When it comes to humanoid robots, there are plenty of reason to be skeptical. While tech investors chomp at the tiniest signs of progress in bipedal robotics, industry analysts caution that it’ll be years before the machines are ready for widespread adoption.
Still, humanoid robotics make for a good novelty, as Chinese robotics firm Galbot makes clear with its urban kiosk staffed entirely by a robot.
Called the “first fully autonomous humanoid-operate store,” the robodega made its grand opening in Beijing in early August. Video shared on social media shows the Galbot G-1 — a dual-armed humanoid bot released in June 2024 — maneuvering around a small corner store, handing goods to customers like an old-fashioned shopkeeper.
“The humanoid robot Galbot G-1 runs everything, serving thousands of customers each day,” one video chimes. “From greeting visitors to serving drinks, snacks, and pharmaceuticals, Galbot autonomously handles every order, with zero teleoperation, powered by Galbot’s proprietary GroceryVLA and GraspVLA.”
While an advanced vending machine could arguably do the job just as well — the G-1 gets around pretty slowly — it wouldn’t be nearly as buzzy. Video taken of the inaugural kiosk shows crowds of people lining up to take the G-1 through its paces and watch the spectacle.
Though it remains a proof-of-concept in many respects, Galbot is set to rapidly expand its kiosks throughout the nation. Last week, the company opened another location in the Summer Palace, a major tourist haven in Beijing.
In an interview, Galbot CEO Wen Airong said the company plans to roll the kiosks out to 100 stores across ten Chinese cities within the next year. Ultimately, there are two main challenges for the G-1, he says: natural voice interaction, and improved operation speeds.
While that might sound simple enough, they remain herculean tasks for humanoid robots and their creators to overcome.
Robotics developers have struggled to develop systems which function well in real-world environments, where noise levels are always changing and regional accents challenge language processing. There’s also the tricky question of which regional dialect to bestow on a customer-facing robot by default — a trickier task than one might think.
Mobility is perhaps the key issue holding back robotics from achieving science-fiction level capabilities. While engineers have made some incredible advancements in robotics locomotion lately, some major gaps remain, with no obvious consensus on the correct approach for mass production.
Still, the shop is a fascinating look at the current state of robotics, and their potential applications in the not-so-distant future.
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