Unitree Robotics
Unitree G1
From a learning point of view
The G1 is the humanoid most academic labs can actually buy, and most of the public humanoid RL work since 2025 (motion tracking, loco-manipulation, getting-up policies) is demonstrated on it. The stack is open enough for sim-to-real: official MuJoCo and Isaac assets and a low-level DDS interface. Manipulation is the weak point: about 2 kg per arm on the base model and small hands, so most published results are locomotion or whole-body carrying rather than precise pick-and-place.
Good for learning
- Lowest-cost full humanoid with an open low-level interface
- Official MuJoCo and Isaac models for sim-to-real
- Large and growing research community
Watch out for
- Arm payload around 2–3 kg
- Dexterous hands and compute are paid add-ons (EDU)
- Published results are mostly locomotion not precise manipulation
Simulators
Public datasets on this robot
Control & SDK
unitree_sdk2 (C++ and Python) over DDS; ROS 2 messages via Cyclone DDS. Open URDF/MJCF models, unitree_mujoco for simulation, and unitree_rl_gym for Isaac-based RL training. The base G1 has 23 DoF; the EDU variant goes to 43 DoF with dexterous hands and an optional compute module (e.g. Jetson Orin).
Specs
- Manufacturer
- Unitree Robotics
- Category
- Humanoid
- Degrees of freedom
- 23
- Payload
- 2 kg
- Price
- from $13,500
- Availability
- Shipping
Reviewed results on this robot (1)
| Task | Algorithm | Maturity | Success | n | Grade | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carrying and whole-body manipulation | ResMimic (residual RL on motion tracking) | Lab | — | 11 | B | 2025 |