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| Galbot G1 |
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The Galbot G1 is a wheeled semi-humanoid robot developed by Beijing Galaxy General Robot Co., Ltd. (commonly known as Galbot, Chinese: 银河通用机器人). Designed as a general-purpose mobile manipulator, the G1 combines a dual-arm upper body with a 360-degree omnidirectional wheeled chassis, prioritizing stability, long battery life, and practical commercial deployment over bipedal locomotion. The robot is built for applications in retail, pharmacy, logistics, manufacturing, and household assistance.
Since its commercial launch, the Galbot G1 has been deployed in unmanned pharmacies and convenience stores across Beijing in partnership with Meituan, and it gained widespread public attention after appearing at the 2026 CCTV Spring Festival Gala. Galbot won a gold medal at the 2025 World Humanoid Robot Games, and the company has attracted over $800 million in total funding, reaching a valuation of $3 billion as of late 2025.
Beijing Galaxy General Robot Co., Ltd. was founded in May 2023 by Wang He (王鹤) and Yao Tengzhou. Wang He serves as the company's founder and Chief Technology Officer. He holds a bachelor's degree from Tsinghua University (2014) and a Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University (2021), where he studied under Professor Leonidas J. Guibas. After completing his doctorate, Wang He returned to China and became a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the Center on Frontiers of Computing Studies (CFCS) at Peking University, as well as a research scientist at the Beijing Institute for General Artificial Intelligence (BIGAI).[1][2]
The company's name in Chinese, 银河通用机器人 (Yinhe Tongyong Jiqiren), translates to "Galaxy General Robot," reflecting its ambition to build general-purpose robots powered by embodied AI. Despite being founded only in 2023, Galbot has moved at remarkable speed, releasing its first commercial product (the G1) and securing multiple rounds of major funding within its first two years of operation.
Galbot's funding trajectory has been one of the most aggressive in the global humanoid robotics industry:
| Round | Date | Amount | Key investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Angel round | June 2024 | Meituan, Qiming Venture Partners, Lanchi Ventures, IDG Capital, Hong Kong government fund | |
| Series A | June 2025 | CATL (lead), Bosch (Boyuan Capital), multiple institutional investors | |
| Series B | December 2025 | ~$300M | Beijing Robotics Industry Fund, Jiyuan Capital, GGV Capital, CICC Capital, Chinese Academy of Sciences Fund |
| Additional round | Early 2026 | ~$363M (2.5 billion CNY) | CATL, CMG Media Fund, Suzhou Venture Capital, Tianqi Co. |
As of early 2026, Galbot has raised a total of over $800 million across all rounds, with a reported valuation of approximately $3 billion. The angel round of 700 million yuan set a record for the embodied intelligence sector in China at the time.[3][4][5]
The Galbot G1 is classified as a "semi-humanoid" or mobile manipulator rather than a fully bipedal humanoid. Its upper body features a human-like torso with dual articulated arms, while its lower body uses a 360-degree omnidirectional wheeled chassis instead of legs. This design philosophy prioritizes practical commercial deployment: the wheeled base provides superior stability, longer battery life (up to 10 hours compared to 2 to 4 hours for typical bipedal humanoids), and significantly lower manufacturing cost. According to Galbot, the wheeled chassis is approximately ten times less expensive than a bipedal leg system.[6]
The tradeoff is that the G1 cannot climb stairs or traverse highly uneven terrain. However, for its primary use cases in retail stores, pharmacies, warehouses, and homes, flat-floor environments are the norm.
