# Boston Dynamics Gave Up on Hydraulics. A 4-Meter Robot From China May Change the Conversation.

- Link: https://www.thailand-business-news.com/pr-news/boston-dynamics-gave-up-on-hydraulics-a-4-meter-robot-from-china-may-change-the-conversation
- Published: 2026-09-14T20:00:00+07:00
- Author: PR Newswire

**A 4-meter hydraulic-electric hybrid humanoid from Beijing pairs a 500 kg payload
with micrometer-level fingertip precision — built for the jobs humans won’t, can’t,
or shouldn’t do.**

BEIJING, Sept. 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Transformers, Gundam, the mechs of _Pacific
Rim_ — for decades these were fantasy. At the World Robot Conference (WRC), wrapped
up recently in Beijing, one machine made the leap from science fiction to physical
hardware.

**Neo1**, a 4-meter hydraulic-electric hybrid humanoid from Beijing-based NeodraDynamics
Robotics, pairs a **500 kg** dual-arm payload with fingertip repeatability of **
±0.05 mm** — empowered by digital hydraulics technology, heavy industrial muscle
with micrometer-level control. It directly challenges a trade-off the industry has
largely accepted: that a humanoid must choose between finesse and force. The launch
drew immediate attention from global tech media and capital markets. In interviews
with Xinhua, CCTV and Russia’s RIA Novosti, founder **Yang Tao** framed it as a 
shift in what robots are for: "Digital hydraulics and electric actuation are complementary.
Together they let a robot go airborne, underground and deep-sea — breaking limits
of force and endurance and freeing it from the constraints of human form." His thesis:"
Machines should not be constrained by the physical limits of human beings; instead,
we should empower humanity with machinery and intelligence."

**The industry is building robots for the wrong jobs.** Today’s pure-electric humanoids
hit a hard ceiling — limited power density, accelerated wear under load, and poor
tolerance for heat, cold, dust and radiation. That is why so many robots never leave
the lab. Much of the field is chasing humanoid form and lightweight service demos,
which misses the point of why robots were invented. Robots exist to take the work
humans won’t, can’t, or shouldn’t do — the **Dull, Dirty, Dangerous and Difficult**("
4D") scenarios that are the real market.

What the industry retired was an old _control_ paradigm, not hydraulics themselves.
Could digital hydraulics drive the same leap in robotics that digital electronics
brought to computing?

Neo1 is built around a **micro digital hydraulic cylinder** that weighs **1.1 kg**
yet drives a **1,000 kg** load at **1 micrometer** repeatability — while withstanding
nuclear radiation, deep-sea pressure, extreme temperatures, heavy dust and intense
vibration. With a 5-finger dexterous hand and a 7-DOF humanoid arm, it handles heavy
assembly, heavy load logistics, mining, constructions and deep-sea work, etc., and
still performs precise, delicate operations. Heavy payload. High precision. Extreme
robustness. That is the Neo1 value proposition.

Founded in 2024, NeodraDynamics skipped the industry’s homogenized race toward lightweight
consumer robots. It targets the arduous, high-risk operations where robots are urgently
needed. Neo1’s debut poses a question the whole field should answer: if robots go
back to their core mission — tackling the hardest, most dangerous work — can digital
hydraulics open a genuinely new commercialization path for humanoid robotics?

NeodraDynamics Robotics Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. **Media Contact:** Cui Dalong
｜ **Email:**[cuidalong@neodradynamics.com](https://www.thailand-business-news.com/pr-news/cuidalong@neodradynamics.com)
｜ **Phone:** +86 138 1780 2228

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**Read the original article :** [Boston Dynamics Gave Up on Hydraulics. A 4-Meter Robot From China May Change the Conversation. ](http://www.prnasia.com/story/archive/5046844_CN46844_0?rand=184833)