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The Booster T1 is a compact developer humanoid from Booster Robotics (加速进化), a Beijing startup — and it is the machine that won the RoboCup 2025 humanoid soccer title, 9-0. It costs about $33,949 internationally through authorized distributors, or ¥199,000 (roughly $27,000–28,000) in China. The single most important thing to get straight up front is what it is not: despite what some spec aggregators claim, the T1 is not a life-size humanoid. It stands about 1.18 m tall and weighs around 30 kg — a robust, competition-bred biped built for research and robot soccer, not a household helper.
Read that framing correctly and the T1 makes a lot of sense: for the price of a mid-range car you get a walking, self-righting, ROS2-programmable humanoid with a genuine championship pedigree and a real developer ecosystem behind it. Read it as "an affordable adult-sized robot for the home" and you will be disappointed. This review covers the corrected specs, the RoboCup story, the founder, the China-vs-international price, where to actually buy one, and an honest verdict.
The short version
• What it is: A compact ~1.18 m, ~30 kg developer/RoboCup humanoid from Booster Robotics (加速进化), Beijing.
• Price: ~$33,949 international (Standard, via RobotShop); ¥199,000 in China. Cheaper Basic and pricier hand-equipped editions exist.
• Brain: Nvidia Jetson AGX Orin, 200 TOPS. Runs ROS2; programmable in C++/Python.
• Body: 23 degrees of freedom (31 with a gripper, 41 with dexterous hands); 130 N·m peak joint torque; ~2 h walking battery, hot-swappable.
• Claim to fame: champion of the RoboCup 2025 AdultSize soccer league — withstands a 15 N·s impact and stands back up on its own.
• Best for: universities, labs and companies doing embodied-AI research, education and competition.
• Not for: anyone wanting a life-size humanoid or a home robot.
A note on our own data. Until this review, our Booster T1 spec page listed it as a 1.65 m, 55 kg humanoid. That was wrong — cross-checked against Booster Robotics' own Chinese spec sheet, the T1 is ~1.18 m and ~30 kg. We have corrected it. The numbers below are the accurate ones.
Check the Booster T1 price on RobotShop ↗ · Full Booster T1 spec page →
What Is the Booster T1?
The Booster T1 is a compact bipedal humanoid — about 1.18 m tall (official dimensions 118 × 47 × 23 cm) and roughly 30 kg — designed from the start as a developer and competition platform. It debuted at the 2024 World Robot Conference and went on sale in October 2024. Its maker, Booster Robotics (加速进化, literally "accelerated evolution"), is a Beijing company whose founding team came out of Tsinghua University's robot-soccer program, and that heritage is the whole point of the robot: the T1 is built to fall over, get hit, and get back up — the demands of a soccer pitch, not an office.
That reframes the value question entirely. The T1 does not compete with the life-size, warehouse-lifting humanoids you see from Tesla or Figure. It competes with other research bipeds — and on that field, a $33,949 robot with a championship record, a 200-TOPS Nvidia brain and full ROS2 support is a serious proposition.
Booster T1 Specs
These are the corrected, official figures from Booster Robotics' Chinese spec sheet, cross-checked against Baidu Baike and Chinese tech media. Note that degrees of freedom depend on the hand configuration you order, and that Booster does not publish a maximum walking speed — the robot is specified for omnidirectional, disturbance-resistant walking rather than a headline m/s number, so we don't quote one.
| Specification | Booster T1 (official) |
|---|---|
| Height | ≈ 1.18 m (118 × 47 × 23 cm) |
| Weight | ≈ 30 kg |
| Degrees of freedom | 23 base · 31 with gripper · 41 with dexterous hands |
| Peak joint torque | 130 N·m (dual-encoder joints) |
| Onboard compute | Nvidia Jetson AGX Orin — 200 TOPS (higher config adds an Intel Core i7-1370P) |
| Sensors | Depth camera, 9-axis IMU, 6-mic array + speaker |
| Battery | 10.5 Ah — ≈ 2 h walking / ≈ 4 h standing, hot-swappable |
| Payload | 1 kg single hand · 3 kg both hands cooperatively |
| Software | ROS2 · C++/Python · Isaac Sim / MuJoCo / Webots |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, USB, Ethernet |
| Signature feature | Withstands a 15 N·s impact and self-rights (active fall + autonomous stand-up) |
The two specs that matter most for the T1's actual job are the 200-TOPS Jetson Orin brain — enough to run modern perception and even edge-side language models — and the self-righting robustness. Most humanoids treat a fall as a failure; the T1 treats it as a Tuesday. That resilience, not raw strength, is its differentiator, and it comes straight from robot soccer.
