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

China's Unitree Robotics, a major producer of humanoid and quadruped robots, has built its most successful robot dog designs on innovations initially funded by the U.S. military, according to former U.S. defense officials and researchers involved in the projects.

Unitree's $1,600 Go2 model, released in 2023, has propelled the company to a dominant position in the global quadruped robot market, evidenced by frenzied demand for its Shanghai IPO. A Unitree robot has also been featured on Chinese state television accompanying People's Liberation Army troops during an exercise.

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basically, the first Unitree robot that had any kind of scale

These robots draw upon breakthroughs in quadruped movement financed by the U.S. DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and other military programs. Researchers involved stated that the Army-funded project essentially led to "the first Unitree robot that had any kind of scale." The dimensions of Unitree's popular Go series are reportedly identical "to the millimeter" to a groundbreaking robot developed by a military-financed consortium at MIT.

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to the millimeter

This situation highlights broader challenges the United States faces in competing with China's state-backed manufacturing sector in critical high-tech industries. Chinese companies, supported by subsidies and a tolerance for significant losses, have captured substantial market share in fields like solar panels, drones, and electric vehicles, many of which originated from U.S. government or military-funded research.

While Unitree was added to a Pentagon list of Chinese military companies in June, a designation that falls short of sanctions, the company maintains its robots are for civilian use. The U.S. military research findings were published openly to encourage progress, a standard practice. ARL stated the research "strengthened the broader U.S. robotics ecosystem."

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strengthened the broader U.S. robotics ecosystem