Dobot Robotics — from desktop cobots to full-size humanoids
Dobot Robotics — legally Shenzhen Dobot Corp Ltd (深圳市越疆科技股份有限公司) — is a Shenzhen-based robotics company that pioneered desktop-grade collaborative robotic arms, ranked among the top two global cobot manufacturers by 2023 shipments, and in 2025 shipped its first full-size humanoid robot, Dobot Atom. Publicly listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange as HKEX: 2432 since December 2024, Dobot is one of the more visible Chinese entrants of the current humanoid robotics and AI boom, alongside Unitree, UBTECH, Fourier, and AgiBot.
- 2015Founded
- Shenzhen, CNHeadquarters
- Atom (2025)Latest flagship
- HKEX: 2432Public listing
- ChinaCountry
- PublicStatus
About Dobot Robotics
Shenzhen Dobot Corp Ltd — known in Chinese as 越疆科技 (Yuejiang Keji) — was incorporated in Shenzhen on July 30, 2015 by six founding shareholders led by Liu Peichao (刘培超), an engineer often referred to internationally as Jerry Liu, alongside co-founders Lang Xulin and Wu Zhiwen. Liu, born in 1986, remains chairman, CEO, and general manager of the company more than a decade later, and controls roughly 31% of the voting power. The founding thesis was straightforward: robotic arms of the era were expensive, industrial, and confined behind safety cages, and there was a real opening for smaller, safer, human-collaborative arms that engineering teams, schools, and small-batch producers could actually deploy on a desk or workbench.
Dobot's public debut came in October 2015 with a Kickstarter campaign for the original Dobot desktop robotic arm, which raised more than US$600,000 — over sixteen times its US$36,000 goal — and put the company on the international maker map. That success led to a Series A in April 2016 and the launch of the Dobot Magician educational arm, which became one of the best-selling desktop robotic arms globally and by 2020 had been deployed to more than 200,000 users across STEAM education, research labs, and light industry. The kid-friendly Magician Lite variant won a Red Dot Product Design Award in 2020.
The company then pushed hard into industrial and collaborative robotics. Dobot's MG400 — first shown in 2020 — was marketed as the world's first desktop-grade industrial cobot, followed by the M1 Pro SCARA arm and the six-axis CR-series and Nova-series cobots. According to figures cited in Dobot's Hong Kong prospectus, the company ranked second globally and first among Chinese cobot vendors by 2023 shipments, with an estimated 13% global cobot market share. On December 23, 2024, Dobot listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under stock code 2432 via the Chapter 18C specialist-technology route, raising approximately HK$752 million (about US$96.7 million). The company has since filed for a secondary A-share listing on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange's ChiNext board.
In March 2025 Dobot pivoted publicly into general-purpose humanoids with the announcement of Dobot Atom, described by the company as the world's first full-size humanoid combining dexterous manipulation with human-like straight-knee walking. Priced aggressively at a starting pre-sale of RMB 199,000 (approximately US$27,500), Atom entered global mass production and began delivering units at a launch event in Nagoya, Japan in June 2025, and a second-generation Atom II platform was unveiled at the World Robot Conference in Beijing in August 2025. That places Dobot directly in the current humanoid robotics and AI boom alongside industrial-cobot incumbents like Universal Robots, Franka Robotics, and Fanuc, and new Chinese humanoid peers including Unitree Robotics, UBTECH, Fourier Intelligence, and AgiBot.
Product lineup: Magician, MG400, CR/Nova cobots, and Atom humanoid
Dobot's product portfolio spans four broadly recognizable generations of hardware, from the original desktop educational arm to a full-size bipedal humanoid. Each generation broadened the addressable market: from schools and hobbyists, to small-batch industrial automation, to full cobot cells, and now to embodied-intelligence humanoids designed for general-purpose work.
