Fourier Intelligence — from rehab exoskeletons to full-size humanoid robots
Fourier Intelligence (傅利叶智能) is a Shanghai-based robotics company that started in 2015 as a maker of rehabilitation exoskeletons and medical robots and has since pivoted aggressively into general-purpose humanoid robotics. With the 2025 flagship GR-3 — a full-size “care-bot” positioned for healthcare and companionship — Fourier has become one of the most visible Chinese players of the current humanoid robotics and AI boom, alongside Unitree, UBTECH, XPeng, and Agibot.
- 2015Founded
- Shanghai, CNHeadquarters
- GR-3Latest flagship (2025)
- ~$246MFunding raised
- ChinaCountry
- PrivateStatus
About Fourier Intelligence
Shanghai Fourier Intelligence Co., Ltd. was founded in July 2015 in Shanghai's Zhangjiang high-tech zone by Alex Gu (Gu Jie, 顾捷) — a Shanghai Jiao Tong University graduate and former National Instruments engineer — together with co-founder Zen Koh. The company's original mission was narrow and clinical: build high-quality, affordable rehabilitation robots and exoskeletons that could help stroke, spinal-cord-injury, and neurological patients recover motor function, at a price point accessible to Chinese and emerging-market hospitals.
For its first several years, Fourier was best known as one of China's leading rehabilitation robotics companies, shipping lower-limb exoskeletons, upper-limb trainers, and end-effector therapy devices into hundreds of clinical facilities worldwide. That medical DNA has never gone away — it remains the commercial base of the business — but starting around 2019 the team began redirecting a growing share of R&D into full-body bipedal locomotion, dexterous manipulation, and eventually a general-purpose humanoid platform. In August 2023, Fourier publicly introduced GR-1, its first full-size humanoid robot, and set the ambition of becoming one of the world's first mass-producers of two-legged robots with AI brains.
The company has been consistently well-funded. Across nine or more disclosed rounds, Fourier has raised approximately $246 million, including a Series D in early 2022 of roughly 400 million yuan (about $62 million) led by SoftBank Vision Fund II and Prosperity7 Ventures — the venture arm of Saudi Aramco — a Series E of nearly 800 million yuan (about $110 million) in January 2025 with participation from Guoxin Investment, Pudong Venture Capital, Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Investment, and Prosperity7, and a Series E3 of about $41.8 million in August 2025. Earlier investors include IDG Capital, Volcanics Venture, Sinovation Ventures, Guozhong Venture Capital, and Yuanjing Capital (co-founded by Alibaba's Wu Yongming). In 2024 the company rebranded from “Fourier Intelligence” to simply “Fourier” as its humanoid line moved to the front of its identity.
Fourier now sits inside a crowded and fast-moving Chinese humanoid market. Its direct competitors include Unitree (aggressive on price and quadrupeds), UBTECH (long-standing humanoid maker, publicly listed in Hong Kong), XPeng (automaker-backed Iron humanoid), and Agibot (well-funded newcomer). Fourier's distinctive positioning within that group is its medical + industrial dual-use strategy: use the GR-2 as an industrial and research platform for enterprise customers, while purpose-building the GR-3 for the healthcare, eldercare, and companionship scenarios where Fourier already has a clinical installed base. The company reported shipping an estimated 150 to 500 humanoid units in 2025, placing it firmly in the second tier of Chinese humanoid commercialization behind Unitree.
Product lineup: GR-1, GR-2, and the GR-3 care-bot flagship
Fourier's GRx humanoid line has evolved on a roughly annual cadence since 2023. Each generation has expanded degrees of freedom, added dexterity at the hands, and shifted the product from research platform toward a purpose-built commercial machine — with the 2025 GR-3 flagship being the first entry designed from the ground up as a deployable care-bot rather than a general research chassis.
GR-1 (2023) — the first full-size humanoid
GR-1 was Fourier's debut general-purpose humanoid: roughly 1.65 m tall, about 55 kg, with approximately 40 degrees of freedom, an exposed skeletal exterior, and a runtime near one hour. Fourier made a notable decision to open-source elements of the GR-1 hardware design in order to accelerate research adoption, and the platform quickly showed up in academic labs and integrator demos worldwide. Third-party listings placed GR-1 pricing in the roughly $150,000–$170,000 range during its research-sales window.
