DexBot
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Last reviewed
Apr 30, 2026
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v5 · 3,219 words
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| DexBot | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Manufacturer | Harbin Boshi Automation (BOSHIAC) / Harbin Institute of Technology |
| Country of origin | China |
| Year unveiled | December 2025 |
| Status | Prototype |
| Availability | Research prototype |
DexBot is a dual-form humanoid robot platform developed jointly by Harbin Boshi Automation Co., Ltd. (branded as BOSHIAC, Shenzhen Stock Exchange ticker 002698) and Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT). Unveiled in December 2025, DexBot exists in two distinct configurations: a bipedal version designed for unstructured terrain and a wheeled version optimized for flat indoor environments. Both variants feature 7-degree-of-freedom (DOF) series-parallel hybrid manipulator arms, proprietary high-performance joint modules, two versions of dexterous robotic hands, and an onboard large language model called Huozi-Rixin ("Living Type, Daily Renewal") developed by HIT. The project represents one of the first end-to-end domestically developed humanoid robot systems in China, with all core components, from actuators to AI software, researched and manufactured in-house.
Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) is one of China's most prestigious engineering universities and a member of the C9 League, a group of nine elite research universities often described as China's equivalent of the Ivy League. Founded in 1920, HIT has a long tradition of excellence in aerospace, mechanical engineering, and robotics. The university established the first school of astronautics in China, launched the country's first university-developed satellite, and contributed critical technologies to China's manned space program.[1]
HIT's involvement in robotics dates to the founding of its Robotics Research Institute in 1986, making it one of the earliest professional robotics research organizations in China. That same year, the institute successfully developed China's first spot-welding robot and first arc-welding robot, milestones that marked the beginning of China's domestic robotics industry. Following these breakthroughs, the institute grew into the State Key Laboratory of Robotics and Systems under China's national "863" High-Tech Research and Development Program. The laboratory remains one of the country's leading centers for robotics research, covering areas including industrial robots, space robotics, surgical robots, and dexterous manipulation.[2][3]
One of HIT's most notable international collaborations in robotics was its partnership with the German Aerospace Center (DLR), which began in the early 2000s. Together, the two institutions developed the HIT/DLR Hand, a multisensory five-finger dexterous robotic hand. The first prototype (HIT-I) appeared around 2001, and the improved DLR/HIT Hand II was presented in 2008 with five identical modular fingers and a human-like curved palm. This hand was later commercialized by Schunk GmbH under the designation SAH (Schunk Anthropomorphic Hand) and won the 2007 iF design award. The collaboration gave HIT decades of accumulated expertise in dexterous hand design, sensor integration, and tendon-driven actuation, knowledge that directly informed the dexterous hands developed for DexBot.[4][5]
HIT also made significant contributions to space robotics. The TG-2 (Tiangong-2) space robot, developed primarily by HIT, was launched in September 2016. It consisted of a 6-DOF manipulator and a five-finger humanoid dexterous hand, and it performed the first on-orbit human-robot collaborative maintenance experiment aboard China's Tiangong-2 Space Laboratory. During the mission, astronauts and the robotic system coordinated to perform tasks such as tearing multilayer protection, loosening bolts with electric tools, and screwing in electrical connectors.[6]
Harbin Boshi Automation Co., Ltd. (Chinese: Boshi Gufen) was founded in 1997 as a high-tech enterprise incubated by the HIT Robotics Research Institute. The company specializes in the research, development, production, and sale of intelligent manufacturing equipment and industrial robots. Its core products include post-processing automation systems for the petrochemical, rubber, smelting, and building materials industries, as well as high-temperature furnace operation robots, palletizing systems, and intelligent logistics solutions. The company was listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2012 under stock code 002698 and employs approximately 4,600 people. Its products are sold throughout China and exported to Europe, Asia, the United States, and Africa.[7][8]
BOSHIAC's deep ties to HIT as an alumni-founded enterprise positioned the company as a natural partner for translating university robotics research into industrial products. On August 18, 2023, Boshi Co., Ltd. and Harbin Institute of Technology signed a "Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement" to jointly establish a research and development project focused on the industrialization of humanoid robot key technologies and principle prototypes. The agreement leveraged HIT's scientific research capabilities through its State Key Laboratory of Robotics and Systems, combined with Boshi's financial resources and manufacturing capacity for industrialization.[9]