Dobot Magician (2015) — the desktop pioneer
The original Dobot Magician was a four-axis desktop robotic arm launched via Kickstarter in October 2015. It was designed for STEAM education, prototyping, and light desktop tasks — writing, drawing, 3D printing, and pick-and-place — with a working payload measured in hundreds of grams. The Magician and its successor Magician Lite have collectively been deployed to more than 200,000 users worldwide and remain the platform that many engineers and students first learned robotics on.
Dobot MG400 and M1 Pro (2020) — desktop-grade industrial arms
The MG400 is a compact four-axis SCARA-style cobot with a 190 mm × 190 mm footprint — small enough to sit alongside an existing production cell — a 440 mm maximum reach, ±0.05 mm repeatability, and a 500 g rated (750 g maximum) payload. The larger four-axis M1 Pro extends this to a 1.5 kg payload. Together the two platforms opened up small-batch and flexible-production applications for buyers who could not justify a full six-axis industrial cell.
CR-series and Nova-series (2021–) — six-axis cobots
Dobot's CR-series six-axis collaborative robots span the CR3, CR5, CR7, CR10, CR12, and CR16, covering payloads from 3 kg to 16 kg and reaches from 620 mm to 1,525 mm, with repeatability as tight as ±0.02 mm. The Nova-series (Nova 2 and Nova 5) targets commercial and industrial applications with IP54 protection, drag-to-teach programming, and a smaller controller. Combined, the CR and Nova lines support more than 200 applications across 15+ industries — automotive, consumer electronics, semiconductor, healthcare, and retail among them.
Dobot Atom (2025) — the full-size humanoid
Dobot Atom is the company's first humanoid robot, publicly announced in March 2025 and delivered in mass production form in June 2025. The base Atom stands approximately 1.53 m tall, weighs 62 kg, and offers 41 total degrees of freedom (with 28 upper-body DoF in the entry configuration). A higher-end Atom Max variant adds dual 6-DoF dexterous hands, a 1,500 TOPS AI compute module, an Intel RealSense D455 depth camera, and a 3D LiDAR head — targeted at humanoid AI research and industrial embodied-intelligence deployments. A second-generation Atom II platform was unveiled at the World Robot Conference in August 2025.
| Model | Year | Height / Reach | Weight | Payload | Battery / Power | Actuators | Notable |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Magician | 2015 | 320 mm reach | ~3.4 kg | ~0.5 kg | 100–240 V AC | 4-axis stepper | Kickstarter origin; STEAM education |
| MG400 | 2020 | 440 mm reach | 8 kg | 0.5 kg (0.75 kg max) | 100–240 V AC, 48 V DC | 4-axis BLDC | Desktop-grade industrial cobot |
| CR5 | 2021 | 900 mm reach | 25 kg | 5 kg | 48 V DC | 6-axis BLDC | ±0.02 mm repeatability, cobot |
| CR16 | 2021 | 1,223 mm reach | 40 kg | 16 kg | 48 V DC | 6-axis BLDC | Heaviest payload in CR line |
| Nova 5 | 2023 | 850 mm reach | 14 kg | 5 kg | 30–60 V DC | 6-axis BLDC | IP54, commercial cobot line |
| Atom | 2025 | ~1.53 m tall | ~62 kg | ~3.5 kg / arm | ~2 hr Li-ion pack | 41-DoF electric | Straight-knee humanoid; ROM-1 AI |
Technology stack
Dobot's stack has evolved from a single-purpose desktop stepper platform into a vertically integrated cobot and humanoid system that combines custom actuators, safety electronics, edge-AI compute, and an in-house embodied-intelligence model. The company has publicly framed the Atom program as its transition from a collaborative-arm vendor into an embodied-intelligence robotics company.
Perception
Dobot's cobot platforms rely primarily on high-resolution encoders, torque sensing at each joint, and drag-to-teach hand-guidance for safety and programming; the CR and Nova cobots add collision detection and human-safe force limits. Atom significantly extends that stack with a 60 fps Full HD binocular vision system, an Intel RealSense D455 depth camera, wrist- and waist-mounted RGB-D cameras, and a head-mounted 3D LiDAR module for 360-degree environmental perception — the kind of multi-modal sensor payload required for a mobile humanoid working in unstructured environments.
