Unitree Robotics built its most successful robot dogs around advances in quadruped movement financed by the U.S. military, linking American-funded research to one of China’s fastest-growing robotics businesses. The connection was detailed by Defense News, citing a former U.S. defense technology official and three researchers involved in the work.

The company’s $1,600 Go2, launched in 2023, helped Unitree rapidly expand across the global quadruped robot market. Unitree sold more than 18,000 quadrupeds and 5,500 humanoid robots last year, according to company filings, and was valued at about $9 billion ahead of its planned Shanghai stock-market debut.

Researchers said the dimensions of Unitree’s popular Go-series robots are nearly identical to those of Mini Cheetah, a robot developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Biomimetic Robotics Lab. Ben Katz, who worked at the lab, said the dimensions matched “to the millimeter.” Mini Cheetah’s development was part of a broader research effort supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Army’s DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory and other military programs.

The Army-backed work ran through the Robotics Collaborative Technology Alliance, a research consortium active from 2010 to 2020. It brought together researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, MIT, Boston Dynamics, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and other institutions. General Dynamics Land Systems, which manufactures Abrams M1 tanks, was the alliance’s leading commercial partner.

A key advance came in 2016, when University of Pennsylvania researchers including Gavin Kenneally removed heavy central gearboxes and put motors in the robots’ legs. That design improved the machines’ ability to sense and respond to terrain. The MIT lab later presented Mini Cheetah in 2019, incorporating features from the Pennsylvania work while adding greater strength and the ability to perform backflips.

Kenneally, a former University of Pennsylvania researcher involved in the project, said the Army-funded work became the first Unitree robot to reach meaningful production scale. He later commercialized related U.S. advances through Ghost Robotics, which supplies ruggedized robots to U.S. special forces. Ghost Robotics, however, produces on a much smaller and more expensive scale than Unitree.

The research was published openly, and the researchers said Unitree’s use of the technical findings was not improper. Amanda Ligon, an Army Research Laboratory spokesperson, said the work “strengthened the broader U.S. robotics ecosystem” and informed later projects across government and industry. The laboratory referred questions about Unitree’s commercialization to the Pentagon, which declined to comment.

Unitree has said its robots are intended for civilian use. The Pentagon added the company to its list of Chinese military companies in June, designating it a contributor to China’s defense industrial base. The designation is not a sanction, but it limits the U.S. military’s future use of Unitree technology. A Unitree robot has also appeared on Chinese state television armed and accompanying People’s Liberation Army troops during an exercise.

Researchers interviewed for the report did not advocate keeping government-financed robotics findings secret. They said U.S. policymakers should help domestic companies move discoveries into large-scale manufacturing. The Army Research Laboratory said publication was important to scientific and technological advancement.

China’s manufacturing advantage, the researchers said, comes from subsidies, clusters of component suppliers and a willingness to absorb losses in low-margin industries. Robotics manufacturers can draw on nearby suppliers of motors, gears and actuators, while China’s position in critical-mineral refining supports production of components such as robotic magnets.

The United States has not mass-produced comparable humanoid or quadruped robots, even though companies including Tesla have displayed prototypes. Boston Dynamics, whose Spot robot uses different technology, has warned Congress that low-priced Chinese machines could push American firms out of the market. Robotics analyst Reyk Knuhtsen called the failure to commercialize domestic research a “dropped ball,” adding that trade barriers alone would not create the industrial capacity needed to catch up.

U.S. authorities have pursued restrictions alongside the manufacturing debate. The Federal Communications Commission banned imports of future models of foreign-made humanoid and quadruped robots, including Unitree products, in July. China threatened retaliation, while its Washington embassy accused the United States of market distortion and unilateral bullying.