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| PNDbotics | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Full name | PNDbotics |
| Founded | September 2023 |
| Founders | David Yan (CEO), Peter Cui (CTO), Zhang Zitao |
| Headquarters | Ningbo, China |
| Industry | Robotics, Embodied AI |
| Products | Humanoid robots |
| Key investors | CITIC Goldstone |
| Manufacturing | Tianjin smart manufacturing center |
| Website | wiki.pndbotics.com |
PNDbotics is a Chinese robotics company headquartered in Ningbo that designs, manufactures, and deploys full-size general-purpose humanoid robots. Founded in September 2023 by David Yan, Peter Cui, and Zhang Zitao, the company has built a reputation for vertical integration, developing and manufacturing nearly all robot components in-house at its smart manufacturing center in Tianjin.[1][2]
PNDbotics gained wide public recognition when its Adam humanoid robot appeared on CCTV's 2026 Spring Festival Gala, demonstrating dynamic balance and motion coordination to a national television audience. The company has exported its robots to customers in Europe, the United States, Japan, and South Korea, with clients including major robotics research organizations such as ETH Zurich, DLR (German Aerospace Center), Applied Intuition, and Skild AI.[1]
PNDbotics was established in Ningbo in September 2023, with a focus on building mass-producible full-size humanoid robots. The founding team brought significant prior experience in robot actuator technology. CEO David Yan and CTO Peter Cui previously co-founded INNFOS, where they were among the earliest teams in China to develop flexible integrated actuators for robotic systems. This actuator expertise formed the technical foundation for PNDbotics' humanoid robot hardware.[1]
Co-founder Zhang Zitao brings a different background to the team. He holds a bachelor's degree from Tsinghua University and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University in the United States. Before joining PNDbotics, Zhang served as a Global Partner at SoftBank Vision Fund, providing the company with strategic investment and business development experience.[1]
The company developed its flagship Adam humanoid robot through 2024, emphasizing a vertically integrated approach to manufacturing. Rather than sourcing major components from external suppliers, PNDbotics designed and produced its own actuators, CNC-machined structural parts, 3D-printed components, and composite materials at its Tianjin manufacturing facility. The entire manufacturing process for a single Adam robot involves 20 actuators, 163 CNC-machined parts, 397 3D-printed parts, and 7 composite materials, all independently completed by the PND intelligent manufacturing center.[2]
PNDbotics achieved a major publicity milestone when its Adam robot appeared on CCTV's 2026 Spring Festival Gala, one of the most-watched television broadcasts in the world. The performance demonstrated the robot's strong dynamic balance and motion coordination capabilities, bringing national attention to the company.[1]
Following the Spring Festival Gala appearance, PNDbotics completed a funding round of hundreds of millions of yuan (tens of millions of dollars) led by CITIC Goldstone. The funding is being used to scale manufacturing equipment, expand the smart manufacturing center in Tianjin, and continue research and development on next-generation humanoid platforms.[1]
PNDbotics produces two main humanoid robot variants within the Adam product family, distinguished by their degrees of freedom and target use cases.
The Adam SP is PNDbotics' first high-biomimetic humanoid robot, designed as a full-size biped for both industrial deployment and advanced research.
| Specification | Adam SP |
|---|---|
| Height | 1.67 m |
| Weight | 62 kg |
| Total DOF | 41 |
| Leg DOF | 6 |
| Arm DOF | 13 (with dexterous hands) |
| Waist DOF | 3 |
| Hands | Six-finger dexterous hands |
| Peak torque | 360 N.m (knee/hip actuators) |
| Walking speed | Max 1.5 m/s |
| Battery | 1,172 Wh, 46.2V max, 25A max output |
| Motion control | Intel NUC12WSKi7 (i7-1260P, 12 cores, 4.7 GHz) |
| AI computing | NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX 16GB |
| Perception | Intel RealSense D455 depth camera |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0 |
The Adam SP features 41 joints driven by PSA quasi-direct-drive actuators that deliver peaks of 360 N.m torque without bulky gearboxes. This quasi-direct-drive approach provides the robot with high backdrivability and force transparency, enabling compliant interaction with the environment and safe operation near humans. The bionic hip design, described by the company as the "world's first bionic human-like hip design," uses a three-degree-of-freedom structure with quasi-direct drive flexible force control to enable complex lower-body movements including squats, lateral movement, and turns.[1][2][3]
The Adam SP includes six-finger dexterous hands with 13 DOF per arm (including hand articulation), an Intel RealSense D455 depth camera for visual perception, and an NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX module for onboard AI inference.[3]
The Adam Lite is a streamlined version of the Adam platform, designed as a developer-friendly research tool for locomotion and embodied AI research.