ROM-1 embodied-intelligence model
Atom Max is powered by ROM-1 (Robot Operator Model-1), Dobot's in-house embodied-intelligence foundation model, running on a 1,500 TOPS edge AI module built around Intel i9 compute paired with a 16 GB GDDR6 GPU. Because the model runs on the robot itself, ROM-1 does not require cloud connectivity for real-time task execution — an important operational requirement for factory-floor and retail-floor deployment, and the same technical thesis pursued by peers like Unitree and Figure.
Actuators, power, and compute
Dobot's cobot line uses electric brushless DC (BLDC) actuators with harmonic gearboxes at each joint, powered from 30–60 V DC rails in the newer Nova line and 48 V DC in the CR line. The Atom humanoid extends this into an all-electric legged platform with an interchangeable lithium-ion battery pack (approximately 2.3 kWh) sized for roughly two hours of mixed-use runtime, walking speeds up to 1.5 m/s, and industrial ±0.05 mm end-effector repeatability. The onboard compute stack combines a general-purpose Intel CPU with a dedicated AI accelerator for ROM-1 inference and a real-time control subsystem for the 41 body actuators.
Power management is the practical ceiling on how long any of these platforms — cobot or humanoid — can run reliably. Each joint's servo controller must deliver hundreds of watts of instantaneous torque without thermally throttling, which drives the use of high-efficiency wide-bandgap semiconductors (SiC and GaN) in the motor-driver stages and requires tightly matched precision passives on every gate-drive and current-sense channel. The Atom battery pack integrates cell balancing, thermal management, and multi-stage battery-management ICs, and the entire signal chain depends on thousands of MLCC capacitors and precision resistors distributed across every power and signal rail — a component footprint that closely resembles the BOM of a modern EV drive inverter more than that of a classical industrial robot controller.
Applications and commercial deployments
Dobot's install base is unusually broad for a robotics manufacturer, largely because its product line spans STEAM education kits at one end and industrial six-axis cobots at the other. The company has publicly targeted the following markets:
- Manufacturing and consumer electronics assembly. The MG400, M1 Pro, CR, and Nova lines are widely used for small-parts assembly, screwdriving, gluing, soldering-station tending, and inspection tasks in electronics and light-industrial production cells.
- Automotive and semiconductor. CR-series and Nova-series cobots are deployed in automotive Tier-1 and semiconductor back-end lines for machine tending, quality inspection, and part handling. Atom pilots have been announced with domestic Chinese vehicle manufacturers and electronics factories.
- Healthcare, retail, and hospitality. Dobot cobots and the Atom humanoid have been publicly demonstrated in coffee-and-tea retail, laboratory sample handling, and pharmacy automation — task profiles that favor human-safe operation and simple programming.
- STEAM education and research. The Magician family remains one of the most widely deployed educational robotic arms globally, with more than 200,000 units shipped to K-12 schools, universities, and research labs since 2015.
The robotics supply chain — where Hybrid Electronics fits in
A modern humanoid robot is one of the most component-dense products ever built. A single Atom-class platform depends on thousands of individual electronic components: precision BLDC motor drivers, high-torque servo modules, IMUs and 6-DoF force-torque sensors, LiDAR and time-of-flight modules, GPU compute boards, battery-management ICs, wide-bandgap SiC/GaN power semiconductors, high-speed board-to-board connectors, precision resistors, and thousands of MLCC capacitors distributed across every power and signal rail. Cobot cells add safety-rated encoders, dual-channel collision-detection ICs, and industrial fieldbus transceivers on top of that base BOM.
