Zeroth Robotics
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Last reviewed
May 11, 2026
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11 citations
Review status
Source-backed
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v3 · 2,483 words
Add missing citations, update stale details, or suggest a clearer explanation.
Zeroth Robotics (stylized as zeroth) is a robotics company developing interactive artificial intelligence robots for consumer and commercial markets. The company operates under Suzhou JoyIn Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., a high-tech enterprise based in China that focuses on robotics and AI research. Founded in 2024, Zeroth combines advanced AI, embodied intelligence, and a global supply chain to build humanoid robots and mobile robots for homes, schools, and organizations. At CES 2026 in Las Vegas, the company emerged from stealth with its official US launch and a lineup of five robots, anchored by the Zeroth M1 humanoid home companion, the Zeroth W1 hauler with a clear visual reference to Pixar's WALL-E, and a separate Disney-licensed WALL-E character robot intended for classrooms and retail.[1][2]
The company has drawn attention for pricing its flagship humanoid below $3,000, well under the cost of most full-size humanoid platforms aimed at industrial buyers. Its leadership team is built around veterans of Chinese consumer robotics firms Ecovacs and Dreame, and the founders publicly frame Zeroth as a bet on "consumer-grade embodied intelligence."[3][4]
Zeroth Robotics was founded in 2024 under the Suzhou JoyIn Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. corporate umbrella, with the stated goal of making interactive AI robots accessible to families, educators, and businesses. The company developed its technology in stealth before bringing its first products to a public stage in 2026.[1][3]
In January 2026, Zeroth held its official US debut at CES 2026 in Las Vegas, at booth #10748 in the North Hall. The launch unveiled a lineup of five interactive AI robots for consumer and commercial buyers: a small desktop humanoid, a wheeled hauler robot, a quadruped developer platform, a Disney-licensed character robot, and a full-size humanoid for service and research environments. The booth focused on live demonstrations of the M1 and the W1, with the larger Jupiter humanoid shown in preview form.[1][2][5]
The CES debut attracted significant media attention. Coverage in outlets including Yanko Design, DesignRush, RoboHorizon, and The AI Insider highlighted the company's approachable design, its accessible pricing relative to most humanoid robot startups, and the unusual decision to ship a small bipedal humanoid as a first product rather than a wheeled assistant.[2][4][5][6] Commentators noted that the sub-$3,000 M1 sits well below typical full-size humanoid prices, which often range from roughly $50,000 to more than $150,000.[5]
Zeroth expects its full lineup to roll out in the US through 2026. Pre-orders for the M1 and W1 are scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2026, with general availability and shipping expected to start in April 2026.[1][6]
Zeroth's leadership team is built from senior operators in China's home robotics industry. The company's public materials and trade press coverage have identified three executives, each linked to large consumer robotics businesses.[3]
| Role | Name | Background |
|---|---|---|
| Chief executive officer | Guo Renjie | Former China president of Dreame, which scaled home cleaning robot operations to multi-billion-dollar annual revenue. Previously worked at Procter & Gamble. Entered Xi'an Jiaotong University at age 15 with degrees in engineering and economics. |
| Chief operating officer | Wang Hui | About 17 years at Ecovacs across R&D, supply chain, and marketing. Involved in the launch of more than 50 robot products. |
| Chief technology officer | Tang Jinju | Former chief technology officer of Ecovacs, with more than 20 years of experience in robotics technology leadership. |
The combination of Dreame and Ecovacs alumni is a notable signal. Both companies are dominant players in the Chinese robot vacuum market, the largest mass-produced category of mobile robots in homes worldwide. The choice to build a humanoid product line on that background has shaped how Zeroth positions itself: as an extension of consumer-grade home robotics into more general-purpose machines, rather than a competitor to industrial humanoid robotics firms.[3][4]