GR-2 (September 2024) — the enterprise workhorse
GR-2 was a substantial hardware step up: about 1.75 m tall, 63 kg, up to 53 degrees of freedom, and driven by Fourier's own FSA 2.0 actuators with peak joint torque of roughly 380 N·m (max 436 N·m on individual joints). Its 12-DoF dexterous hands with six array-type tactile sensors introduced material and shape recognition at the fingertips, and its detachable, swappable battery approximately doubled GR-1's runtime to roughly two hours. GR-2 has been deployed at SAIC-GM automotive facilities for precision manufacturing tasks and is Fourier's benchmark platform for enterprise, healthcare-institution, and research customers.
GR-3 (August 2025) — the care-bot flagship
Unveiled in Beijing on August 6, 2025, GR-3 is Fourier's most significant product step so far and its 2025 flagship. It stands approximately 165 cm tall, weighs about 71 kg, and offers 55 degrees of freedom. Where competitors emphasize payload and cycle time, GR-3 is deliberately positioned as a healthcare and companionship robot: a soft-touch shell in warm Morandi tones, a Full-Perception Multimodal Interaction System (vision, sound-source localization, and 31 pressure sensors for full-body tactile feedback), dual-path reflexive + LLM-driven response architecture for emotion recognition and natural dialogue, and a dual hot-swappable battery system enabling up to three hours of continuous runtime with zero power-down handoff. Its target deployments are nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, hospitals, and other assistive environments. Priced above 200,000 yuan (approximately $27,500) for B2B customers, GR-3 is paired with a “GR-3C” industrial variant that gives Fourier a dual-flagship matrix covering both service and industrial applications. Alongside GR-3, Fourier also introduced N1, its first open-source humanoid, and the FourierActionNet open-source action database.
| Model | Year | Height | Weight | Payload | Battery | Actuators | Notable |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GR-1 | 2023 | ~1.65 m | ~55 kg | ~50 kg dual-arm | ~1 hr | Electric BLDC (FSA 1.0) | First Fourier humanoid; open-sourced hardware design |
| GR-2 | 2024 | ~1.75 m | ~63 kg | ~3 kg per arm | ~2 hr swappable | FSA 2.0, 380 N·m peak | 53 DoF, 12-DoF tactile hands; SAIC-GM pilot |
| GR-3 | 2025 | ~1.65 m | ~71 kg | ~3 kg per arm | ~3 hr dual hot-swap | Next-gen FSA | Care-bot flagship; 55 DoF, 31 tactile sensors, multimodal |
Technology stack
Fourier's platform is a vertically integrated combination of custom mechatronics, in-house actuators, multimodal perception, and a growing embodied-AI software stack. Because the company's roots are in medical rehabilitation robotics, its engineering culture tends to emphasize safety, compliance-controlled contact, and long-duration reliability — attributes that carry directly into a care-bot product like GR-3.
Perception
GRx robots use RGBD cameras for depth perception, supplemented by microphones for sound-source localization and, on the GR-3, a full-body network of pressure and tactile sensors (31 pressure sensors total, plus six array-type tactile sensors on each 12-DoF dexterous hand starting with GR-2). The combined vision, audio, and touch stack is marketed as the Full-Perception Multimodal Interaction System, and it is what enables the platform to engage in contact-rich manipulation and reactive human interaction rather than pre-programmed motion.
AI, control, and open-source
Fourier ships a ROS 2-based open SDK and, in 2025, released N1, its first open-source humanoid platform, alongside FourierActionNet, an open-source action database intended to accelerate embodied-AI research on GRx-class hardware. On the GR-3 the control architecture is dual-path: fast reflexive loops for balance, safety, and contact response, layered under a slower LLM-driven policy that handles dialogue, emotional response, and task planning. In August 2025 Fourier also announced a joint development program with BASF to advance embodied-AI agent development and materials for humanoid robotics.
Actuators, power, and compute
Fourier designs its own FSA (Fourier Smart Actuator) modules. GR-2 runs on FSA 2.0, with up to seven distinct actuator variants tuned per joint, dual-encoder architecture (23-bit lower limbs, 24-bit upper limbs) for approximately 2× control accuracy, peak joint torque up to 436 N·m, and roughly 950 Wh of lithium-ion battery capacity for a ~2-hour runtime at ~5 km/h walking speed. GR-3 introduces a dual hot-swappable battery pack that pushes continuous runtime to about three hours without a power-down handoff — a hard requirement for hospital, eldercare, and shift-based service deployments.