The RoboCup Story: The Robot That Won 9-0
The T1's headline credential is real and specific. At the RoboCup 2025 German Open, in the AdultSize humanoid soccer final, Tsinghua University's "Fire God" (火神 / Hephaestus) team — running Booster T1 robots — beat the German host team "Sweaty" 9-0 to take the title. Booster then swept the AdultSize podium at RoboCup 2025 in Salvador, Brazil, and at RoboCup 2026 in Incheon, South Korea (5-6 July 2026), Tsinghua's Fire God team defended the top humanoid crown while Booster robots swept every biped-humanoid gold across the T1, K1 and K1 Air.
This is why the T1 has been adopted by 50-plus research teams and labs worldwide: in a soccer match, robots shove, trip and fall constantly, so a platform that gets up by itself and keeps playing is worth more than one with a prettier spec sheet. If you are building embodied-AI or locomotion research, that battle-tested robustness is the selling point.
The Founder: From ByteDance to Robot Soccer
The T1's origin story is unusually tidy. Founder and CEO Cheng Hao (程昊) studied automation at Tsinghua and was himself a member — and captain — of that same Fire God RoboCup team. His academic advisor, Professor Zhao Mingguo (赵明国), is now Booster's chief scientist. In between, Cheng took a detour through consumer tech: his calendar-app startup 朝夕日历 was acquired by ByteDance (TikTok's parent), where he became a product executive (reported as VP for its Feishu/Lark suite) before returning to robotics to found Booster Robotics in June 2023. In other words, the flagship robot and the championship team share a single Tsinghua bloodline — he built it for the sport he once played.
That pedigree has attracted serious money and serious backing. Booster has raised through multiple rounds up to a reported near-¥1 billion round in April 2026, with investors including IDG Capital, Shenzhen Capital Group and a heavy roster of Beijing government funds. By late 2025 the company said it had shipped 700-plus robots to 200-plus customers across 20-plus countries, with more than half going overseas. For a startup barely two years old, that is a fast climb — and it's built on the T1. For the wider cast of humanoid founders, see our guide to who runs the humanoid robot companies.
Booster T1 Price: China vs International
There are two prices to know, and they differ by more than currency. In China, the T1 Standard edition lists at ¥199,000 (about $27,000–28,000), sold through JD.com and Booster's Beijing showroom. Internationally, the same Standard edition is about $33,949 through RobotShop — a roughly 3% discount off a $34,999 list — with the gap versus China being import, distribution and support markup.
The T1 also comes in editions, so "the price" depends on the hands:
| Edition | Hands / DOF | Approx. international price |
|---|---|---|
| T1 Basic | 23 DOF | ≈ $29,800 |
| T1 Standard | 23 DOF | $33,949 |
| T1 + parallel gripper | 31 DOF | ≈ $42,000 |
| T1 + dexterous hands | 41 DOF | ≈ $49,000 |
Only the Standard price is confirmed against RobotShop; the Basic, gripper and dexterous-hand figures come from distributor listings, so treat them as indicative. If the T1 is more robot than you need, Booster also sells a smaller, cheaper sibling — the K1, a roughly 1 m, 22-DOF entry-level dev platform from about ¥29,900 in China — which is a separate product, not a T1 edition.