| Category | Specification | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Physical | Height | 173 cm (5 ft 8 in) |
| Physical | Weight | 85 kg (187 lbs) |
| Physical | Arm span | 190 cm |
| Physical | Torso lift | 65 cm (reach up to 240 cm) |
| Mobility | Locomotion type | 360-degree omnidirectional wheeled chassis |
| Mobility | Degrees of freedom | 25 |
| Manipulation | Dual-arm payload | 5 kg per arm |
| Manipulation | Grasp success rate | 95-97% (diverse materials and configurations) |
| Power | Battery life | Up to 10 hours |
| Sensors | Vision | RGB-D cameras (pure vision-based navigation) |
| Sensors | Tactile | Tactile sensors in hands |
| Sensors | Audio | 4-microphone array |
| Connectivity | Wireless | Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) |
| Connectivity | Wired | USB port, Ethernet port |
| Software | Navigation | Vision-based (no QR codes required) |
| Software | AI models | GraspVLA, GroceryVLA, NavFoM, TrackVLA |
One of the Galbot G1's most significant technical achievements is its dexterous manipulation capability. The robot can grasp objects of varying materials, shapes, and sizes with a reported 95 to 97 percent success rate. In pharmacy and retail settings, this success rate rises to 99.5 percent for tasks like picking and sorting medications and consumer goods.[7]
Galbot developed the DexGraspNet dataset in collaboration with NVIDIA using NVIDIA Isaac Sim, a robotics simulation platform. The dataset contains 1.32 million ShadowHand grasps on 5,355 objects across more than 133 categories. An updated version, DexGraspNet 2.0, features dexterous grasping in cluttered scenes with a 90.70 percent real-world success rate for dexterous manipulation tasks.[8]
The Galbot G1 is powered by a suite of proprietary end-to-end embodied AI models that handle different aspects of robot behavior:
| Model | Function | Description |
|---|---|---|
| GraspVLA | Manipulation | A vision-language-action model billed as the world's first end-to-end embodied AI model trained on billions of simulated movements. Supports zero-shot learning, generalizing to new physical tasks without additional training.[9] |
| GroceryVLA | Retail operations | Specialized model for dense retail environments, enabling SKU identification, shelf scanning, and inventory management across thousands of product types. |
| NavFoM | Navigation | Foundation model for autonomous navigation using pure vision-based perception, enabling the robot to move through environments without QR codes, pre-mapped routes, or external markers. |
| TrackVLA | Object tracking | Handles real-time tracking of objects and people in dynamic environments, supporting safe human-robot collaboration. |
These models are described as end-to-end embodied large models that enable true autonomous operation with strong generalization, independent decision-making, and resilience against interference in real-world deployments. The models combine elements of large language models, computer vision, and robotic action planning into unified architectures.
Galbot has an active technical partnership with NVIDIA. The company uses NVIDIA Isaac Sim for building large-scale training datasets and has integrated the NVIDIA Jetson Thor computing platform into the G1 for on-device AI inference. This collaboration allows Galbot to train manipulation policies in simulation and transfer them to the physical robot with high fidelity (sim-to-real transfer).[8]
In January 2026, Galbot unveiled the Galbot S1, a separate product line designed for heavy-duty industrial applications. The S1 is a bipedal humanoid rather than a wheeled platform, and it targets a different market segment from the G1.
| Feature | Galbot G1 | Galbot S1 |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Wheeled semi-humanoid | Bipedal humanoid |
| Primary market | Retail, pharmacy, household | Heavy-duty manufacturing, logistics |
| Locomotion | Omnidirectional wheels | Bipedal legs |
| Payload capacity | 5 kg per arm | 50 kg continuous dual-arm |
| Battery life | Up to 10 hours | Up to 8 hours (autonomous battery swap) |
| Navigation | Vision-based | Vision-based (360-degree obstacle avoidance) |
| Key deployment | Meituan pharmacies, convenience stores | CATL battery manufacturing lines |
| Stair climbing | No | Yes |
The S1's 50 kg continuous payload capacity is notable in an industry where most humanoids offer 10 to 25 kg. The S1 is already deployed on CATL production lines for heavy material handling, and it can autonomously swap its own batteries for around-the-clock operation.[10]
The two models represent Galbot's dual-track strategy: the G1 addresses service-oriented environments where stability and long runtime are paramount, while the S1 targets demanding industrial settings where bipedal mobility and heavy lifting are required.
Galbot's most prominent commercial deployment is its partnership with Meituan, one of China's largest online services platforms. Meituan was the lead investor in Galbot's angel funding round and has served as a key deployment partner for the G1.
Beginning in late 2024, Galbot and Meituan developed a 24-hour unmanned operation scenario for pharmacies and convenience stores. The G1 operates autonomously in approximately 50 to 70 square meter stores, performing the full cycle of retail operations:[11][12]
By early 2026, more than 10 pharmacies across Beijing's Haidian District were using Galbot G1 units for 24-hour unmanned operations, with plans to scale to over 100 smart retail locations by the end of 2026. In March 2026, China's first fully robot-operated pharmacy went into service in Beijing, with the Galbot G1 handling all medication sorting, retrieval, and dispensing tasks.[13]
The Galbot G1's ability to handle 5,000 different types of goods, including fragile and irregularly shaped items, makes it well suited for pharmacy and convenience store settings where product variety is high.
