If you’re looking for a companion robot and have between $17,000 and $146,000 in your pocket, UBTech Robotics has exactly what you need. The China-based technology company recently unveiled its UWorld U1 series, a line of life-sized, hyper-realistic robots with silicone skin and human-like features. UBTech is primarily known for commercial and industrial robotics, but these new humanoid robots are meant to offer companionship, including physical assistance, social assistance, lifestyle aesthetics and emotional support. The robots are able to recognize 20 emotional states with over 90% accuracy through voice, gestures and interactions, and they are capable of exhibiting up to 90% of basic human movements.
They are for adults only, which raises eyebrows, and come in levels from basic (Lite) to high-end (Ultra), hence the price range. High-end models cost 990,000 yuan, or about $146,000, with the cheapest at 119,800 yuan, or $17,600. Pre-orders opened on June 30, and the first shipments are expected in September, if the company delivers. An on-stage presentation mixed different robotic models and real human actors, while demos used generative AI to represent the robots. The scenes show an AI model actually using a phone – “contact me if you want to talk” – and holding the viewer’s hand off-screen. Another scene, also GenAI, shows a model frolicking on a sunny beach with her owner. While modern robotics companies are no stranger to bizarre presentations, earlier this year Unitree’s robots took part in a demonstration that looked like a sci-fi nightmare or fever dream.
The U1 series is actually intended for a wide variety of applications
Collectively, the U1 series uses an end-to-end technology stack, with physical hardware – such as biomimetic skin and system-level manufacturing under the hood – and intelligence hardware, using a proprietary operating system and emotion-focused large language models (LLM) for processing. UBTech claims that intelligence powers a “fast and slow biomimetic brain architecture” that leverages cognitive neuroscience to enable extremely fast response times, of 500 milliseconds, as well as deep reasoning and responsiveness. There are a lot of buzzwords, but these robots should be capable of a wide variety of applications ranging from hospitality and customer service to aged care, education and internal domestic services.
While these aren’t the first “humanoid” robots on the market, they appear to be among the first to be intelligently advanced, on the software side. The Walker C and Walker S1 are also the company’s full-size humanoid robots, although intended to provide personalized hotel or business services. However, they look downright robot-like. Moya, from DroidUp, is another human-like robot that elicits the eerie valley feeling in your home. In total, China has so many humanoid robots that it had to create a unique identification system for each of them.
UBTech also presented its “Human-Robot Partnership Initiative”. China has a large population of adults living in isolated conditions, with more than 90 million adults living alone and 118 million elderly people living in empty nests. Additionally, 10 to 20 percent suffer from mental health conditions, such as dementia or severe depression, which may require attentive emotional and physical care. UBTech says: “Combined with multimodal situational awareness, the robots are designed to provide structured psychological support services. » The company plans to donate 100 of its U1 series models to mental wellness programs in 2026.
