It balances like a figure skater with one leg lifted and performs the horse-riding dance to the song "Gangnam Style." It keeps its balance and walks even when its side is pushed with a stick. This is the operation of the bipedal humanoid "AI Sapiens," independently developed by ROBOTIS, a Korean homegrown robot corporations, and unveiled on the 20th. This is the first time a domestically made Humanoid Robot has been publicly demonstrated performing dynamic movements such as dance and balance control.
It was three years ago that Unitree, China's largest robot corporations, put forward a dancing performance. Unitree first introduced the bipedal robot H1 at the end of 2023 and, the following Mar., revealed a demonstration of running at 11.9 kph. The G1, released in 2024, performed group choreography with human dancers on a concert stage.
Although the dynamic demonstrations of bipedal robots came three years later than China, ROBOTIS highlighted integration of functions as its differentiator. Unitree has implemented functions by model—H1 specialized for running, G1 tuned for stage dance and motion control, and R1 dedicated to combat movements.
By contrast, AI Sapiens, a single unit 130 centimeters tall and weighing 30 kilograms, handles multiple functions such as running, dancing, and standing on one leg. This is the result of securing optimization technology that organically controls the entire robot by designing and sourcing most parts in-house except the motors. AI Sapiens has a 97% rate of technological internalization. It is scheduled to launch in the first half of this year at a mid-to-low 10 million won price point.
◇ Concentrating 25 years of actuator expertise
The technical foundation of AI Sapiens is the core component "actuator," which ROBOTIS has developed and sold for 25 years. It is a drive device that converts electrical signals into the physical movement of robot joints, effectively the robot's engine. ROBOTIS's modular actuator, which integrates a motor, reducer, sensor, controller, and communication unit, has been supplied to big tech such as Nvidia and Google as well as universities and research institutes worldwide. More than 400,000 units were ordered last year, but actual shipments were only 220,000, showing supply has not kept up with demand.
AI Sapiens adopts the quasi direct drive (QDD) method of "DYNAMIXEL-Q," a newly developed actuator by ROBOTIS. QDD lowers the reduction ratio (the ratio that slows motor rotation to increase torque) to deliver motor output directly to the joint, offering fast response and flexible absorption of external shocks. While many Humanoid Robot models on the market adopt QDD, actual performance differences hinge on the actuator's precision and software compatibility.
ROBOTIS added an "AI SIM" feature that quickly ports simulator training data to real operating environments and combined it with an open-source strategy that releases designs and control software to the public. A ROBOTIS official said, "We integrated high-difficulty movements with actuator technology that implements simulator training data in reality without gaps," adding, "The time from completing simulator training to getting the real robot running normally was about three hours, which is relatively short."
◇ While Korea refined technology, China seized the market
The domestic robot industry has kept its distance from Chinese-style robot performance demonstrations. A dominant view held that practical deployability on industrial sites and technological completeness should come first over showy movements. Meanwhile, Chinese companies have quickly raised their profile in the global market by successively demonstrating running, dancing, and combat movements.
Chinese corporations rapidly secured the early market by going through trial and error and deploying robots at scale in factories and logistics centers to accumulate validation data. According to market research firm Omdia, of the 13,318 Humanoid Robot units shipped worldwide last year, products from Chinese corporations accounted for about 87%. With mass-production supply chains in place, production speed has accelerated and manufacturing costs have fallen, forming a virtuous cycle. The industry expects China's Humanoid Robot output to reach 100,000 units this year.
Shin Hyeong-gwan, head of the China Capital Market Research Institute, said, "China has built a vast industrial ecosystem with nearly 10,000 robot-related corporations, including more than 600 companies supplying core components," adding, "Its key competitive edge is that costs have already been reduced to the $1,000 range, and thousands of robots are being deployed on real sites to accumulate operating experience."
ROBOTIS is also accelerating efforts to build a cost-competitive system and expand its global ecosystem. It has established a production base in Uzbekistan, where labor costs and procurement of materials and supplies are favorable, to begin full-scale operations by the end of this year and respond to new annual demand of 500,000 units. ROBOTIS CEO Kim Byeong-soo said, "Chinese robots are mounting an intense offensive, but who owns the fundamental actuator technology is the core of technological sovereignty," adding, "We will lead a global robot ecosystem in which developers worldwide adopt Korean actuators as the standard and create a wide range of robots."