{"id":158763,"date":"2026-08-18T16:01:40","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T16:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2026\/08\/18\/how-us-military-funding-propelled-chinas-robot-dogs\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T18:39:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T18:39:16","slug":"how-us-military-funding-propelled-chinas-robot-dogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/industry\/techwatch\/2026\/08\/18\/how-us-military-funding-propelled-chinas-robot-dogs\/","title":{"rendered":"How US military funding propelled China\u2019s robot dogs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
China\u2019s Unitree Robotics \u2014 among the world\u2019s biggest producers of humanoid and quadruped robots \u2014 based designs for its most successful robot dogs on innovations funded by the U.S. military, according to a former U.S. defense technology official and three top researchers involved in the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unitree\u2019s $1,600 Go2 model, launched in 2023, helped the company rapidly dominate the global quadruped robot market \u2014 its Shanghai IPO has drawn frenzied demand. Another Unitree robot has been shown on Chinese state television, armed and accompanying People\u2019s Liberation Army (PLA) troops on an exercise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
These robots draw on breakthroughs in quadruped movement financed by the U.S. DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory (ARL) and other military programs, the researchers and the former official told Reuters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Army-funded project turned into, \u201cbasically, the first Unitree robot that had any kind of scale,\u201d said Gavin Kenneally, a former University of Pennsylvania researcher involved in the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ben Katz, who worked at Massachusetts Institute of Technology\u2019s Biomimetic Robotics Lab, among a consortium of universities financed by the military programs, said the dimensions of Unitree\u2019s popular Go series were \u201cto the millimeter\u201d almost identical to a groundbreaking robot he helped develop called Mini Cheetah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reuters is the first media outlet to detail connections between Unitree designs and the Army program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The episode underscores broader problems with the United States\u2019 ability to compete with China\u2019s state-directed manufacturing sector in high-tech strategic industries, including those critical to national security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Backed by subsidies, clusters of component factories, and a tolerance for heavy losses, Chinese companies have seized market share across industries such as solar panels, drones, EVs and quantum communications, many of which were first developed in the U.S. with government or military backing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kenneally commercialized the U.S. breakthroughs through his company Ghost Robotics, which supplies U.S. special forces with advanced, ruggedized robots. But compared to Unitree, its production is small and costly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In June, the Pentagon added Unitree to a list of Chinese military companies, calling it a \u201ccontributor to the Chinese defense industrial base.\u201d That designation falls short of a sanction but limits the U.S. military\u2019s future use of Unitree\u2019s technology. Unitree has said its robots are for civilian use. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unitree, China\u2019s State Council and China\u2019s defense ministry did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/atype-video-jwplayer>Experts and robotics makers say China used Pentagon-funded work to design robot dogs and then proliferated them beyond U.S. capabilities to keep up.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n
Unitree did nothing underhanded in using the U.S. Army research. The program\u2019s findings were published openly to stimulate progress in the field, a common practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ARL spokesperson Amanda Ligon said the research \u201cstrengthened the broader U.S. robotics ecosystem\u201d and informed subsequent work across government and the private sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ARL referred questions about Unitree\u2019s commercialization of the technology to the Pentagon, which declined to comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US companies versus China\u2019s industrial policy <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Unitree sold more than 5,500 humanoids and 18,000 quadrupeds last year, company filings show, and it\u2019s now valued at about $9 billion ahead of its stock market debut on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By contrast, no U.S. company has mass-produced such robots, including Elon Musk\u2019s Tesla, which has displayed prototypes of its Optimus humanoid for years. On a January earnings call, Musk called China \u201cincredibly good\u201d at scaling production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Boston Dynamics, the U.S. company whose 2019 canine, Spot, used different technology, recently argued in a Congressional hearing that China\u2019s low pricing would drive U.S. firms out of the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
None of the U.S. robotics researchers who spoke with Reuters advocated for keeping such government-financed research secret. Instead, they said, U.S. policymakers should focus on enabling companies to quickly commercialize such advances to compete with China. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
ARL also said publication was important to scientific and technological advancement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The U.S. excels in innovation and software development but needs to ensure the capital, industrial base, highly skilled workforce and parts supply chains to scale up breakthroughs, said Vijay Kumar, dean at Penn Engineering. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For now, U.S. authorities often protect companies with trade restrictions on innovative Chinese products. In July, the Federal Communications Commission banned imports of future models of foreign-made humanoid and quadruped robots, including those from Unitree. China has threatened to retaliate against the FCC ban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
