RobotRisk › Unitree Robotics › ~May 2025
Unitree H1 humanoid robot malfunctions, nearly strikes engineers during testing
S2 · ~May 2025 · Unitree Robotics · China
Record
| Company | Unitree Robotics |
| Industry | Other |
| Type(s) | malfunction |
| Date | ~May 2025 (month precision) |
| Time of day | not documented |
| Location | China |
| Severity | (minor injury or single-unit damage) |
| Scale | 1 robot, 2 engineers present |
| Confidence | medium |
| Verified flag | Yes - independently re-checked against the cited source |
Summary
A Unitree H1 humanoid robot being tested at a facility in China suddenly went berserk, wildly flailing its arms and legs and knocking over equipment including a computer. Two engineers had to scramble to avoid being hit before one regained control by pulling the robot's support stand back. Preliminary reports attributed the malfunction to a coding/algorithm error in the robot's balance-control software. Captured on CCTV, the video went viral.
Primary source
Publisher: Interesting Engineering · Retrieved: 2026-09-16
Supporting source rows (1)
| Date | Supporting source row | Publisher | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| ~May 2025 | Unitree H1 humanoid robot malfunctions, nearly strikes engineers during testing | Interesting Engineering | Interesting Engineering |
Unitree Robotics other incidents timeline
Other context
malfunction context
Unitree Robotics industry position
Related incidents
Other Unitree Robotics entries
Report a correction
Also from Critical Systems Analysis: CSA - functional safety engineering · Company directory · FSTalent - functional safety jobs