| Why can't a humanoid robot that costs less than 10000 yuan even tighten a screw properly? |
| Hits：189 AddTime：2026-06-14 17:53:08 |
| Open the JD humanoid robot hot selling list, and the top ranked Songyan Power Little Bumi Lite version, combined with government subsidies and 618 promotion discounts, has a purchase price of only 9118.1 yuan. Yushu Technology has launched a brand new humanoid robot, priced at 29900 yuan. According to the prospectus of Yushu Technology, the unit price of its humanoid robots has dropped from 593400 yuan in 2023 to 166400 yuan in 2025, a decrease of about 72% in two years. The price has dropped faster and more fiercely than expected. For a time, "humanoid robots entering the era of ten thousand yuan" became a hot topic of discussion. But guess what? These "cabbage price" humanoid robots are not qualified to enter the factory to screw screws. Dancing robots have seen a significant drop in their value Entering Yushu Technology's "Tailored Intelligent Experience Hall" Asia's first store, the Unitree R1 AIR is sold for 29499 yuan after discounts, and the prices of the three robotic dogs range from 8697 yuan to 15100 yuan. However, the shop assistant revealed that quadruped robotic dogs sell much better than humanoid robots in the store. "Yesterday, a customer bought three dogs in one go. Even if there is a deal for humanoid robots, the buyers are mainly large companies - used for annual meetings, business performances, or performance shows at large-scale events. Cai Bingzhen, director of the Institute of Advanced Robotics, told Caixin reporters that the sharp drop in consumer prices is due to multiple factors such as mature supply chains, standardized design, and manufacturers' efforts to expand their market share. But as manufacturers flock to lower prices, problems also emerge - a large number of similar humanoid robot products are highly homogenized, and users only realize after buying them that they have almost nothing to do in highly complex industrial scenarios except for performing a few cool actions according to preset programs. Consumers cannot enter the production line, that's the truth Unlike the consumer end, the price of industrial grade humanoid robots is quite stable. According to data from Gaogong Robotics, the overall average price of industrial robots will only decrease by about 13% year-on-year in 2025. In 2026, many manufacturers may even raise their prices due to cost pressures. Why? Industrial scenarios have extremely high requirements for force control accuracy, robustness, lifespan, and safety. Consumer grade robots with bipedal structures pose significant risks on the production line - in the event of a power outage or malfunction, if the robot tilts over, it could directly destroy expensive production equipment. Even if it doesn't collapse, the reflection of metal parts will cause frequent visual perception errors. When the nearby punching machine makes a sound and the ground vibrates, the "hand" will deviate, the sensor will be contaminated with oil, and the force feedback will be instantly distorted. These non-standard details are difficult to reproduce completely in the laboratory. The crueler reality is hidden in the 'hands'. A set of dexterous hands with force control and tactile perception capabilities costs much more than the robot itself, and in high-intensity working environments in factories, dexterous hands can be damaged in less than a month. Repairing hands once a month is simply unacceptable to the factory owner. That's why wheeled humanoid robots with higher stability are becoming the mainstream solution for "working in factories". The real scene of 'apprentice entering the factory' But where are the real opportunities in the industrial scene? Chongqing motorcycle companies have given us an interesting perspective. Li Yao, Chairman of Longxin General Motors, calculated that the company has nearly 20000 employees, with an average annual salary of 138000 yuan per person and an annual salary expenditure of 2.7 billion yuan. If fully automated production lines are implemented, the cost of renovation can easily reach several million or even tens of millions of yuan, which cannot be calculated at all; If we rely solely on manual labor, we won't be able to recruit or retain people, and the cost will continue to rise. This is the awkward 'fault zone' for small and medium-sized enterprises in the manufacturing industry. At the beginning of 2026, Longxin General Motors, Shanghai Zhiyuan, and Yongchuan District State owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission launched joint venture factory construction. This year, they plan to produce 10000 humanoid robots, of which 3500 will enter the motorcycle production lines of Zongshen and Longxin. They have to 'become apprentices' here, starting from the most basic and difficult movement: screwing. What do you think of the actual effect? In the picture, a humanoid robot is holding an electric wrench to tighten screws, "click" - the force is too strong and the thread is slipping. A red warning immediately pops up on the screen, and the torque curve suddenly breaks. After a few seconds, retract your arm and try again. This is still a scenario that can only be seen in a very small number of laboratories and testing stations worldwide. In order to meet the most basic efficiency requirements of the factory assembly line, Xiaomi's humanoid robots have developed VLA large models and tactile grasping fine-tuning technology specifically for a certain workstation. After continuous operation for 3 hours, the installation success rate reached 90.2% - which is already an outstanding achievement in the current development stage. Even this number cannot be achieved by consumer grade robots. 90% means that the production pace still cannot keep up with the 76 second production line rhythm, and the 3-hour battery life is there. The workers on the production line work in a continuous flow for 8 hours a day, which is the norm. The cooling rental market reveals industry signals The heat of the industry is cooling down. According to Caixin News Agency, data from third-party platform Qingtian Rent shows that at the beginning of last year, a robot priced at 100000 yuan could be rented for thousands of yuan per day. Today, the rent has generally fallen below 1000 yuan. The market is undergoing differentiation. Jipole is a consumer grade robot designed for home entertainment and commercial performances, with prices continuing to explore the bottom; The other pole is industrial grade robots aimed at industrial production, with strong prices but transitioning towards wheeled chassis in pursuit of stability and practicality. The industry trend is also changing. The capital from the primary market has begun to flow towards upstream core components such as reducers, sensors, and actuators, with a significant increase in the proportion of capital. Robot manufacturers have also shifted their focus from consolidating order volumes to emphasizing real-life scenarios. The era of just talking without practicing has already been turned over. 'Cabbage price' does not equal 'productivity' Returning to the original question: Why can't humanoid robots priced at "cabbage" enter factories to screw screws? The answer is simple to cruel: because they are not designed according to factory requirements at all. Consumer grade products and industrial grade products, both seemingly called "humanoid robots," are actually two completely different technological routes. The cost compression of the former relies on reducing configuration, simplifying components, and reducing precision requirements; The latter requires higher precision, longer lifespan, better reliability, and innovative forms such as wheeled chassis that are more suitable for industrial environments. The gap between the two can never be bridged by a price war. For industries that are eager to make robots truly 'work', this may not necessarily be a bad thing. When the foam is cleared, only the truly valuable technologies and products can get the tickets left at the card table. For ordinary consumers, buying a humanoid robot that dances at home for less than 10000 yuan is a fun toy. But if you think it can help you screw screws and do manual labor in factories like Autobots in Transformers, then you're overthinking it. The brutal price reduction of the "cabbage price" on the consumer side has opened up a lively experience picture between ordinary people and humanoid robots, while the entry threshold set by precision, lifespan, and reliability on the industrial side has not yet been broken. |
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