In June 2025, Galbot signed a three-way cooperation agreement with Bosch China and Boyuan Capital (Bosch's investment platform) to form the Boyin Innovation Alliance, a joint venture focused on deploying embodied AI robots in automotive and high-precision manufacturing. The joint venture also signed a memorandum of understanding with UAES (United Automotive Electronic Systems) to establish RoboFab, a joint laboratory dedicated to developing automotive-specific expertise in embodied AI.[14]
The partnership adopts a "global design, local production" strategy, positioning Galbot to serve international markets including Europe, North America, and Southeast Asia. Galbot has also partnered with Toyota and Hyundai for manufacturing floor deployments.
Galbot has established partnerships across multiple sectors:
The Galbot G1 won the gold medal in the Robot Skills Competition at the 2025 World Humanoid Robot Games, held in Suzhou, China. Competing against 21 other teams (many of which relied on remote control rather than autonomous operation), Galbot scored 336 points, finishing 160 points ahead of the runner-up.
In the Pharmaceutical Sorting Challenge, the G1 autonomously scanned six tall shelves, identified nine specific medications from hundreds of items, and delivered them in just over 10 minutes. The victory demonstrated the G1's ability to perform complex, multi-step tasks in a real-world-like environment without human intervention.[15]
On January 25, 2026, China Media Group (CMG) officially named Galbot the "Designated Embodied Large Model Robot" for the 2026 Spring Festival Gala, China's most-watched television broadcast (comparable in cultural significance to the Super Bowl in the United States).
Galbot appeared in the holiday short film The Night I Remember Most, during which the robot demonstrated practical skills including voice interaction, folding clothes, picking up objects, cracking walnuts, skewering sausages for grilling, and retrieving items from shelves. The performance emphasized real-world domestic task capabilities rather than athletic feats.[16]
Following the broadcast on February 16, 2026, data from JD.com showed that searches for robots surged by 300 percent within two hours, customer service inquiries increased by 460 percent, and order volume jumped by 150 percent. New robot orders came from over 100 cities nationwide.[17]
On February 9, 2026, Chinese President Xi Jinping inspected the Galbot G1 robot during a pre-Spring Festival visit to Beijing. Founder Wang He participated in the meeting and expressed the company's readiness to serve as a vehicle for China's participation in global technology competition during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.[18]
The Galbot G1 is commercially available in China at a price of approximately 630,000 to 699,700 CNY (roughly $87,000 to $97,000 USD). On JD.com, the robot is listed at 699,700 CNY.
Galbot has stated that as production scales up, the company plans to offer the G1 in sets priced at approximately 50,000 CNY (~$7,130 USD), representing a dramatic cost reduction of nearly 90 percent. This aggressive pricing target reflects the company's strategy to achieve mass adoption across retail, logistics, and household markets.[6]
The Galbot G1 operates in a rapidly growing market for humanoid robots and mobile manipulators, particularly in China. Approximately 13,000 to 18,000 humanoid robots were shipped worldwide in 2025, a 508 percent increase over the previous year, with Chinese companies accounting for the vast majority of shipments.
Key competitors and comparable platforms include:
| Company | Robot | Type | Key differentiator |
|---|---|---|---|
| Galbot | G1 | Wheeled semi-humanoid | Retail/pharmacy focus, 10-hour runtime, Meituan partnership |
| Unitree Robotics | G1 / G1-D | Bipedal humanoid (G1-D: wheeled) | Low price point ($16,000), consumer market |
| Agibot | A2 / A2 Max | Bipedal humanoid | Automotive manufacturing, high shipment volume |
| Figure AI | Figure 02 | Bipedal humanoid | BMW partnership, US-based |
| UBTech | Walker S | Bipedal humanoid | Education and service robots |
| Fourier Intelligence | GR-2 | Bipedal humanoid | Rehabilitation and healthcare focus |
Galbot differentiates itself through its focus on practical commercial deployment rather than demonstrations. The wheeled design, while less visually dramatic than bipedal locomotion, offers tangible advantages in stability, runtime, and cost for the flat-floor environments where the G1 operates. The company's deep partnerships with Meituan, Bosch, CATL, and major automakers provide real commercial channels that many competitors lack.[19]
Galbot's roadmap includes scaling G1 deployments to over 100 smart retail locations in China by the end of 2026, expanding into international markets through the Bosch joint venture, and continuing to develop its embodied AI model suite. The company's dual product strategy (G1 for service, S1 for industry) positions it to address a wide range of applications as the humanoid robotics market matures.
The company's rapid funding trajectory and early commercial deployments place it among the leading humanoid robotics startups globally, alongside Unitree, Figure AI, and Agibot in the race to bring general-purpose robots to mass-market adoption.