Orca I (ORCA)

Few humanoids have a race result to their name; the Orca I does. In April 2025 it finished the first humanoid half-marathon in Beijing without falling, swapping its batteries in about two minutes at each stop. Its maker, Cyan Robotics of Shanghai, was founded in late 2023 and is led by Dr. Niu Tengkun. The robot walks with straight knees rather than the crouched gait common among bipeds.

The product page gives a height of 1,510 mm and a weight of about 42 kg (the homepage still lists 1.45 m and 40.5 kg, apparently an older figure), 28 degrees of freedom and the company's own dexterous five-finger hands, which can be swapped for an adaptive soft gripper. Each arm lifts around 5 kg, both together 10 kg.

Power comes from two quick-change lithium packs of 5,000 mAh; endurance is two hours standing and one hour walking. Sensing relies on a 3D LiDAR, a depth camera, an IMU, a six-microphone ring and two encoders per joint, with a 14-core CPU and a Jetson Orin Nano Super doing the computing. Press coverage also mentions an emotionally expressive gait steered by a large language model.

Orca I was presented in October 2024, when the company planned fewer than one hundred complete units by mid-2025; pre-orders reportedly opened in 2024, but the series status remains unclear, hence the pilot label. Price on request. Intended users are research, education and exhibitions. For a lightweight biped with a different, tendon-based drive, see the Xingzhe 2.