Bimo Robotics: modular wheel-legged bots snap together in 3s, shipped ~8.5M direct-drive joint modules in 2025
量子位 · wechat · 2026-09-07
While embodied AI hype centers on "brains," QbitAI profiles Bimo Technology (本末科技), which bets on robot "bodies." Its modular D1 wheel-legged robot can split into two units for lightweight parallel tasks or merge in seconds for climbing mobility, with dual/tri-legged forms sharing one algorithm stack — halving test equipment costs.
Founded in 2020 by Zhang Di (a student of Li Zexiang), the company took a contrarian direct-drive joint approach without gearboxes: quieter, smaller joints rated for 50,000–100,000 hours. Its lineup includes XingTian (80kg+ payload, first commercial direct-drive wheel-legged robot) and TITA (8 DOF, 10kg dynamic payload, -1045°C operation) for inspection and delivery.
Market traction: 8.5 million direct-drive modules shipped in 2025, a 61.1% share of China's consumer robot direct-drive module market, and wheel-legged robots exported to 50+ countries — the world's top shipper. The article argues a 60-point body never even gets into the exam room: hardware is embodied AI's prerequisite.
More from Embodied
- NVIDIA open-sources FLORA, a robotics data engine ~125x cheaper than GPT-6 Astra — nvidia · 2026-10-27
- Embodied AI startups need a different operational discipline, investor says — ___Mufasaa · 2026-10-27
- π0.5 study: raising demos from 10 to 438 lifts Place Ball in Bowl success from 7% to 83% — stingning · 2026-10-27
- GPT-6 Astra controls dexterous hands zero-shot at just 5.2% success in 500 trials — stingning · 2026-10-27
- HandsOn benchmark: 66 verified tasks and 18,000 human demos for dexterous manipulation — stingning · 2026-10-27
- DexPort: a handheld interface with a real robot hand for dexterous-hand data collection — pabbeel · 2026-10-27