Power management is a particularly demanding subsystem for humanoids of this class. 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 onboard battery pack integrates cell balancing, thermal management, and multi-stage protection ICs — subsystems whose reliability is often the practical ceiling on how long a humanoid platform can run between charges. On a hot-swap architecture like GR-3's, the battery-management IC and MLCC/precision-passive selection is doubly critical: the platform has to weather millisecond-scale rail transients every time a pack is exchanged.
Applications and commercial deployments
Fourier's stated market is medical + industrial dual-use. Because it entered the humanoid segment from a rehabilitation-robotics base, its commercial footprint spans both a mature clinical business and a newer, fast-growing enterprise pipeline:
- Healthcare, eldercare, and rehabilitation. GR-3 is positioned for deployment in nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, and hospitals, providing companionship, health monitoring, and assistive rehabilitation tasks. Fourier's pre-existing exoskeleton and rehabilitation-robot lines already ship into hundreds of clinical facilities worldwide.
- Industrial and automotive (SAIC-GM). GR-2 has been deployed at SAIC-GM automotive facilities for precision manufacturing tasks. The companion GR-3C industrial variant extends this into a formal industrial-deployment product line.
- Research and academia. The open-sourced GR-1 hardware and the newer N1 open-source humanoid, paired with the FourierActionNet action database, have made Fourier a common platform choice for university and corporate embodied-AI labs.
- Enterprise and strategic partnerships. A joint development program with BASF, announced August 2025, targets new materials and embodied-AI agent development. Fourier has also made a high-profile CES 2026 debut with GR-3 as it courts international enterprise buyers.
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 Fourier-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, RGBD cameras, dense arrays of pressure and tactile sensors, 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.
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 — Fourier, Unitree, UBTECH, XPeng, Agibot, and their peers — 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 Fourier Intelligence?
Fourier Intelligence was founded in July 2015 in Shanghai by Alex Gu (Gu Jie, 顾捷), a Shanghai Jiao Tong University graduate and former National Instruments engineer, together with co-founder Zen Koh. Gu remains Group CEO and Executive Chairman; Koh serves as Group Deputy CEO and Chief Strategy Officer. The company is headquartered in Shanghai's Zhangjiang high-tech zone.
What is the Fourier GR-3?
GR-3 is Fourier Intelligence's 2025 flagship humanoid robot, unveiled in Beijing on August 6, 2025 and positioned as a full-size “care-bot.” It stands approximately 165 cm tall, weighs 71 kg, offers 55 degrees of freedom, and uses a dual hot-swappable battery system rated for up to three hours of continuous runtime. GR-3 is aimed squarely at healthcare, eldercare, and companionship deployments rather than the factory-floor payload work targeted by many competing humanoids.
Where are Fourier robots deployed commercially?
Fourier's GR-2 has been deployed at SAIC-GM automotive facilities for precision manufacturing tasks. The GR-3 is positioned for deployment in nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, and hospitals, and Fourier's original rehabilitation-robotics products are already installed in hundreds of clinical facilities worldwide. In 2025 Fourier is reported to have shipped roughly 150–500 humanoid units.
How much has Fourier Intelligence raised?
Fourier Intelligence has raised approximately $246 million across nine or more disclosed rounds, including a Series D in 2022 of about 400 million yuan (~$62 million) led by SoftBank Vision Fund II and Prosperity7 Ventures (Saudi Aramco), a Series E in January 2025 of nearly 800 million yuan (~$110 million), and a Series E3 of approximately $41.8 million in August 2025. Additional investors include IDG Capital, Volcanics Venture, Sinovation Ventures, Guozhong Venture Capital, Guoxin Investment, Pudong Venture Capital, Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Investment, and Yuanjing Capital.
Is Hybrid Electronics affiliated with Fourier Intelligence?
No. Hybrid Electronics is an independent electronic-components sourcing company. We are not a distributor, reseller, or partner of Fourier Intelligence. 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. Fourier®, Fourier Intelligence®, 傅利叶智能, GR-1, GR-2, GR-3, and GR-3C are trademarks of Shanghai Fourier Intelligence Co., Ltd. Hybrid Electronics is an independent electronic-components sourcing company and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or authorized by Shanghai Fourier Intelligence Co., Ltd. All information on this page is compiled from public sources for educational and reference purposes.