Japanese Engineers Tear Down Unitree G1 Robot, Admit They Can't Catch Up to China in the Short Term

Republished by AIC Engineering. All rights belong to the original publisher; see Source below.

Japanese Engineers Tear Down Unitree G1 Robot, Admit They Can't Catch Up to China in the Short Term

Japan's Nikkei xTECH recently published a teardown video of China's Unitree Technology G1 humanoid robot, sparking widespread attention. Japanese engineers expressed amazement at the G1's highly integrated battery, biomimetic ankle linkage structure, and high-performance motors, deeming its technical level extremely high. They ultimately admitted that China's R&D in humanoid robots has moved beyond the demonstration phase, and Japan is unlikely to close the gap in the short term. This conclusion not only reflects China's breakthroughs in robotics hardware but also underscores a profound shift in the global humanoid robotics competitive landscape.

Key Elements

China's rapid iteration in the humanoid robotics field is exerting unprecedented pressure on Japan, a former industrial robotics powerhouse. Recently, the prominent Japanese tech publication Nikkei xTECH released an in-depth teardown video in which its engineers completely dismantled a G1 humanoid robot from China's Unitree Technology. After closely examining the internal structure and core components, the Japanese team stated bluntly that it is "probably unrealistic" for Japan to close the gap with China in humanoid robotics in a short period.

The video, which went live on July 23, quickly ignited discussion in tech and financial circles across both China and Japan. During the teardown, Japanese engineers and journalists approached the process almost as an "anatomy lesson," attempting to uncover the secrets behind China's rapid robotics advances from every screw and wiring harness. However, as the disassembly deepened, their initial investigative mindset gradually turned into a complex sense of admiration.

According to a report by Guancha.cn citing the video content, the Japanese engineers gave extremely high praise to the G1 robot's energy system. They found that the battery pack used in the G1 achieves astonishing miniaturization while maintaining extremely high output power. One engineer remarked in the video: "The battery's ability to remain so compact while delivering such high output power is extremely appealing." This high-energy-density battery technology is a critical metric determining whether a bipedal robot—which requires extended endurance and explosive power within a confined body space—can move beyond the laboratory.

Unitree's official specifications provide a quantitative benchmark for this assessment: the G1 uses a 13-cell lithium battery configuration, equipped with a 9,000mAh quick-release smart battery. The entire unit, including the battery, weighs approximately 35 kg (77 lbs) and stands 1,320 mm tall, with an official rated battery life of about two hours. To simultaneously drive 23 joint motors within this body size, the battery's power density and volume control were precisely what the Japanese team first took note of.

If the battery is the robot's "heart," then the joint motors are its "muscles and bones." The G1's lower-limb design became a focal point of the Japanese teardown. The report detailed the engineers' amazement at the ankle structure. The G1's ankle design is not a simple rigid connection; rather, it highly replicates the motion mechanics of the human ankle through a complex linkage mechanism.

"From the calf to the sole, the most distinctive feature is that its mechanical movement reproduces the motion of a human ankle," the Japanese engineers analyzed while disassembling. They discovered that two motors are installed inside the G1's calf, each driving two metal connecting rods attached to the ankle in an up-and-down reciprocating motion. More critically, the design cleverly utilizes multiple bearings to coordinate with the linkage movement, dynamically altering the ankle angle. This design not only makes the robot's gait more human-like but also demonstrates an exceptionally high design standard in impact resistance and terrain adaptation. The Japanese engineers emphasized: "The motor structure used in this robot is very noteworthy; you can see from the core components that its technical level is quite high."

These details observed by the Japanese team align with Unitree's official specifications. Official parameters show that the G1's joint output uses industrial-grade crossed roller bearings, and the joint motors are low-inertia, high-speed inner-rotor permanent magnet synchronous motors—the former corresponding to what the Japanese team described as "using multiple bearings to coordinate linkage movement," and the latter explaining why they found "the motor structure very noteworthy." The ankle's degrees of freedom can also be inferred from official data: the G1 has six degrees of freedom per leg, with three at the hip joint (pitch, roll, yaw), one at the knee, and the remaining two precisely at the ankle, matching the two motors the Japanese team found inside the calf. The transmission chain from motor to gait can be broken down as follows

The teardown video did not publish individual measurement data. The following specifications from Unitree Technology's official website serve as a reference

Note: The G1 EDU is a developer-oriented version supporting secondary development, with higher knee torque and degrees of freedom limits than the standard version. Data sourced from Unitree Technology's official website; pricing excludes taxes and shipping.

Through the step-by-step disassembly of these core components, the Japanese team reached a unanimous conclusion: China's robotics R&D capability has completely moved beyond the phase of "merely showcasing concepts." They believe that the highly integrated design, sophisticated mechanical transmission structure, and high-performance customized actuators demonstrated by the Unitree G1 indicate that Chinese companies have already mastered the key technological chain for mass production and deployment of humanoid robots.

This teardown event and the discussions it sparked reflect subtle shifts in the global robotics industry's competitive landscape. Japan once held a long-term dominant position in the industrial robotics sector, with companies like FANUC and Yaskawa Electric synonymous with precision manufacturing. However, on the new track of humanoid robots, Chinese companies are rapidly seizing the technological high ground, leveraging strong supply chain integration capabilities, aggressive hardware and software iteration speeds, and a vast potential application market. The Japanese admission that they "can't catch up in the short term" is both an objective acknowledgment of China's technological progress and an exposure of the dual challenges Japan may face in supply chain costs and innovation speed when responding to emerging technology waves.

This shift is also traceable in statistical data. According to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) World Robotics 2025 report, global industrial robot installations reached 542,000 units in 2024, with China accounting for 295,000 units—54% of the global total and a record high. In the same year, China's domestic manufacturers outsold foreign brands in their home market for the first time, with market share rising to 57%, compared to roughly 28% a decade ago. Japan remains the world's second-largest industrial robot market, with 44,500 units installed in 2024, down 4% year-on-year.

Key Industrial Robot Data (2024, IFR Statistics) | Value Global New Installations | 542,000 units Global Operational Stock | 4.664 million units, +9% YoY China New Installations | 295,000 units, 54% of global, record high China Operational Stock | Over 2 million units, #1 globally China Domestic Manufacturers' Home Market Share | 57%, vs. ~28% a decade ago Japan New Installations | 44,500 units, -4% YoY, #2 globally Japan Operational Stock | 450,500 units, +3% YoY

Notably, Japan's true advantage in industrial robotics lies on the supply side rather than the demand side. IFR statistics published in 2022 (based on 2020 data) show that Japanese manufacturers supplied 45% of the world's industrial robots, with an export ratio as high as 78%, totaling 136,069 units exported that year. This means Japan's moat in the old track was built on its capability to manufacture and export precision components. Whether this capability can be transferred to the humanoid robotics track—where competition centers on full-system integration, algorithm iteration, and rapid cost reduction—is the real question this teardown leaves for Japan's industrial community.

For capital markets and the supply chain, having the Unitree G1's technical prowess verified by overseas peers through an "anatomical" teardown undoubtedly serves as a shot in the arm for China's domestic robotics industry chain. This further confirms that domestically produced humanoid robots already possess global competitiveness in underlying hardware. Going forward, with the deeper integration of large-scale AI models, the commercialization timeline for humanoid robots may exceed expectations.

Source

• finance.biggo.com (2026-07-26)
• Original article: Japanese Engineers Tear Down Unitree G1 Robot, Admit They Can't Catch Up to China in the Short Term
• https://finance.biggo.com/news/70e22ebb-ba3a-4a96-9886-c8a6c18f5dbd