Two wheel-legged robots align, connect, merge into one — then turn a corner and stand up. This isn't sci-fi movie effects, but a real demo of D1, the latest product from Chinese robotics company Benmo Tech. While humanoid robots still perform martial arts on stage, these wheel-legged machines are already hauling water buckets in warehouses and delivering documents in office buildings.

Modular Morphing: An "Anti-Humanoid" Tech Philosophy

D1 is the world's first fully modular embodied AI robot. Its signature feature is morphing in 3 seconds — dual wheel-leg, four wheel-leg, electric foot, flat foot — multiple forms switch freely depending on the task.

Beneath this eye-catching design lies solid scenario logic. Lightweight mapping tasks can split into two units working in parallel, doubling efficiency; when stairs or steps appear, they merge back together to ensure mobility. For developers, both dual and four wheel-leg configurations share one algorithm system — switching SDKs adjusts motion control requirements, dramatically compressing debugging time. Field testing no longer requires buying two separate robots; hardware costs are cut in half.

Besides D1, Benmo Tech has launched two mature products: Xingtian — the world's first commercial direct-drive wheel-legged robot, with over 80kg crawling load and pulling capacity, capable of jumping, climbing slopes and halting on inclines, designed for heavy-duty transport in warehouses and industrial parks; and TITA — with 8 degrees of freedom and 10kg dynamic payload, operating continuously from -10°C to 45°C, equipped with optical sensors, speakers and cameras for inspection, logistics, data collection and mapping.

Direct-Drive Joints: The Moat from Components to Whole Machines

Benmo Tech's core competitiveness is hidden in its joints. Founded in 2020, the company took a counter-mainstream approach: focusing on integrated direct-drive joints, no reducers.

Traditional motors have high speed and low torque, requiring reducers to lower speed and amplify torque — just like a fuel car needs a transmission. But reducers add extra loss, noise and lifespan degradation. These issues are tolerable in industrial settings, but for a home robot, a vacuum cleaner that clatters all day and breaks in a few years simply won't sell.

By removing the reducer, Benmo's joints become smaller, quieter, and last 50,000 to 100,000 hours. This technical choice laid the company's hardware foundation and quickly opened up the market: in 2025, approximately 8.5 million direct-drive power modules were shipped, capturing a 61.1% share of China's consumer robot direct-drive module market.

Moving from component supplier to whole-machine maker is Benmo's second strategic step. Power modules deliver hardware, algorithms and manufacturing know-how to support machine development; machines enter real scenarios and collect scarce operational data, feeding back into joint and module iteration. The two business lines form a positive loop.

The Body as Entry Ticket: Embodied AI Can't Be Just Brains

In the first half of 2026, China's embodied AI sector raised about 44 billion yuan, with over half flowing to the "brain camp" — VLA, world models, million-hour datasets, the whole industry charging forward. Yet many demos only work in factory-standard optimized environments; they stall at door thresholds and slopes.

The industry popularizes a two-layer division — "brain thinks, cerebellum moves" — but often forgets the third layer: the body, responsible for "getting there." Steps, gravel roads, tens of kilograms of load — these are real physical constraints that can't be solved by training models alone.

Zhang Di, founder of Benmo Tech, puts it this way: whoever wins in the future — VLA, world models or native embodied models — the final stop for any model will always be deployment on a reliable body. And someone has to build that body now.

The market has already spoken. Benmo Tech's wheel-legged robots have been exported to over 50 countries and regions, making it the world's highest-volume wheel-legged robot maker. The endgame of embodied intelligence may depend on the brain, but the ticket to the future is the body.

See you tomorrow.