Booster Robotics: Chinese maker of the T2 and K1 humanoid robots

Booster Robotics designs humanoid robots that it presents as developer platforms for embodied intelligence. Its official lineup now comes down to two machines, the full-size T2 and the compact K1. Its earlier model, the T1, no longer appears on its website. The brand made its name mainly through competition. At RoboCup 2026, its robots were used by most teams in the humanoid leagues and took most of the podium places. It also claims several hundred customers worldwide and announced a major funding round in 2026.

What Booster Robotics does: embodied AI developer platforms

Booster Robotics describes its two current products according to where they sit within the same platform approach. The Booster T2 is presented as its “flagship embodied development platform”, the Booster K1 as its “entry-level embodied development platform”. The Chinese version of its website carries the notice © 2023-2026.

The manufacturer highlights a software ecosystem shared across its machines. It provides SDKs, open-source simulation resources and Booster Studio, a tool launched at RoboCup 2026 according to The Next Web. It also runs its own competitions. Again according to The Next Web, Booster created its own 3-a-side robot football league. On the Chinese version of its website, the brand lists several initiatives:

• on 26 August 2026, a sports robot event presented as a developer conference, which brought together 66 teams;
• on 30 September 2026, a call for host cities for a robot football competition.

The official website relays several company claims: its first positive operating cash flow, a “sold out” allocation for CES 2026 and a half-marathon time of 1:53. These statements come from Booster itself. On 22 August 2026, 80 T2 robots spelled out the word “BEIJING” during the opening ceremony of the 2026 Games, according to the manufacturer’s Chinese website.

Booster Robotics robots: the official T2 and K1 lineup

The showcase, online store and documentation on the official website feature only two models, the T2 and the K1. The store shows a “Buy now” button for each, with no price, no detailed edition and no shipping country.

Booster T2: specs, versions and price

The T2 was officially launched on 13 July 2026, according to the Booster press release cited in the press. Futura Sciences reports that it had been unveiled at the end of May. It is a humanoid robot about 1.4 m tall with 31 degrees of freedom: 6 per leg, 7 per arm, 3 at the waist and 2 at the head.

It comes in two variants, Education and Professional, which differ in onboard computing:

• the Education version runs on a 375 TOPS ARM processor;
• the Professional version uses an NVIDIA Jetson Thor T5000 rated at 2,070 TFLOPS.

Several end effectors are available as options: a standard effector, a gripper or a dexterous hand. Maximum payload reaches 10 kg with both arms, depending on posture. Sources differ on weight. Booster gives about 42 kg, noting that it can vary by version and options. Futura Sciences gives “up to 43 kg” depending on configuration and cites a torque of 140 N·m.

In a post published on 26 August 2026 on the Open Robotics community, Viki Chen of Booster Robotics presented the T2 as an “open humanoid platform”. She announced ROS 2 compatibility and access to the high-level and low-level SDK, with pricing “on request”. Booster does not publish a price. Futura Sciences reports that third-party retailers list it at around €27,000.

Booster K1: specs, editions and price

The K1 is the small model in the lineup: about 95 cm tall and 19.5 kg. It has 22 degrees of freedom: 2 at the head, 4 per arm and 6 per leg. According to the website Jiemian, Booster launched it on 24 October 2025 with a limited-time offer starting at 29,900 yuan. TMTPost adds that it was then sold on Taobao and Tmall. The first batch, paid in full, sold out in 20 minutes, and more than 1,000 units were signed with retailers at launch.

The official website offers the K1 in three editions:

• Geek: 48 TOPS, 2 Ah battery, 20 minutes of runtime walking at 1.1 m/s, 3-month warranty;
• Education: 117 TOPS, 5 Ah battery, 1 h 10 min of runtime, one-year warranty;
• Professional: 200 TOPS, 5 Ah battery, 1 h 10 min of runtime, one-year warranty.

A fourth edition, the K1 Explorer, went on sale on 17 September 2026 according to Booster’s Chinese website. According to Itiger, it is offered from 38,999 yuan on the official JD.com store, with a 3-month warranty. Itiger says it targets the home, STEM activities, DIY and competitions.

The figures published by the retailer Génération Robots differ from the official spec sheet on two points:

• runtime: about 40 minutes, compared with 20 minutes or 1 h 10 min depending on the edition according to Booster;
• computing: “100 to 200 TOPS”, compared with 48, 117 or 200 TOPS according to Booster.

Details of the editions and sales channels are on the page dedicated to the Booster K1: specifications, editions and price.

Booster T2 vs K1: official specifications

Booster T1: the previous model, no longer on the official site

The Booster T1 preceded the T2 in the lineup. On the manufacturer’s website, it no longer appears in the showcase, the store or the documentation, which contains only the K1 and T2 manuals. This absence is an observation made on the website: Booster has published no announcement about discontinuing the T1.

With no official spec sheet, its specifications come from retailers. In a blog post dated 3 April 2025, Génération Robots describes the T1 as follows:

• dimensions of 118 × 47 × 23 cm and a weight of about 30 kg;
• 23 degrees of freedom in the standard version;
• a 14-core Intel i7 processor paired with a 200 TOPS NVIDIA AGX Orin;
• a maximum knee torque of 130 N·m;
• an Intel RealSense D455 camera, a 9-axis IMU, a microphone array and a speaker;
• three versions: standard, with grippers and with dexterous hands.