Building that kind of hardware puts enormous pressure on the electronic-components supply chain. Prototype pilots and low-volume production runs frequently hit allocation, EOL notices, and long lead times on the exact parts they need, and R&D and field-service teams routinely have to support older platforms that use semiconductors no longer in mainstream distribution. During the current humanoid robotics and general-purpose robot AI boom, this pressure is amplified: dozens of well-funded teams are chasing the same short list of high-torque BLDC drivers, precision IMUs, GPU compute modules, and automotive-grade power semiconductors, and franchise stock on many key parts is now measured in months of lead time rather than weeks.
Hybrid Electronics has been sourcing electronic components for industrial and embedded systems since 1995. For robotics teams — humanoid, mobile, industrial, and research — we specialize in finding the parts you need when mainstream distribution can't:
Obsolete and end-of-life parts
Legacy semiconductors, sensors, connectors, and passives that are no longer in mainstream distribution — the parts that keep older platforms running during transitions to newer hardware, and the long-tail items that block a BOM from closing.
Allocated and hard-to-find active parts
High-torque BLDC motor drivers, IMUs and MEMS sensors, SiC/GaN power devices, GPU compute modules, precision resistors, and MLCC capacitors caught in allocation or long-lead times. Send us a BOM or a shortage list — we'll confirm what we can source and at what lead time.
Frequently asked questions
Who founded Dobot?
Dobot was founded in July 2015 in Shenzhen, China by Liu Peichao (刘培超), also known internationally as Jerry Liu, alongside co-founders Lang Xulin and Wu Zhiwen. Liu remains chairman, CEO, and general manager of the company, which is legally known as Shenzhen Dobot Corp Ltd (深圳市越疆科技股份有限公司).
What is Dobot Atom?
Dobot Atom is Dobot's first full-size humanoid robot, publicly launched in March 2025 and entering global mass production in June 2025. The standard Atom stands approximately 1.53 m tall and weighs about 62 kg, with 41 total degrees of freedom, ±0.05 mm repeatability, and straight-knee bipedal walking. A higher-end Atom Max variant adds 6-DoF dexterous hands, a 1,500 TOPS AI compute module, and RealSense D455 depth vision.
Where are Dobot robots deployed commercially?
Dobot's collaborative robotic arms — the MG400, M1 Pro, CR-series, and Nova-series cobots — are used across manufacturing, consumer electronics, semiconductor, automotive, healthcare, retail, scientific research, and STEAM education, with more than 200,000 users worldwide as of 2020 and a top-two global ranking in cobot shipments by 2023. The Atom humanoid entered pilot production with automotive manufacturers, electronics factories, and coffee-and-tea retail partners in mid-2025.
Is Dobot publicly traded?
Yes. Shenzhen Dobot Corp Ltd listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on December 23, 2024 under the stock code HKEX: 2432, raising approximately HK$752 million (about US$96.7 million) in its IPO. Dobot has also filed for a secondary A-share listing on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange's ChiNext board, targeting roughly RMB 1.2 billion in additional capital.
Is Hybrid Electronics affiliated with Dobot?
No. Hybrid Electronics is an independent electronic-components sourcing company. We are not a distributor, reseller, or partner of Dobot. All trademarks are property of their respective owners. Hybrid supports robotics developers by sourcing obsolete, allocated, and hard-to-find semiconductors, sensors, connectors, and passives for R&D, prototype, and low-volume production builds.
Can Hybrid help with components for humanoid robotics builds?
Yes. We regularly support R&D and integrator teams with hard-to-find semiconductors, BLDC motor-driver ICs, IMUs and other MEMS sensors, connectors, SiC/GaN power devices, and precision passives for the industrial and embedded boards used in robotics platforms. Send us a BOM or a short list of shortages and we'll confirm availability and pricing.
Trademark and affiliation notice. DOBOT®, Dobot Magician, MG400, M1 Pro, CR-series, Nova-series, and Dobot Atom are trademarks of Shenzhen Dobot Corp Ltd (深圳市越疆科技股份有限公司). Hybrid Electronics is an independent electronic-components sourcing company and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or authorized by Shenzhen Dobot Corp Ltd. All information on this page is compiled from public sources for educational and reference purposes.