The engineering minds at Munro Live, joined by experts from Schaeffler, have laid the Unitree G1 bare on the operating table. This deep-dive teardown reveals the critical engineering trade-offs in its joints, pitting high-ratio, non-back-drivable strain wave gears against the cost-effective, back-drivable planetary gear systems Unitree ultimately chose. Apparently, building a budget-friendly humanoid means making some tough choices in the guts.
