Pudu D9

What it's for

The Pudu D9 is the first full-size humanoid from a company previously associated with waiter and reception robots: it stands about 170 cm tall, walks on two legs, and its hands are fitted with tactile sensors.

The first area is object manipulation in services. The arms have a combined payload of 20 kg, up to 10 kg per arm, and the DH11 hand has 11 degrees of freedom and more than a thousand tactile sensing points. These are specs that make sense where you have to pick up something fragile: dishes, products on a shelf, small parcels. The manufacturer lists two uses: object manipulation and customer interaction, which means restaurants, hotels and retail.

The second area is tasks where Pudu's existing robots stop at the threshold. The wheeled BellaBot (Pudu BellaBot) will bring a tray to the table, but it won't set a plate on a high shelf or pull out a chair. The humanoid is meant to close that gap. Whether it will do so quickly and profitably, we don't know yet. It walks at up to 2 m/s, and the onboard computer has 275 TOPS of processing power, leaving headroom for local processing of images from the RGB and RGB-D cameras.

The third area is research and prototyping. Among target groups the manufacturer also names science and industry, so the D9 could end up in a laboratory testing touch-based manipulation (laboratories). It is not directly aimed at the factory floor (factories) for now. For how robots work in food service and hospitality, see the article “Service Robots in Restaurants and Hotels”.

Who it's for

Makes sense for: hotel and restaurant chains that already use Pudu robots and want to see whether a humanoid extends their capabilities; service companies ready to wait for commercialization and pilot the new product together with the supplier; research teams looking for a humanoid with a very rich hand (11 DOF, over 1,000 touch points) and a powerful onboard computer; and market watchers who want to understand how service-robot makers are entering humanoids. More about the company: Pudu Robotics.

Less suited to: the owner of a single restaurant who needs a proven robot right now, for whom BellaBot or KettyBot are the answer; anyone who must know the price before deciding, as the price is on request; Polish buyers, since the D9 is not available in Poland and the pre-order status means a queue and uncertain lead times. Nor is it a robot for the home.

Deployments

The robot is in pre-order and not available here. We also have no confirmed D9 installation at a customer anywhere in the world.

Pudu service robots have been working in Poland for a long time. They are offered by dynamicrobots.pl, rkserwis.com, gastrozona.pl and sas24.pl, among others, and the company claims more than 80,000 units globally. They can be the first step if you want to automate dining-room service. An overview of technologies for food service: “Service Robots in Restaurants and Hotels”, and for cleaning robots: “Commercial Cleaning Robots in Practice”.

BellaBot (Pudu BellaBot) is the simplest and proven alternative from the same stable: 129 cm, 40 kg payload, about 56,205 PLN (≈ EUR 12,880), available in Poland from several sellers. It has no arms, but it delivers orders, and at a fraction of a humanoid's price.

KettyBot Pro (Pudu KettyBot Pro) is a compact greeter-and-delivery robot, 112 cm, about 54,267 PLN (≈ EUR 12,430), available from Dynamic Robots. Good if you need a face on a screen and light delivery rather than manipulation.

HolaBot (Pudu HolaBot) is the largest of Pudu's delivery robots: four trays, 120 L, 60 kg payload, IPX5, about 55,500 PLN (≈ EUR 12,720) gross at rkserwis.com. When it comes to logistics inside a facility, it beats the humanoid on capacity.

If you want a humanoid with a clear price, look at the Unitree H2 (Unitree H2): 180 cm, 70 kg, 31 DOF, about 115,900 PLN (≈ EUR 26,560), available in Poland. It is more of a research robot than a service one, but with no mystery about the money. From the industrial segment, the Walker S2 (UBTech Walker S2) is interesting: 52 DOF, 15 kg payload and autonomous battery swapping in 3 minutes, though it also has no price. If you are interested in food-service applications, look at the category “Service robots”.

Pudu Robotics was founded in 2016 in Shenzhen and built its reputation on service robots: waiter robots (BellaBot), reception robots (KettyBot Pro), and cleaning robots and industrial AMRs. The company says it has deployed more than 80,000 robots in more than 60 countries. In December 2024 Pudu unveiled the D9, its first full-size bipedal humanoid. In 2026 the company is entering the humanoid segment through its Pudu X-Lab unit, competing indirectly with Unitree and UBTech. The model is in pre-order, and no further generations have been announced so far. For market context, see “Humanoid Robot Market Forecasts”.