Check the Booster T1 Standard price on RobotShop ↗
Where to Buy It — and the Overseas-Support Catch
In China, the T1 sells directly through JD.com and Booster's Beijing E-Town showroom. Outside China, Booster does not sell direct — you buy through authorized distributors: RobotShop (fulfilled by K-Robotics, described as the authorized distributor for Booster's humanoids), Generation Robots in France, and OpenELAB, among others. They handle international shipping and customs, and some advertise duty-paid delivery into the EU.
Here is the honest catch for a Western buyer. The T1 carries a 12-month manufacturer warranty, but your practical support, spare-parts and repair path runs through the distributor, not Booster in Beijing. For a robot that is designed to be dropped, kicked and knocked over, service turnaround matters — so factor the distributor's support reputation, not just the sticker price, into the decision. And because live stock and lead times shift, confirm availability with the seller before counting on a delivery date.
Who the Booster T1 Is For
Buy the T1 if you are a university, research lab or company that needs a walking, programmable humanoid for embodied-AI research, locomotion work, education or competition — especially anything in the RoboCup orbit, where it is the platform to beat. At $33,949 with a 200-TOPS brain, ROS2, and champion-grade robustness, it is arguably the best-value serious research biped you can order today.
Skip it if you want a life-size humanoid (the T1 is knee-to-chest height on an adult), a home or service robot (it is a bare developer platform, not a consumer product), or heavy lifting (payload is 1 kg per hand, 3 kg with both). Those aren't flaws — they're the wrong expectations for what this robot is. If you're cross-shopping Chinese humanoids, our Unitree lineup comparison covers the cheaper Unitree R1 and G1, which are different tools for a different job.
The Verdict
The Booster T1 is one of the most compelling research humanoids on the market — if you buy it for what it actually is. It is a compact, ~1.18 m, championship-bred developer biped with a genuine 200-TOPS brain, a real ROS2 ecosystem, self-righting robustness that no spec sheet fully captures, and a founder-and-team pedigree straight out of Tsinghua's robot-soccer lab. For a lab or company, $33,949 buys a lot of proven capability. Just go in clear-eyed: it is not life-size, its payload is small, and overseas support runs through a distributor. Priced and understood correctly, it earns its place — and its 9-0.
Check the Booster T1 price on RobotShop ↗ · Full Booster T1 spec page →
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does the Booster T1 cost?
The Booster T1 Standard edition costs about $33,949 internationally through authorized distributors such as RobotShop, and ¥199,000 (roughly $27,000–28,000) in China. It is sold in three editions — Basic, Standard and Customized — with the Customized version adding a parallel gripper (31 degrees of freedom) or dexterous hands (41 DOF) at a higher price. Booster Robotics also sells a cheaper, smaller sibling, the K1, from about ¥29,900.
Is the Booster T1 a full-size humanoid?
No. The Booster T1 is a compact developer humanoid about 1.18 m tall (official dimensions 118 × 47 × 23 cm) and roughly 30 kg — knee-to-chest height on an adult, not a life-size robot. That compact, robust build is deliberate: the T1 was designed as a robot-soccer and research platform, not a household helper.
Who makes the Booster T1?
The Booster T1 is made by Booster Robotics (加速进化), a Beijing startup founded in June 2023 by Cheng Hao (程昊) — a Tsinghua University automation graduate, former captain of Tsinghua's "Fire God" RoboCup soccer team, and a ByteDance alumnus. The company has raised close to a billion RMB and is heavily backed by Beijing government funds.
Can you buy the Booster T1 outside China?
Yes, but only through authorized distributors — Booster Robotics does not sell direct to overseas buyers. International orders go through resellers such as RobotShop (fulfilled by K-Robotics), Generation Robots and OpenELAB, which handle shipping and customs. A 12-month manufacturer warranty applies, but the practical support and repair path for a Western buyer runs through the distributor rather than Booster directly.
What is the Booster T1 used for?
The Booster T1 is a developer and research platform, not a consumer robot. It is bought mainly by universities, robotics labs and companies for embodied-AI research, education and competition — most famously RoboCup humanoid soccer, where it is the champion AdultSize machine adopted by 50-plus teams worldwide. It runs ROS2 and is programmable in C++ and Python.