entered the humanoid robot race,
07:28and they're not playing around.
07:30At their Tech World 2025 event in Shanghai,
07:33they unveiled Le Xiong No 1,
07:36calling it a silicon employee.
07:39This wasn't just a press statement.
07:41They put it on stage and had it perform a tai chi routine.
07:45Yeah, not just walking or standing.
07:48Actual, slow, balanced martial arts, live.
07:52During the Q&A,
07:53the robot was pulling data from Lenovo's systems in real time
07:57and answering questions like a trained rep.
08:00Under the hood,
08:01this robot runs on three core intelligent frameworks.
08:05It can understand and communicate across devices naturally,
08:09access both public and private knowledge across ecosystems,
08:12and perform advanced tasks with autonomy.
08:16Everything's layered over a secure design,
08:18and it's all running on Lenovo's hybrid architecture,
08:21device, edge, cloud, and network.
08:24This means data collection, processing, and AI model training
08:27all happen seamlessly across platforms.
08:30But Lenovo's not just showing off.
08:32They're planning real-world use cases.
08:34You'll be seeing this robot in elder care
08:36and health care environments soon.
08:39And in August,
08:40they're bringing it to compete
08:41in the Beijing Humanoid Robot Sports Games,
08:45which, yes, is an actual thing now.
08:47The event is going down at Beijing's two biggest Olympic venues,
08:51the Bird's Nest and the Ice Ribbon,
08:54from August 15th to 17th.
08:56This isn't a gimmick, either.
08:58There will be 11 actual human sports
09:00recreated by humanoid robots.
09:02Track and field, football, gymnastics, and more.
09:06Robotics experts and sports professionals
09:08teamed up to create events
09:10that mimic human movement as closely as possible.
09:13And the goal is clear.
09:14Refine mechanical structure
09:16and push motion algorithms further
09:18through real performance under pressure.
09:21This is the second major robot sports event in China this year.
09:25The first was a humanoid half-marathon in April.
09:2820 robots lined up to run over two hours straight,
09:31and one of them, Kyan Kung Ultra,
09:33finished first after nearly two hours and 40 minutes.
09:36That wasn't just about endurance.
09:38That was a massive benchmark for stability,
09:41safety, and real-world readiness in complex environments.
09:44The whole event became a testing ground
09:46for robots from different companies,
09:48validating their ability to operate outside the lab.
09:52Now, while all this is happening in public arenas,
09:54let's zoom back into the research lab.
09:56There's another robot making waves.
09:59This one's called Atom,
10:00developed by a team at P&D Botics in China.
10:03What sets Atom apart is the way it walks.
10:05It doesn't just move.
10:06It walks like a human,
10:08adapting its stride, balance, and pace on the fly
10:12across uneven terrain.
10:14This is thanks to its proprietary reinforcement learning system
10:17combined with imitation learning.
10:19Atom has been in development since mid-2023,
10:22and they've upgraded nearly every part of it since.
10:25The legs and feet are reinforced for durability,
10:28and the actuators are modular,
10:30so it can handle all sorts of unpredictable environments.
10:32It runs on a full-stack system powered by an Intel i7 chip
10:37with real-time controls and full-body motion architecture.
10:40It's got 25 force-controlled QDD actuators with legs
10:45delivering up to 360 newton meters of torque.
10:49The arms have five degrees of freedom,
10:51the waist has three,
10:52and the robot stands 1.6 meters tall,
10:55weighing 60 kilograms.
10:57What's really clever is how it learns.
10:59It's been trained with NVIDIA's Isaac Gym,
11:02using deep reinforcement learning at scale.
11:05Then, they used motion capture
11:07to feed in extremely precise human movements,
11:10adapted the data to Atom's body,
11:12and fine-tuned everything.
11:14It doesn't rely on vision for now.
11:16It's mostly focused on blind locomotion.
11:18But even without vision modules,
11:21it's already adapting dynamically
11:22to whatever you throw at it.
11:24We're talking full-on simulation to reality transition,
11:27something many robots still struggle with.
11:30Meanwhile, we're seeing the broader robotics industry
11:33coming together for massive exhibitions.
11:36The World Robot Conference is also happening
11:38in Beijing this August,
11:40just before the robot sports games.
11:42This year's event will have more than 200 companies
11:44participating and around 100 new product launches.
11:48It's going to be co-hosted by major international groups
11:51like the World Federation of Engineering Organizations
11:54and EU Robotics.
11:56And yes, humanoid robots are the main focus this time,
11:59not just as novelty,
12:00but as scalable solutions for everything
12:04from rescue missions to healthcare.
12:07So if you're looking at all this
12:08and wondering where it's headed,
12:10the answer is pretty clear.
12:13We're moving beyond the demo phase,
12:15not just futuristic,
12:17not just experimental,
12:19useful.
12:20Let me know in the comments
12:21if you had a robot like G1 or Atom,
12:25what's the first thing you'd have it do in your house?
12:27And yeah, maybe we'll cover Phantom's next upgrade
12:30once that $100 million lands.
12:32Thanks for watching,
12:33and I'll catch you in the next one.

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