EngineAI releases PM01 humanoid robot for commercial, educational use

Scarcely a week has passed in 2024 without some company entering the race to commercialize humanoid robots. EngineAI Robotics this week unveiled the PM01, which it described as a “lightweight, highly dynamic, and fully open universal embodied intelligent robot.”

The Shenzhen, China-based company previously announced its SE01 humanoid in October. It said at the time that the SE01 included a neural network and a “natural” gait (see video below).

The SE01 is available for global sales as of Dec. 24, and it comes in both a commercial version and an educational version. Both versions will be available at a unified price of 88,000 yuan ($12,000 U.S.) until March 31, 2025. During this period, purchasers of the commercial version will receive upgrade rights to the educational version.

That price is lower than the $20,000 to $30,000 that Tesla‘s Elon Musk has said the Optimus robot will eventually cost, but most humanoids are still limited in capabilities.

PM01 humanoid builds on SE01

The PM01 is 1.38 m (4.5 ft.) tall, weighs about 40 kg (88 lb.), and features 24 degrees of freedom (DoF), achieving a movement speed of 2 m/sec. (4.4 mph). Its 320-degree waist rotation enables complex motions, complemented by mechanical and natural humanoid gait walking modes according to EngineAI Robotics.

“Advanced optical motion-capture technology and an end-to-end neural network allow the robot to accurately replicate human motion, making it highly adaptable to diverse environments,” the company claimed, referring to 

Compared with its predecessor, the PM01 offers enhanced open-source capabilities, compatibility, dynamic performance, power, and hardware stability, said EngineAI. The robot’s computing suite is based on X86 architecture and NVIDIA Jetson Orin high-performance modules, and it supports cross-platform algorithm deployment and application development.

The PM01’s control interface was inspired by Iron Man, noted EngineAI. The core screen integrates various functions to allow users to easily issue commands and access information, it said.

Earlier this year, China’s National Local Joint Humanoid Robot Innovation Center launched a data-sharing initiative to help local developers. In addition, the country‘s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has set a goal of mass-producing humanoids by 2025.

Other companies turning to the open-source community for software development as they offer humanoid platforms include Fourier and UBTECH, among others. New York University’s Robot Utility Models (RUM) are also intended to help generalize training for robots.

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EngineAI Robotics pursues ’embodied intelligence’

EngineAI Robotics touted its 2024 accomplishments, including the launch of three humanoid robot models. It said its neural network and gait technology have differentiated it from the competition.

In addition, the company said its in-house development of powered joints, algorithms, and proprietary modules have helped it deliver nearly 100 units in five months.

In August 2024, EngineAI raised unspecified seed funding, and it has raised $4.5 million to date, according to PitchBook.

The company said the launch of PM01 is a step toward its development goals in 2025, “furthering the evolution of embodied intelligence and paving the way toward the AGI [artificial general intelligence] era.”