Overview

• Robbyant, Ant Group’s robotics unit, introduced the wheeled, two‑armed R1 at the Inclusion Conference on the Bund in Shanghai after showing it at IFA 2025 in Berlin.
• The company positions R1 for roles such as caregiving or companionship in healthcare, tour guiding in travel settings, and basic kitchen assistance, with trials reported in community centers and restaurants.
• Company specifications list a weight of about 110kg, a height between 1.6 and 1.75 meters, a top speed under 1.5 meters per second, and 34 degrees of freedom, with options for remote‑controlled tasks.
• Live demonstrations, including a shrimp‑cooking display and slow object placement, highlighted limited real‑world speed and capability, and the company has not disclosed a price or release date.
• Ant’s strategy centers on its BaiLing large AI model with training on domestic chips to cut costs and reduce reliance on foreign compute, while event staff claimed mass production and early shipments to a museum, a point not confirmed by the company.