Zeroth's announced lineup at CES 2026 spans five robots that share a common technology base but target different price points and use cases. The shared platform, marketed as "Technology DNA," is meant to let the team port motion and interaction software across form factors rather than rebuild it for each new model.[1][5]
| Product | Type | Target market | Starting price | Launch window |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zeroth M1 | Small bipedal humanoid | Home companion, families, older adults | $2,899 (some early coverage cited $2,399) | Pre-orders Q1 2026, shipping April 2026 |
| Zeroth W1 | Tracked/wheeled hauler | Home and light commercial transport | $5,599 (some coverage cited $4,999) | Pre-orders Q1 2026, shipping 2026 |
| WALL-E (Disney licensed) | Licensed character robot | Classrooms, retail, theme parks | Not announced | TBA |
| A1 | Quadruped | Universities, developers, R&D teams | Not announced | Developer preview |
| Jupiter | Full-size humanoid | Service, training, simulation | $89,999 | Reservations open; shipping target April 2026 |
The small price differences across sources reflect different price quotes during the CES event. Official Zeroth materials list the M1 starting at $2,899, the W1 at $5,599, and Jupiter at $89,999.[1][2][6]
The Zeroth M1 is Zeroth's first product to ship, a small bipedal humanoid robot for the home. It is roughly 19.4 to 19.5 inches tall (about 494 mm), small enough to sit on a desk or move around indoor floors. The starting price is $2,899, in the same band as a high-end laptop rather than the band of full-size humanoids.[1][6]
| Specification | Detail |
|---|---|
| Height | About 19.4 to 19.5 inches (roughly 494 mm) |
| AI platform | Google Gemini |
| Starting price | $2,899 |
| Battery life | About 2 hours per charge, with auto-docking when power runs low |
| Mobility | Bipedal walking at about 0.05 m/s; wheeled-mode rolling at about 0.6 m/s |
| Sensors | LDS LiDAR, indirect time-of-flight depth sensor, vision cameras |
| Capabilities | Conversational assistance, reminders, fall detection, household check-ins, daily companionship |
| Self-recovery | Can stand back up from both on-desk and on-floor falls |
| Target users | Families, older adults, robotics enthusiasts |
The M1 is designed to be approachable for users of all ages, with a particular pitch toward independent living for older adults. It delivers reminders, runs short conversations, and provides light safety awareness such as fall or emergency recognition. It can operate on desktops as well as floors, and Zeroth has shown that the robot can recover from falls in either setting without human help.[6][7]
For language and reasoning, the M1 runs on Google's Gemini model. The choice of a hosted foundation model rather than an in-house language stack lets the company focus its engineering on motion control, sensor fusion, and product form.[2][6]
The Zeroth W1 is a tracked, wheel-based service robot with a clear visual nod to Pixar's WALL-E. Zeroth has positioned the W1 as a non-licensed product, while the licensed WALL-E character robot is sold separately. The W1 is built for moving things around the home and light commercial spaces.[2][7]
| Specification | Detail |
|---|---|
| Height | About 22.6 inches |
| Weight | About 44 pounds |
| Payload | About 110 pounds carry, with some sources noting 20 kg carry and 50 kg pull figures |
| Top speed | About 1.1 mph (roughly 0.5 m/s) |
| Cameras | Includes a 13-megapixel camera |
| Sensors | LiDAR, RGB cameras, additional onboard sensors for terrain and obstacle handling |
| Drive | Dual-tread design inspired by WALL-E's iconic treads |
| Power output | 120 W via USB-C, allowing use as a mobile power source |
| Processor | 8-core Horizon Sunrise series CPU |
| Price | $5,599 (with some early coverage citing $4,999) |
The W1 is positioned as a do-it-all home helper that can carry items between rooms, follow its owner, host party games, and take photographs. Its treads let it cross grass, pavement, and gravel, which broadens the situations where it can be used beyond the smooth indoor floors that most home robots assume.[5][7]
Zeroth has secured a license from Disney and Pixar to produce an official WALL-E character robot, distinct from the unlicensed W1. The licensed WALL-E is intended for classrooms, retail, theme parks, and other high-engagement environments. According to coverage of the CES launch, this is one of the first commercial robotics products built around a Disney animated character.[2][6]
A1 is Zeroth's quadruped platform, aimed at universities, robotics engineers, and R&D teams. CES materials described it as a developer preview rather than a consumer product, and no launch price has been announced.[5][6]