The DexBot project emerged from the August 2023 strategic partnership between HIT and Boshi Corporation. The scope of the joint R&D project covered several core technology domains: the overall mechanism design of humanoid robots, anthropomorphic high-dynamic motion and dexterous manipulation control, high-power-density motors, lightweight integrated joints, servo drive controllers, indoor and outdoor complex environment perception and navigation, real-time robot operating systems, and multi-mode human-computer interaction large model technologies.[9]
The research was led by Professor Fu Yili and Professor Ni Fenglei from HIT's School of Mechanical Engineering (also affiliated with the State Key Laboratory of Robotics and Systems), in collaboration with Boshihua, the alumni company. Professor Fu Yili is a leading figure in Chinese robotics with extensive research in robot control and dexterous manipulation. Professor Ni Fenglei, who received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering and his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from HIT (in 1998, 2002, and 2007 respectively), is a professor at the State Key Laboratory with research interests spanning space robotics and robot control technologies.[10][11]
The team achieved what Chinese media described as "stage-based results" by late 2025, and the dual-form humanoid robot system was formally unveiled on December 26, 2025. The announcement was characterized as a systematic breakthrough in core components and system integration for humanoid robots in China, with all major subsystems developed domestically.[12][13]
Before the commercial DexBot platform was announced, the HIT research team published foundational work on the underlying robot system. A 2023 paper published in IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, titled "A Multi-Configuration Track-Legged Humanoid Robot for Dexterous Manipulation and High Mobility: Design and Development," described an earlier version of the platform. This track-legged variant was composed of a versatile humanoid upper body mounted on a track-legged mobile platform, with a total of 56 active degrees of freedom and approximately 10 transformable configurations for traversing complex environments.[14]
A 2024 paper published in CAAI Transactions on Intelligence Technology, titled "A versatile humanoid robot platform for dexterous manipulation and human-robot collaboration," further detailed the versatile Humanoid Robot Platform (vHRP). The paper described it as a lightweight robot platform capable of grasping, dual-arm manipulation, human-robot collaboration, and AI reasoning, achieving integration, lightness, dexterity, and strength with human-like size and rich perception for deployment in human-engineered environments.[15]
DexBot's defining design philosophy is modularity. Rather than building a single humanoid form, the team developed a shared upper body system that can be mounted on different lower-body platforms, each optimized for specific operational environments.
The bipedal DexBot is engineered for non-structured, complex terrain environments. Its primary use cases include factory inspections, disaster response assistance, and operations in environments where wheeled mobility is impractical. The bipedal platform features dynamic balance capabilities and obstacle-crossing functionality, enabled by a model predictive control (MPC) strategy for terrain stability combined with reinforcement learning for adaptive locomotion. Earlier published specifications for the bipedal version list a height of 175 cm, a weight of 58 kg, and 28 active joints (excluding the dexterous hands), with each leg having 6 joints, the waist having 2 joints, and each arm having 7 joints. Custom electric actuators with a high power-to-weight ratio enable dynamic movement.[12][14]
The wheeled DexBot is optimized for flat ground environments such as factory floors, warehouses, and indoor service settings. It targets material handling, precision assembly operations, and indoor service tasks where smooth, energy-efficient locomotion on flat surfaces is more practical than bipedal walking. The wheeled platform sacrifices terrain versatility for speed, stability, and longer operational endurance on level ground.
An earlier research configuration described in academic publications uses a track-legged mobile platform instead of bipedal legs or wheels. This version has a total of 56 active DOFs and approximately 10 transformable configurations, allowing it to traverse a wide variety of complex environments. The track-legged design represents the most versatile mobility option, combining elements of tracked vehicle stability with reconfigurable postures.[14]
All DexBot configurations share a common upper body featuring two 7-DOF series-parallel hybrid manipulator arms. The series-parallel hybrid design combines the workspace advantages of serial kinematic chains with the rigidity and load capacity of parallel mechanisms. Both arms support full-joint force control, enabling safe physical human-robot interaction and the precise force regulation needed for delicate manipulation tasks.[12]
The DexBot team developed proprietary joint modules rather than relying on off-the-shelf actuators. The joint system includes two main types:
| Joint module specifications |
|---|
| Joint Type |
| Cycloidal rotational joint (arm) |
| Cycloidal rotational joint (arm) |
| Cycloidal rotational joint (arm) |
| Cycloidal rotational joint (leg) |
| Linear joint |
| Linear joint |
