Unitree G1 Becomes World’s First Side-Flipping Humanoid Robot

The Unitree G1 snagged bragging rights as the world’s first side-flipping humanoid with a slick demo that gives Atlas a run for its money. This 4’2”, 77lb bot nailed a standing side flip—think cartwheel energy with a tidy two-foot landing, using its 23 movable joints, an 8-core CPU, 3D LiDAR and an Intel RealSense D435 depth camera to scope its world and stick that mid-air magic.

Unitree’s G1 shines thanks to slick software, honed through reinforcement learning in NVIDIA’s Isaac Simulator before hitting the real world. This ‘Sim2Real’ approach nailed tricky moves like a side flip without breaking a sweat—or the bot—during training. At $16,000, it’s a budget-friendly research toy for labs or schools, not a home helper—its small size nixes chores. Still, it undercuts the H1’s $90,000 price and leaves hydraulic heavyweights like Boston Dynamics’ Atlas, a flip pioneer with a heftier build and cost, in the dust.