How U.S. military funding propelled China's robot dogs

How U.S. military funding propelled China's robot dogs A child sits next to G1 humanoid robots produced by China's Unitree Robotics as he interacts with a Go2 robot, at a Unitree store in Beijing on Aug. 1. | REUTERS WASHINGTON - China's Unitree Robotics -- among the world's biggest producers of humanoid and quadruped robots -- based designs for its most successful robot dogs on innovations funded by the U.S. military, according to a former U.S. defense technology official and three top researchers involved in the project. Unitree's $1,600 Go2 model, launched in 2023, helped the company rapidly dominate the global quadruped robot market -- its Shanghai initial public offering has drawn frenzied demand. Another Unitree robot has been shown on Chinese state television, armed and accompanying People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops on an exercise. These robots draw on breakthroughs in quadruped movement financed by the U.S. DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and other military programs, the researchers and the former official said. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.