some firms are positioning them for future home use.<\/a><\/p>\nDefence experts say such machines could eventually have military applications.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is likely room for robots in the shape of humans and animals in military and security organisations. Especially if they are to interact with structures built for humans, like cars, stairs, and doors,\u201d Hans Liw\u00e5ng, a professor in systems science for defence and security at the Swedish Defence University, told Euronews Next.<\/p>\n
He cautioned that real-world deployment is far more complex than a staged performance. In military settings, he said, the robot\u2019s shape matters far less than whether it has sufficiently \u201cwell-developed logic\u201d to operate in an unpredictable environment.<\/p>\n
Liw\u00e5ng similarly cautioned against reading too much into high-profile demonstrations, as they can also be viewed through the lens of state propaganda. <\/p>\n
\u201cPutting on a rehearsed, preplanned, and controlled show does not tell us that much about the state of the technology. Such shows are designed to impress, and therefore likely overstates the capability of the technology,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Can Europe keep pace?<\/p>\n
While Europe does not need to be alarmed, it does need to pay attention, Liw\u00e5ng said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEurope needs to be informed about international development. We need to learn from others, not build from scratch. We need to learn from the efforts put into this development and from the technical development\u201d.<\/p>\n
His comments come as the humanoid robotics race increasingly appears to be led by China and the United States.<\/p>\n
Analysts say China\u2019s advantage lies largely in manufacturing scale and supply chain integration. <\/p>\n
The country has built what experts describe as a near vertically integrated robotics value chain, supported by strong government backing, allowing firms to scale production quickly and push prices lower.<\/p>\n
Unitree Robotics, whose machines featured prominently at China\u2019s Spring Festival Gala, advertises a base price of $13,500 (about \u20ac11,280) for its G1 humanoid robot.<\/p>\n
Tesla has yet to announce a commercial price for Optimus. During a January 2025 earnings call, CEO Elon Musk said production costs could fall below $20,000 (about \u20ac16,700) if annual output reaches one million units, suggesting prices may remain higher until large-scale manufacturing is achieved.<\/p>\n
According to a 2024 report<\/a> from the International Federation of Robotics, a global industry association headquartered in Germany, China remains the world\u2019s largest industrial robot market and accounted for more than half of all robot installations globally in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China’s annual Lunar New Year’s Eve spectacular made headlines this year as humanoid robots stole the show, performing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[365,363,364,607,36562,35272,111,139,69,5149,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-295059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-china","12":"tag-lunar-new-year","13":"tag-new-technologies","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz","17":"tag-robot","18":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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