First it made garlic shrimp. Next, it might guide tourists through museums, hand out pills in pharmacies, or even care for the elderly.
That’s the pitch for R1, a wheeled, two-armed humanoid robot built by Ant Group’s robotics arm, Robbyant. The robot made its public debut by stir-frying shrimp at the IFA 2025 tech show in Berlin, then jetted home to Shanghai to perform again at the Inclusion Conference. For Ant — the Jack Ma-founded company best known for digital payments — R1 signals a big move into embodied AI: machines that can not only process data but also act in the physical world.
At the conference, Unitree founder Wang Xingxing summed up why this moment matters. “The real bottleneck lies in embodied intelligence models, whose capabilities are still far from adequate. We are on the eve of an explosive phase of growth where AI can truly be put to work,” he said, as reported by the South China Morning Post.
R1 arrives in an industry suddenly teeming with competition. Tesla has Optimus, Boston Dynamics has Atlas, and newer startups like Figure AI, Agility Robotics, Sanctuary AI and 1X Technologies are jockeying for position. China alone has Fourier Intelligence, Xpeng Robotics and Xiaomi, while European firms like PAL Robotics and Engineered Arts are adding their own models to the mix.
Ant Group says R1’s first-generation specs make it suitable for real work: 110 kilograms in weight, 1.6 to 1.75 meters in height, 34 degrees of freedom, and a top speed of 1.5 meters per second. While not as agile as Atlas, R1 is designed to be practical — handling repetitive, high-pressure tasks where consistency matters.
Cooking might seem like a gimmick, but Robbyant insists it’s a progression. Kitchens demand speed, accuracy and multitasking, from grabbing ingredients to handling hot pans. R1’s “embodied AI,” can plan and execute the whole workflow on its own, adapting to different layouts and even learning new recipes over time.
Spatial awareness lets R1 tell the difference between utensils and a cutting board, and ingredients. Businesses can configure the bot to fit their floor plans, making it a flexible hire for restaurants or large cafeterias.
Robbyant CEO Zhu Xing called R1 a “super smart brain” that gets better with every task. “We are newcomers to this field, focusing on developing intelligence,” he said. “Ant Group has continued to invest in life services, including public welfare, healthcare, and finance. Robbyant expects to leverage embodied intelligence to extend the services Ant provides in the digital world more effectively into the physical world.”
The company is testing R1 in restaurants and community centers but imagines broader use cases: a robotic guide in museums, an assistant in pharmacies, or a companion for older adults. Robbyant is already eyeing partnerships in Europe to expand into healthcare and household roles.
Zheng Yuewen, Robbyant’s country manager for the DACH region, framed the robot as a fix for labor shortages. By handling “mundane, repetitive tasks,” he said, R1 could free people for more meaningful work.
Ant’s focus on software distinguishes it from competitors who emphasize hardware. The company leans on domestic suppliers for the chassis, underscoring China’s push for local tech self-sufficiency.
For a company that made its name in finance, robots might seem like a leap. But Ant has long pitched itself as a life-simplification company. Alipay changed how people pay, and R1 has the potential to change the workplace, some executives say. The robot also fits China’s broader ambitions in automation, where the country already leads the United States and Japan in factory robotics.
