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The Robots Cometh

Spectators typically leave a UFC fight with ringing ears and a sheepish resolve to get back to the gym. Wang Xingxing went straight to his laboratory. “I thought I could make a bigger robot for boxing competitions,” says Wang, the founder and CEO of Hangzhou-based humanoid-robotics firm Unitree. “Then I thought, Why not do an even bigger one that can actually carry a human inside?”The upshot of Wang’s creative fervor is the GD01, which Unitree bills as the world’s first mass-produced, transformable mecha robot. Standing 9 ft. tall and weighing half a ton, it can transport a pilot in its torso-...