| Specification | Adam Lite |
|---|---|
| Height | 1.67 m |
| Weight | 60 kg |
| Total DOF | 25 |
| Leg DOF | 6 |
| Arm DOF | 5 |
| Waist DOF | 3 |
| Hands | Spherical hands (simplified) |
| Peak torque | 340 N.m (knee/hip actuators) |
| Walking speed | Max 1.5 m/s |
| Battery | 1,172 Wh, 46.2V max, 25A max output |
| Motion control | Intel NUC12WSKi7 (i7-1260P, 12 cores, 4.7 GHz) |
| AI computing | None (no dedicated perception computing) |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0 |
The Adam Lite shares the same body dimensions and actuator platform as the Adam SP but reduces the total degrees of freedom from 41 to 25. It replaces the dexterous hands with simpler spherical hands and omits the dedicated AI computing module (NVIDIA Jetson) and depth camera. This makes the Adam Lite a more affordable platform for researchers focused on locomotion control, gait development, and basic embodied AI experiments.[3]
PNDbotics' defining technical characteristic is its commitment to vertical integration of manufacturing capabilities. The company designs and produces virtually all major robot components at its own facilities, including actuators, structural parts, and electronic assemblies. For a single Adam robot, this encompasses 20 actuators, 163 CNC-machined parts, 397 3D-printed parts, and 7 composite materials. This approach gives PNDbotics direct control over component quality, reduces supply chain dependencies, and enables rapid design iteration.[2]
The company's PSA quasi-direct-drive actuators are a core technical differentiator. Unlike traditional robot actuators that use high-ratio gearboxes, quasi-direct-drive actuators use low gear ratios (or no gearbox at all), resulting in high backdrivability and force transparency. This allows the robot's joints to comply naturally with external forces, which is critical for safe human-robot interaction and dynamic locomotion on uneven terrain. The actuators deliver peak torque of up to 360 N.m while maintaining the compliance needed for biomimetic movement.[2][3]
The Adam family is designed with a fully modular actuation system, where individual actuators, end effectors, and compute modules can be swapped at the component level. This modularity optimizes production efficiency (components can be manufactured and tested independently) and reduces mean time to repair (MTTR) in deployed robots. The standardized architecture is intended to support large-scale manufacturing while allowing customization for specific research or industrial use cases.[3]
PNDbotics employs both reinforcement learning and imitation learning approaches for locomotion control. The company demonstrated that its robots can learn complex locomotion skills in hours without extensive manual setup, showcasing rapid skill acquisition capabilities through modern machine learning approaches.[4]
PNDbotics operates a smart manufacturing center in Tianjin spanning thousands of square meters. The facility has an annual production capacity of hundreds of humanoid robots and is equipped for the full manufacturing workflow, from CNC machining and 3D printing to final assembly and testing. The CITIC Goldstone funding is being used in part to expand this facility's capacity and equipment.[1]
PNDbotics has established a global customer base for its Adam robots. Exported units serve clients across multiple continents.
| Client | Country/Region | Type |
|---|---|---|
| ETH Zurich | Switzerland | Academic research |
| DLR (German Aerospace Center) | Germany | Aerospace research |
| Applied Intuition | United States | Simulation and testing |
| Skild AI | United States | AI research |
| RoboForce | International | Robotics integration |
| NEXX | International | Technology partner |
These partnerships span academic research institutions, AI startups, and industrial robotics integrators, reflecting the Adam platform's versatility as both a research tool and a deployment-ready industrial humanoid.[1]