Las Vegas, January 2026 — CES has always been the launchpad for moon-shot gadgets, but this year the Consumer Electronics Show will host something closer to a moon landing: a full-size humanoid robot that can fold laundry, pack boxes, and gently lift an elderly person out of bed. Chinese AI-robotics startup UniX AI will take the wraps off Wanda 2.0, the second generation of its bipedal labor robot, and the company swears it is past the “proof-of-concept” phase.
“We are not building a research toy,” UniX AI founder and chief scientist Dr. Bo Yang told industry newsletter Le Lézard. “Wanda 2.0 is already working 8-hour shifts in two Chinese factories. At CES we will sign purchase orders for 1,000 units to be delivered before December 2026.”
If the claim holds, Wanda 2.0 would become the first large-scale deployment of a general-purpose humanoid outside Japan’s Honda ASIMO demos or Boston Dynamics’ viral Atlas videos. Below we break down what makes Wanda different, how it stacks up against Tesla’s Optimus, and what it means for the future of work.
What Exactly Is Wanda 2.0?
Wanda 2.0 is a 170 cm (5'6"), 65 kg (143 lb) bipedal humanoid designed to slot into human-centric environments without retrofitting. Think conventional assembly lines, hospital wards, or the average kitchen. The robot is powered by UniX AI’s proprietary stack:
- End-to-end visuomotor policy network trained in Nvidia Isaac sim and fine-tuned on real-world data collected by 50 first-gen Wanda units.
- 28-DOF tendon-driven hands with 4-DOF thumbs and 0.1 mm fingertip repeatability—enough to thread a needle or hold a wine glass without deformation.
- Dual Intel-Habana Gaudi 3 NPUs delivering 1.5 TFLOPS/W at the robot for real-time inference, plus an edge server for heavier multi-robot coordination.
- Hot-swappable 2.2 kWh LFP battery rated for 4 hours of mixed tasks; recharge to 80 % in 25 minutes via a ceiling-mounted inductive pad so the robot never leaves the workstation.
The headline spec, however, is price: UniX AI says Wanda 2.0 will retail for “under $100,000” in volume orders—roughly one-third of the estimated bill-of-materials for Tesla’s latest Optimus prototype.
Key Features That Separate Wanda from the Pack
1. Factory-Ready Hands
Most humanoids simplify manipulation—Honda ASIMO has chopstick-style grippers; Tesla Optimus uses a 11-DOF claw. Wanda’s 28-DOF hands mimic human kinematics, enabling force-controlled pinch, power grip, and fine in-hand manipulation. In pilot trials, the robot packed 120 blister packs/hour (vs. 150 for a seasoned human worker) with 99.2 % defect-free rate.
2. Vision-Language-Action Model
UniX AI trained a 7-billion-parameter VLA-7B model on 22 million human video clips plus 1 million tele-operated trajectories. Users can issue instructions like “sort the blue M4 screws into the left bin” without traditional programming. The model auto-translates language → 3-D affordance heat-map → joint torques at 30 Hz.
3. Modular Everything
Shoulder joint fried after 8,000 hours? Swap a cartridge in 90 seconds. Wanda’s “modular spine” also lets customers downgrade to 150 cm height for narrower aisles or upgrade to 190 cm for warehouse reach.
Real-World Applications Already Under Way
UniX AI shared three live deployments:
- Electronics OEM (Shenzhen) – 10 units handle final packaging of routers; ROI achieved in 11 months by eliminating two 3-shift positions.
- Assisted-living facility (Hangzhou) – 3 units help 42 residents with meal trays and laundry; nurses report 22 % drop in back injuries.
- Fresh-food warehouse – 5 units pick apples using gentle pressure sensing; damage rate reduced from 4 % (human) to 1.3 %.
Buyers in Japan, Germany, and California have reportedly signed letters of intent to import batches once safety certifications (ISO 10218, IEC 60601) clear in Q3 2026.
Technical Considerations & Safety
No matter how advanced, humanoids collide with the “sim-to-real” gap: dynamic balance on uneven floors, unpredictable human behavior, and compliance with local safety laws. UniX AI’s solution:
- Whole-body control layer running at 500 Hz on a real-time Linux kernel; certified under ISO 13849 PL=d.
- 3-D printed titanium tendons with 8Ă— safety factor; a snapped cable triggers automatic limp-home posture.
- Edge-based fleet learning—if one robot slips on a newly waxed floor, updated friction parameters push to the entire cloud within minutes.
Still, some experts remain cautious. Dr. Lydia Chen, robotics professor at ETH Zurich, told GlobaLinkz: “The demo videos are impressive, but we need transparent benchmarking. How does Wanda cope with 24/7 vibrations, metal dust, or an emergency stop cascade on a fast-moving line?”
How Wanda Compares to Tesla Bot & Peers
| Spec | Wanda 2.0 | Tesla Bot Gen-2 | Agility Digit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Height | 170 cm | 173 cm | 175 cm |
| Weight | 65 kg | 57 kg | 65 kg |
| Hand DOF | 28 | 11 | 1 (gripper) |
| Unit Price | < $100 k | ~$250 k (est.) | $400 k (pilot) |
| Battery Life | 4 h hot-swap | 2.3 h fixed | 2 h fixed |
| Ship Date | Q3 2026 | “Prototype” 2026 | Limited 2025 |
Bottom line: Wanda offers more dexterity at a lower price, but Tesla’s vertical integration and Dojo compute could close the gap quickly.
Expert Analysis & Verdict
Humanoid robots have long been the “5-year-away” cliché. Wanda 2.0’s biggest contribution is proving a market exists today for sub-$100 k units that can be installed without facility retrofits. If UniX AI delivers the promised 1,000 robots, it would eclipse the combined deployed fleet of all Western competitors.
Still, three risks loom:
- Service network. Buyers need 24/7 support; UniX AI currently has zero overseas service centers.
- Political headwinds. U.S. and EU scrutiny of Chinese tech could hamper imports.
- Software lock-in. The VLA-7B model is closed-source; enterprises may fear vendor dependence.
For CIOs and plant managers, the prudent play is a limited pilot—start with 1-2 units in non-critical tasks, measure MTBF (mean time between failure) over 6 months, and negotiate SLAs that include parts stock within 48 hours.
Verdict: Wanda 2.0 isn’t sci-fi; it’s a credible, cost-effective step toward general-purpose automation. Whether UniX AI can scale service, regulatory approvals, and data privacy at the same speed as manufacturing will determine if CES 2026 is remembered as the moment humanoids went mainstream—or another flash in the pan.