The cycloidal rotational joints use cycloidal gear reduction with integrated torque sensors, achieving a notable 1:1 payload-to-weight ratio in the arm configuration (5 kg load at 5 kg self-weight). The leg joints are designed for high-torque output at 400 Nm peak to support dynamic bipedal locomotion and heavy payload handling. The linear joints provide up to 10,000 N of thrust with deeply integrated sensors and controllers for compact packaging.[12][13]
Two versions of dexterous hands were developed to address different application requirements:
| Dexterous hand specifications |
|---|
| Parameter |
| Total joints |
| Active degrees of freedom |
| Fingers |
| Transmission type |
| Dynamic fingertip force |
| Joint sensing |
| Target applications |
The high-performance hand, with 20 joints and 15 active degrees of freedom, is designed for precision assembly tasks that require fine motor control, such as screw-tightening, connector insertion, and tool use. The lightweight hand, with 11 joints and 7 active degrees of freedom (underactuated design), is intended for sustained service operations where simplicity and reliability outweigh the need for maximum dexterity. Both versions use a proprietary rigid tendon transmission system and deliver dynamic fingertip forces exceeding 30 N, sufficient to grip heavy objects and perform industrial manipulation tasks. Each active joint incorporates dual encoders and a torque sensor for precise position and force feedback.[12][13]
The hand designs build on HIT's decades of experience with dexterous robotic hands, including the internationally recognized DLR/HIT Hand series developed in partnership with the German Aerospace Center. Key advances over earlier designs include the rigid tendon transmission system (as opposed to flexible cable-driven systems) for improved precision and repeatability, and the deep integration of multiple sensing modalities at the joint level.[4][5]
| Category | Specification | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Physical (bipedal) | Height | 175 cm |
| Physical (bipedal) | Weight | 58 kg |
| Physical (bipedal) | Active joints (excl. hands) | 28 |
| Physical (track-legged) | Active DOF | 56 |
| Physical (track-legged) | Transformable configurations | ~10 |
| Arms | DOF per arm | 7 |
| Arms | Arm type | Series-parallel hybrid |
| Arms | Force control | Full-joint force control |
| Arms | Arm joint self-weight | 5 kg |
| Arms | Arm joint load capacity | 5 kg |
| Waist | DOF | 2 |
| Legs (bipedal) | DOF per leg | 6 |
| Legs (bipedal) | Joint peak torque | 400 Nm |
| Linear joints | Maximum thrust | 10,000 N |
| Hands (high-performance) | Joints / Active DOF | 20 / 15 |
| Hands (lightweight) | Joints / Active DOF | 11 / 7 |
| Hands (both versions) | Fingertip force | >30 N |
| Hands (both versions) | Transmission | Rigid tendon |
| AI system | Model | Huozi-Rixin (HIT proprietary LLM) |
| Control | Locomotion strategy | MPC + reinforcement learning |
| Perception | Modalities | Vision, force sensing, speech |
Both DexBot configurations are equipped with the Huozi-Rixin (Chinese: Huozi-Rixin, meaning "Living Type, Daily Renewal") AI large model, which was self-developed by Harbin Institute of Technology. The model serves as the robot's intelligent core and provides several capabilities:[12]
DexBot employs a dual-path control strategy that combines model predictive control (MPC) with reinforcement learning (RL). The MPC component provides stable, model-based predictions for locomotion planning, particularly for maintaining balance on uneven terrain. The reinforcement learning component enables the robot to adapt its behavior based on experience, learning efficient strategies for novel situations not fully captured by the predictive model. The system also includes autonomous navigation capabilities with visual perception for obstacle detection and path planning.[12]
DexBot is designed primarily for industrial and service applications, with a particular emphasis on hazardous and demanding work environments:
DexBot enters a rapidly expanding Chinese humanoid robot market. As of 2025-2026, China has become the world's leading producer of humanoid robots by volume. Unitree Robotics and AgiBot (formerly Zhiyuan Robotics) emerged as the two dominant commercial players, together accounting for nearly 80% of global humanoid robot shipments in 2025-2026 according to TrendForce and IDC estimates. Unitree sold approximately 5,500 humanoid robots in 2025, while AgiBot shipped around 5,200 units. Other notable Chinese competitors include UBTECH, Fourier Intelligence, XPeng Robotics, and Leju Robotics.[16][17]
DexBot occupies a different market position from these volume leaders. While Unitree's G1 and AgiBot's products target broad commercial deployment at price points between $16,000 and $35,000, DexBot is positioned as a research-to-industrial platform with an emphasis on heavy-duty manipulation capability. Its 400 Nm leg joint torque, 10,000 N linear joint thrust, and 30 N fingertip forces place it in a higher payload class than most consumer-oriented humanoids. The dual-form design philosophy (shared upper body across different lower platforms) also differentiates it from single-configuration competitors.
Internationally, DexBot competes in a segment alongside platforms such as Figure 02, Apptronik Apollo, Tesla Optimus, and Sanctuary AI Phoenix, all of which target industrial applications with varying degrees of dexterous manipulation capability.
The DexBot project is notable for several reasons within the broader context of humanoid robotics development: