China’s home-grown general-purpose humanoid jogs out at 6 km/h [Video]

The Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center has unveiled Tiangong, an electrically-driven general-purpose humanoid that’s capable of stable running at 6 km/h, while also able to tackle slopes and stairs in “blind conditions.”

The Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center was set up in November last year as “the first provincial-level humanoid robot innovation center in China,” and is part of a new technology hub that’s home to more than a hundred robotics companies – coming together to form a complete industrial chain for core components, applications development and complete robot builds.

The company is a joint venture from Beijing Yizhuang Investment Holdings Limited, UBTech Robotics, Xiaomi, and Beijing Jingcheng Machinery Electric. Its aim is to “undertake five key tasks, including the development of general-purpose humanoid robot prototypes and general-purpose large-scale humanoid robot models.”

Its open-source Tiangong humanoid is billed as the “world’s first full-sized humanoid robot capable of running solely on electric drive” – though there do seem to be …