Jupiter is Zeroth's planned full-size humanoid robot. The company has positioned it as a service and training platform for real-world environments such as front-of-house service, simulation, and light commercial tasks.[8]
| Specification | Detail |
|---|---|
| Height | 1.65 meters (about 65 inches) |
| Payload | About 5 kg per arm, with a deadlift capability of about 15 kg |
| Modes | Both teleoperation and autonomous navigation |
| Sensors | RGB and stereo cameras, LiDAR, IMU, force and ultrasonic sensors |
| Capabilities | Bipedal walking, stair climbing, obstacle avoidance, dexterous manipulation for household tasks such as fetching items, surface wiping, and light assembly |
| Software | Internal "Zeroth World" simulation environment for behavior training |
| Reservation price | $89,999 |
| Estimated shipping | April 2026 |
The price of $89,999 places Jupiter at the upper end of Zeroth's catalog, still well below the price tags of many comparable industrial humanoid platforms. Jupiter has been described as a longer-term bet that demonstrates the same software stack scaling from a desktop humanoid up to a human-scale machine.[8][9]
Zeroth describes its technology base as "Technology DNA," a unified hardware-software stack designed to be shared across all five product lines. The company breaks this into three pillars.[1][5]
The stack is shared across all robots, from the small M1 to the full-size Jupiter. The promise is that capabilities developed on one platform will port over to the others, and that software updates rather than hardware replacements will drive much of the value for owners.[5]
The M1 integrates Google Gemini as its primary language and reasoning backbone, providing natural language understanding and generation, contextual awareness, and visual perception for recognizing people and situations. Safety functions, including fall detection and emergency recognition, sit on top of this perception layer. Other robots in the lineup are expected to share the same core interaction model, though the company has not been explicit about which foundation models will power the W1, A1, and Jupiter at launch.[1][2][6]
Across the lineup, the perception stack relies on a combination of LiDAR, RGB and stereo cameras, depth sensors, an inertial measurement unit, and various force and proximity sensors. The W1 leans on its LiDAR and RGB cameras to navigate mixed terrain, while Jupiter pairs visual mapping with indoor SLAM to support task planning.[6][7][8]
Zeroth targets three buyer categories. The consumer tier is anchored by the M1 at $2,899 and the W1 at $5,599. The commercial tier is built around the Disney-licensed WALL-E for classrooms, retail, and theme parks, plus Jupiter for service and training. The developer tier covers the A1 quadruped and Jupiter's autonomous and teleoperation modes, aimed at universities and research labs.[1][5]
The overall pricing strategy places Zeroth significantly below most humanoid robot firms. Many full-size industrial humanoids list at $50,000 to more than $150,000 and only ship to enterprise buyers. Zeroth has chosen to enter at the consumer level with the M1, while keeping a higher-margin developer and service tier in Jupiter.[5][9]
Coverage at and after CES 2026 was broadly positive on the design and pricing of the M1 and W1, and broadly skeptical about whether the software performance can match the marketing. Trade outlets noted that no booth demo can answer the harder questions about reliability or the gap between a choreographed CES floor and real home use. The arrival of Zeroth also fits into a broader trend of Chinese consumer-electronics companies bringing humanoid robots to international markets at sharper price points than the first wave of US humanoid startups.[2][4][5][6]
The name "Zeroth Robotics" has also been associated with the Zeroth-01 (also branded Z-Bot or Stompy), an open-source, 3D-printed humanoid robot project hosted on GitHub at the zeroth-robotics organization. The Zeroth-01 was developed in connection with K-Scale Labs, a Palo Alto open-source humanoid startup, and was designed as a low-cost research and education platform with a bill of materials starting around $350. K-Scale Labs publicly announced in 2025 that it was winding down operations and releasing its proprietary intellectual property, including the K-Bot and Zeroth-01 hardware and software, under non-commercial licenses. The open-source Zeroth-01 project is not the same entity as the Suzhou JoyIn commercial company described in this article.[10][11]