K2 Bumblebee

The Kepler Forerunner K2 'Bumblebee' is a groundbreaking industrial-grade humanoid robot developed by Shanghai Kepler Exploration Robot Co., Ltd., representing a significant advancement in commercially viable bipedal humanoids. Standing at 175-178 cm tall and weighing 75-85 kg, it features 52 degrees of freedom, enabling highly bionic motion mimicking human kinematics. Its architecture employs a revolutionary series-parallel hybrid system, integrating proprietary KEPLERGEAR planetary roller screw linear actuators in thighs, calves, and arms for high-load, high-precision movements with near-zero idle power consumption, paired with high-torque rotary actuators (peak 200 N.m) for precise positioning at 0.01-degree accuracy. This design achieves up to 81.3% energy efficiency, supporting 8 hours of continuous operation on a 1-hour charge, a benchmark demonstrated in an industry-first 8-hour livestream at WAIC 2025. The robot's 'Nimble Master' dexterity system includes 11-DoF hands with 25 force-sensing contact points per finger and 6-axis force/torque wrists, facilitating millimeter-level manipulation, dynamic grip adjustments for deformable objects, and human-like reflexive responses. Perception is powered by the self-developed Nebula system on a 100 TOPS onboard compute platform (over 80% in-house hardware), integrating multiple 1080p+ cameras, >80 sensors for multi-modal input (visual SLAM, auditory, tactile, force, positional), and micro-models distilled from large foundation models for real-time embodied decision-making. AI capabilities leverage VLA+ (Vision-Language-Action) training, reinforcement and imitation learning for hybrid gaits (heel-strike/toe-off on complex terrain), partnerships with Chinese LLMs for reasoning, and a tri-component 'brain-cerebellum' architecture for seamless perception-decision-execution. Real-world deployments highlight its maturity: trialed at SAIC General Motors and Zhaofeng Motor factories for autonomous navigation, material handling, sorting, assembly, and stamping; logistics/warehousing tasks; and public demos. Mass production began in September 2025, with pre-sales starting at ~$30,000-$34,000 (RMB 248,000) for base models (Bipedal Basic/Developer, Wheeled Developer), framework agreements for thousands of units, and an ecosystem with partners like Tao Motor. Exhibitions at ICRA 2025, IROS 2025, and WAIC showcased payloads up to 30 kg dual-arm, equivalent to 1.5 human workers, positioning K2 as a productivity revolution for manufacturing, high-risk ops, education, and research. Its open developer platform fosters global co-creation, emphasizing hardware-first evolution toward general-purpose autonomy.