New Delhi, May 14 -- China's Unitree Robotics has introduced the GD01, a giant piloted robot that looks like it has stepped out of science fiction and into the real world. The company describes GD01 as the world's first production-ready manned mecha, with a starting price of 3.9 million yuan, or about $650,000. According to reports, the robot is roughly 2.7 meters tall and weighs about 500 kilograms, including the driver.

What makes the Unitree GD01 important is not only its size, but its mobility. Demonstration footage shows the robot walking upright on two legs, using mechanical arms to break through a brick wall, and then folding into a four-legged mode for movement across rougher terrain. This bipedal and quadrupedal transformation g...