Unitree Robotics has taken a huge leap by giving their robot an advanced “brain,” enabling it to perform tasks with humanlike intelligence and agility. 🦾🤯 This breakthrough is transforming robotics, bringing machines closer than ever to mimicking real human behavior. From AI-powered decision making to lifelike movements, the future of robotics is unfolding right before our eyes! 🌐🤖
Stay tuned for more exciting updates from the world of AI and robotics innovation. ⚙️🔍
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, Légion 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.
01:40Older 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 so 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, or even stretch sideways without losing balance.
02:26Then those lessons get translated into real-world behavior that works, not 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, that's AMO in action.
02:42It's controlling the robot's entire body, legs, torso, waist, everything, based on an internal plan, not just isolated joint movements.
02:52And 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, and it'll track your movements like a shadow.
03:04But what's crazy is that once you let go, it doesn't freeze.
03:08It keeps going.
03:10It understands the goal and keeps executing, smoothly transitioning from human guidance to autonomous action.
03:17Under the hood, AMO uses what's called a hybrid motion synthesis pipeline.
03:21That means it blends human-like arm movements from motion capture data with 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, AMO 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, and it still finds a way to do it.
04:13One test had it picking up baskets from both sides at floor level, then 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, used 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, maneuvering 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 and 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.
05:27Basically mimicking what the robot would experience in the real world.
05:32This 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, all 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 that makes real-world deployment finally possible.
06:15But 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 that can shoot up to 60 meters away at 40 liters per second.
06:34That's intense.
06:35Its joints are upgraded by 170% over the regular model.
06:40So it can climb obstacles up to 15 inches and 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, LIDAR sensors, and communication gear for sending updates to human teams.
07:01It has a built-in cooling sprinkler system to survive the heat, plus swappable batteries that won't mess with its waterproofing.
07:07This 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, even support rescue operations.
07:19Now, 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, they unveiled Le Xiang No One, calling it a silicon employee.
07:38This wasn't just a press statement.
07:40They 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, the robot was pulling data from Lenovo's systems in real time and answering questions like a trained rep.
08:00Under the hood, this robot runs on three core intelligent frameworks.
08:04It can understand and communicate across devices naturally, access both public and private knowledge across ecosystems, and perform advanced tasks with autonomy.
08:16Everything's layered over a secure design, and it's all running on Lenovo's hybrid architecture, device, edge, cloud, and network.
08:24This means data collection, processing, and AI model training all 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 and health care environments soon.
08:39And in August, they're bringing it to compete in the Beijing Humanoid Robot Sports Games, which, yes, is an actual thing now.
08:47The event is going down at Beijing's two biggest Olympic venues, the Bird's Nest and the Ice Ribbon, from August 15th to 17th.
08:56This isn't a gimmick, either.
08:57There will be 11 actual human sports recreated by humanoid robots.
09:02Track and field, football, gymnastics, and more.
09:06Robotics experts and sports professionals teamed up to create events that mimic human movement as closely as possible.
09:13And the goal is clear.
09:14Refine mechanical structure and push motion algorithms further through 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, and one of them, Qiankong Ultra, finished first after nearly two hours and 40 minutes.
09:36That wasn't just about endurance.
09:38That was a massive benchmark for stability, safety, and real-world readiness in complex environments.
09:44The whole event became a testing ground for robots from different companies, validating their ability to operate outside the lab.
09:52Now, while all this is happening in public arenas, let's zoom back into the research lab.
09:56There's another robot making waves.
09:59This one's called Atom, developed 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, adapting its stride, balance, and pace on the fly across uneven terrain.
10:14This is thanks to its proprietary reinforcement learning system combined with imitation learning.
10:20Atom has been in development since mid-2023, and they've upgraded nearly every part of it since.
10:25The legs and feet are reinforced for durability, and the actuators are modular, so it can handle all sorts of unpredictable environments.
10:32It runs on a full-stack system powered by an Intel i7 chip with real-time controls and full-body motion architecture.
10:41It's got 25 force-controlled QDD actuators with legs delivering up to 360 newton-meters of torque.
10:49The arms have 5 degrees of freedom, the waist has 3, and the robot stands 1.6 meters tall, weighing 60 kilograms.
10:57What's really clever is how it learns.
10:59It's been trained with NVIDIA's Isaac Jim, using deep reinforcement learning at scale.
11:05Then, they used motion capture to feed in extremely precise human movements, adapted the data to Atom's body, and 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, it's already adapting dynamically to whatever you throw at it.
11:24We're talking full-on simulation-to-reality transition, something many robots still struggle with.
11:30Meanwhile, we're seeing the broader robotics industry coming together for massive exhibitions.
11:36The World Robot Conference is also happening in Beijing this August, just before the robot sports games.
11:42This year's event will have more than 200 companies participating and around 100 new product launches.
11:48It's going to be co-hosted by major international groups like the World Federation of Engineering Organizations and EU Robotics.
11:56And yes, humanoid robots are the main focus this time, not just as novelty, but as scalable solutions for everything from rescue missions to healthcare.
12:06So, if you're looking at all this and wondering where it's headed, the answer is pretty clear.
12:13We're moving beyond the demo phase.
12:15Not just futuristic, not just experimental, useful.
12:20Let me know in the comments if you had a robot like G1 or Atom, what's the first thing you'd have it do in your house?
12:27And yeah, maybe we'll cover Phantom's next upgrade once that $100 million lands.
12:32Thanks for watching, and I'll catch you in the next one.