The number of degrees of freedom depends on the version, according to Génération Robots and Funduino: 23 for the standard version, 31 with grippers and 41 with dexterous hands. In an article dated 28 August 2025, reichelt adds ROS 2 compatibility and simulation in Isaac Sim, MuJoCo and Webots. The distributor lists a runtime of up to 2 h of walking and 4 h on standby, as well as optional 5G. OpenELAB, for its part, lists a 10.5 Ah battery and 2 to 4 h of runtime.

Several European retailers still sell the T1. Funduino lists the T1 Basic version at €39,000.00 incl. VAT, excl. shipping. In October 2026, Génération Robots put a used demonstration unit on sale at €31,200 incl. VAT. The T1 also remains in competitive use: Tsinghua University’s Hephaestus team used it to win its title at RoboCup 2026.

RoboCup 2026: 38 of 59 teams used Booster robots

RoboCup 2026 took place in Songdo, Incheon, South Korea. The Next Web dates the event from 30 June to 6 July 2026. The Beijing municipal government gives 5 July as the end date. Both sources agree on one figure: 38 of the 59 teams in the humanoid leagues used Booster machines.

The Next Web lists the winners of the three categories:

• large category: Hephaestus (Tsinghua University), on a Booster T1;
• intermediate category: B-Human (Germany), on a K1;
• small category: Invic, on a model the outlet calls the K1 Air.

The outlet notes that teams using Booster robots took gold, silver and most of the podium. In the 11-a-side final, B-Human beat HTWK Robots 4-0. According to The Next Web, this was the first time two full teams of humanoid robots had played 11-a-side on real hardware.

Booster, for its part, claims 3 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze medals. The Beijing municipal government writes that the brand won every gold medal in the bipedal robot competitions. It points out that a year earlier, only 5 teams had chosen Chinese robots.

These results build on those of 2025. Hephaestus won its first AdultSize title in Brazil that year and defended it on a T1 in 2026. At RoboCup 2025 in Salvador, HTWK Robots (Leipzig) won the Kid Size category with K1 robots, beating TH-MOS 11-0 in the final, according to reichelt.

How many robots has Booster sold? Reported volumes and customers

The available business figures come from company statements reported by the Chinese press.

According to TMTPost, in an article dated 12 January 2026 and relayed by NetEase, Booster had shipped more than 700 humanoid robots worldwide to more than 200 customers. These customers include companies, research institutes, schools, competition teams and exhibition organisers. More than half of shipments went abroad.

The outlet Huxiu reported several growth indicators on 17 April 2026:

• shipments in the first quarter of 2026 rose 500% year on year, matching the total for the first eight months of 2025;
• new orders in January and February 2026 grew by more than 800%;
• the order backlog reached “several hundred million yuan”;
• operating cash flow turned positive in December 2025.

For the K1 alone, Huxiu reports more than 1,000 units in total, in more than 20 countries, sold to about 400 customers, mainly in education and competitions. TMTPost, for its part, reported more than 1,000 units signed with retailers at launch. These markets overlap with the topics covered on the Educational robot page.

Booster Robotics funding: two figures for the same round

On 17 April 2026, Huxiu reported a funding round of “nearly 1 billion yuan”. It was led by the Beijing High-Tech Fund, 京国盛基金 and 华控基金. The money is to go towards the global delivery network, embodied model algorithms and products. On the homepage of its website, Booster announces a round of “nearly $150 million”.

How to buy a Booster robot: sales channels, warranty and retailers

Booster sells directly through its online store, without displaying prices there. For purchases, the manufacturer points buyers to its sales email address and to a “Cooperation Inquiry” form. The form requires a country and a choice of request type, “Purchase” or “Other”.

The terms of service published by Booster set out several rules:

• the warranty runs from the date of receipt;
• out-of-warranty repairs are charged;
• the buyer pays for shipping to after-sales service, and Booster covers the return shipping if a quality defect is found;
• there is no general return policy.

A Support & Repair portal is listed.

In Europe, the lineup is offered by several retailers: Génération Robots in France, Funduino and reichelt in Germany, and OpenELAB. Reichelt describes itself as “one of the first distributors” of the lineup in the German-speaking region. In China, the K1 Explorer edition is sold on the official JD.com store, according to Itiger.

Prices, editions and terms for each channel are detailed on several pages:

• Can you buy a Booster robot?
• Buying a humanoid robot in France
• Humanoid robot prices

What we do not know yet

• Prices: Booster publishes no official price for the T1, the K1 or the T2.
• Distribution: there is no official list of authorised distributors. The manufacturer has not confirmed any European exclusivity.
• Compliance: Booster makes no mention of CE compliance. Its terms of service do not state which regions are served either.
• Warranty and after-sales service: how they work in France for a robot bought from a retailer is not specified.
• T1: the number of units delivered remains unknown, as do the date and the reason it disappeared from the showcase. The manufacturer has also not officially detailed its gripper or dexterous-hand versions.
• K1 and ROS 2: the K1’s ROS 2 compatibility, announced by retailers, does not appear on the official spec sheet.
• Sales: the breakdown by channel (official website, Tmall, JD.com) is not published.
• Funding: the figures from Huxiu (nearly 1 billion yuan) and from Booster (nearly $150 million) have not been reconciled to confirm that they refer to the same transaction.
• T2 weight: the exact figure remains uncertain, between about 42 kg according to Booster and up to 43 kg according to Futura Sciences.
• Company claims: shipment volumes, operating profitability and the 1:53 half-marathon time have not been independently verified.

See also: Booster K1: specifications, editions and price · Can you buy a Booster robot? · Educational humanoid robots · Guide to buying a humanoid robot in France · Humanoid robot prices · Booster Robotics dominates RoboCup 2026 · A used Booster T1 for €31,200 incl. VAT at Génération Robots