Unitree has humanoid robot do kung fu and lift cars as a bodyguard

The Chinese robot maker Unitree has shown a new humanoid robot that is meant to protect people. In a video of about a minute, which the company posted on X and YouTube this week, the robot delivers kicks and punches, jumps from a platform about four metres high and steps between its owner and an attacker with a stick. In other scenes it lifts the front of a car to pull someone out from underneath, and pushes a pedestrian out of the way of an approaching car.

Unitree calls the robot the H2-X Kung Fu Legend Guardian. According to the company, it was made to "serve and guard" people.

Built on the H2

The H2-X is a variant of the H2, Unitree's largest humanoid robot. The regular H2 is 1.82 metres tall, weighs about 70 kilos and has 31 joints that can move independently of each other. It costs 29,900 dollars, about 26,600 euros. For a robot of this size that is remarkably little, and that is also what Unitree is known for: the company makes advanced robots for a much lower price than many competitors.

The biggest leap is in endurance. According to Unitree, the regular H2 lasts about three hours on one battery charge. According to the company, the H2-X can stand for about eight hours. The video states that this is about standing still; how long it lasts when it walks or does heavy work, Unitree has not yet announced.

A demonstration of what the platform can do

The video mainly shows what the robot's body can handle: fast movements, landing after a jump, applying force without falling over. That fits with earlier Unitree videos, in which robots roller-skate, ice-skate or dance in groups. As early as October 2025, the company had its smaller robot G1 do kung fu moves and somersaults.

The H2-X is not yet a product you can order tomorrow. Unitree has not given a price, sale date or full technical details. It is also not known which part of what the robot does in the video it does on its own, and which part was rehearsed in advance or controlled remotely. Fake cars and a dummy were used in the rescue scenes. Unitree itself recommends keeping a distance of two to three metres from the robot.

Selling a robot as a personal bodyguard is also not simple: a machine that can hit hard and works next to people has to meet strict safety requirements before it may go on the market. The technology site TechRadar therefore expects that the H2-X will not be in the shops soon, but that a version for guarding company premises or for rescue work is conceivable.

Fast progress in humanoid robots

Unitree is one of the fastest-growing robot companies in the world. The company went public in August 2026 and is working with chipmaker Nvidia on a new generation of the H2, for which Nvidia supplies training data and a powerful computer chip. Other companies are also making fast progress: researchers in South Korea this week showed a humanoid robot that pushes 35 kilos while it walks.

What does this mean for the road to the singularity?

A robot doing kung fu seems mainly like a spectacle. But what is shown here is exactly what humanoid robots need in order to be useful in the real world: keeping their balance during fast movements, landing safely after a fall or jump, and applying force without falling over. These days, robots learn such movements largely in computer simulations, where AI can practise millions of attempts before the robot takes a single real step.

The biggest challenge now lies in the robot's judgement: deciding by itself when it should step in, and when not. A robot that can lift a car could soon save lives in an accident or in a collapsed building. The next step is to show that it can do this on its own and safely, away from the film set.

What is the technological singularity? Read the explanation →