Elon Musk's Optimus gets tough competition, Chinese company unveils athletic humanoid robot, costs Rs...

A Chinese company has unveiled a new humanoid robot that can perform a range of impressive activities, costing just over Rs 5 lakh (or USD 5,900) and giving tough competition to other major companies building similar bots at higher prices. The robot, dubbed R1, recently unveiled by Hangzhou-based Unitree Robotics, could be seen in videos performing handstands, throwing combination punches, and even... fist-fighting! The robot weighs around 55 pounds (nearly 25 kilograms) and has 26 joints for flexible movements.

What are the robot's capabilities?
The R1 robot comes equipped with multimodal artificial intelligence (AI), making it capable of voice and image recognition. Besides showing its boxing capabilities, the robot could also be seen performing "kip up" -- a complex gymnastic move involving transitioning from a supine position to standing without the use of hands. Unitree revealed the robot in a video posted on X, writing: "Let's accelerate the advent of the agent era!" The viral video has been seen almost 3 million times and received hundreds of comments. Unitree's larger and more advanced humanoid robot H1 sells for above of Rs 77 lakh, while the older G1 bot costs nearly Rs 14 lakh.

How did users react online?
There were a flurry of reactions to the video shared by Unitree on X, with many users asking if the robot could carry out everyday chores for them. One user quipped: "Will it fight anyone you point at? Asking for a friend." Another asked, "Can it walk my dog and serve breakfast to my kids?" Some tagged X's owner and billionaire Elon Musk, whose company Tesla is developing a general-purpose humanoid robot called Optimus.