World's fastest robot does a backflip

China's Unitree's H1 humanoid robot can do a back flip while standing without the need for hydraulic support.

After setting the world record for the fastest humanoid robot in early March 2024, China's Unitree continues to achieve new achievements. Their latest H1 bipedal robot became the first humanoid robot to flip upside down while standing without the use of hydraulics, New Atlas reported on March 21.

A few years ago, Boston Dynamics’ Atlas humanoid robot also successfully flipped, but it required a heavy, leaky hydraulic system to launch itself into the air, then somersault and land on both feet. In contrast, Unitree’s H1 robot relies solely on its own M107 electric joint motors, each with a maximum torque of 360 Nm, which were previously seen on the company’s B2 quadruped robot. Each leg has 3 degrees of freedom at the hips, and 1 degree at the knees and ankles. All the wires are inside the robot to avoid drag and move compactly.

Unitree used a reinforcement learning simulation to train H1 to do somersaults in place. While such a visually impressive skill may be an important activity for a robot to have, its practical applications outside of entertainment appear to be limited. H1 has accomplished more useful things over the course of its development, including walking fast, climbing stairs, bouncing vertically, and even jumping.

The H1 is a relatively new robot on the humanoid robot development track and could be 10 years away from being commercially available. It stands 6 feet tall, weighs 100 pounds, and can carry up to 66 pounds of cargo. Right now, its arms don’t have hands like Tesla’s Optimus, and Unitree is working on that design.

While the H1 set a world record at 3.3 meters per second, the company hopes the commercial version will travel at 5 meters per second. A sensor suite on its head includes a 3D LiDAR camera and an Intel RealSense depth camera to scan the world around it. Additionally, the robot's 864 kW battery pack is easily removable.

An Khang (According to New Atlas )

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