China\u2019s Washington embassy said in a statement its companies are making new technologies affordable and accessible internationally. It accused the U.S. of abusing administrative power, and of \u201cmarket distortion and unilateral bullying.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of the experts who spoke to Reuters supported the U.S. ban but said the policy is not enough to build an industry to catch up with China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t just a competition between U.S. and Chinese robotics companies,\u201d said Kenneally, the Ghost Robotics founder. \u201cIt\u2019s between private U.S. companies and China\u2019s coordinated national strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping set out a 10-year plan to lead industries including green energy, electric vehicles and robotics. Since then, China has channeled capital into risky bets on low-margin 21st-century advanced manufacturing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chinese robot manufacturers\u2019 rapid reverse-engineering of products draws on the country\u2019s dominance in refining critical minerals needed for magnets in robotics applications and the density of suppliers of motors, gears, \u2018muscles\u2019 known as actuators, and other components clustered near Unitree\u2019s base in Hangzhou.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reyk Knuhtsen, a robotics analyst at SemiAnalysis, called the United States\u2019 failure to commercialize domestic research a \u201cdropped ball,\u201d citing U.S. venture capital\u2019s preference for high-return software startups. It would take more than trade barriers on China to boost robotics manufacturing, he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is a very big hill for the U.S. to climb,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The White House did not respond to requests for comment about U.S. industrial policy. An FCC spokesperson said the commission was protecting Americans from foreign threats and preparing the country \u201cto deliver on President Trump\u2019s vision to lead the world on the next generation of technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jaret Riddick, who as a former Army Research Laboratory director oversaw the Army-funded robotics project, said it did kick-start the U.S. quadruped industry. But in the end, without support for large-scale production, Unitree in China \u201cjust kind of consumed that space.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Teaching robot dogs new tricks <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Army funded the Robotics Collaborative Technology Alliance (RCTA) between 2010 and 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The RCTA gathered government, academic and industry researchers from UPenn, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston Dynamics, NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and other research institutions. The alliance\u2019s top commercial partner was General Dynamics Land Systems, the Michigan-based defense manufacturer that makes Abrams M1 tanks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2016, UPenn researchers, including Kenneally, eliminated heavy central gearboxes and placed motors in robots\u2019 legs, enhancing the ability to sense and respond to terrain. UPenn\u2019s progress built on the MIT lab\u2019s work funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, DARPA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2019, the MIT lab presented the Mini Cheetah, building on UPenn features with increased strength \u2013 and the ability to do backflips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Months earlier, Katz published his MIT masters thesis, detailing Mini Cheetah\u2019s actuators. Within six months, he found Chinese companies manufacturing actuator copies \u201cyou could buy on AliExpress,\u201d he said, referring to the Chinese online retail giant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unitree had been founded three years before by Wang Xingxing, then 26 years old. In his 2016 master\u2019s thesis from Shanghai University, which Reuters reviewed online, Wang cited the work done at MIT, including on earlier iterations of the Cheetah, and set out principles consistent with those developed at the U.S. lab. He acknowledged the lab\u2019s \u201cpioneering\u201d contributions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his thesis, Wang explored design tweaks to speed up development, saying his findings could have future \u201cdefense, security, family and education\u201d applications. He referenced Kenneally\u2019s ARL-funded UPenn paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On its website, Unitree says the company \u201cindependently developed the motors, reducers, controllers, and even some sensors of the quadruped robot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nA Unitree humanoid robot demonstrates kickboxing moves during the China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing on June 22, 2026. (Florence Lo\/Reuters)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Katz told Reuters he decided against taking his actuators into production, thinking there would be no market. He said China\u2019s ability to move fast had broad benefits: Robotics \u201chas advanced a lot because of the availability of actuators.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Joao Ramos, who did research at the same time as Katz at the MIT lab, said Unitree copied the Mini Cheetah shape, structure and design. But he credited the company with doing \u201cproper engineering\u201d to perfect a mass-produced robot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe actual practical implementation, bringing it to real life, that\u2019s all on them,\u201d Ramos said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gun-totting robot dogs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Walking robots aren\u2019t yet widely deployed on battlefields, but the United States and Chinese militaries have both explored the prospect. In October, another Chinese company\u2019s \u201cRobot Wolf\u201d quadrupeds featured in Chinese media coverage of the PLA conducting mock beach landings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unitree has said in public statements that its products are intended for civilian use. In 2022, the company signed an open letter along with U.S. companies pledging not to weaponize robots, citing risks of harm and serious ethical issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Chinese state television has featured Unitree\u2019s Go2 model robots alongside Chinese troops and a modified version of the firm\u2019s B1 series robot firing a mounted assault rifle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In September 2023, the U.S. Army secured a federal waiver from laws requiring government agencies to prioritize American-made products, in order to purchase two Unitree Go2s, according to procurement records that described the devices as crucial tools in the absence of sufficient commercial quantities of U.S.-produced alternatives \u201cof a satisfactory quality.\u201d Reuters could not establish whether the purchases went ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later that month, U.S. Marines conducted an exercise attaching a rocket launcher to a Go1 to enable remote firing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kenneally\u2019s Ghost Robotics has shipped about 1,000 of its Vision 60 robots, mostly to military and government customers for surveillance and search applications in harsh environments. The company\u2019s first customer was Navy Special Warfare Command, which oversees Navy SEAL teams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some components for the Vision 60s, which sell for upwards of $165,000, are built in China, though the company has sought to move its supply chain. By comparison, Unitree lists its B series robot for below $100,000 in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ghost Robotics shifted its motor supply from China to South Korea two years ago, though it still finds it difficult to eliminate Chinese magnets and some metal components, Kenneally said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The only way to escape China\u2019s chokehold on the robotics supply chain, he said, is to secure supplies from other countries that have the manufacturing capacity that the United States lacks. In 2024, South Korea\u2019s LIG Defense & Aerospace acquired a 60% stake in Ghost Robotics for $240 million. The company is exploring production in Taiwan, Kenneally said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe need to work closely with our allies,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s absolutely no path forward without them.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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