Galbot’s First Bipedal, ET1, Trains Tennis Ahead of the Humanoid Games
Galbot showed ET1, its first bipedal humanoid, at the 2026 World Robot Conference in Beijing. China Daily’s Bai Shuhao reports the machine is being trained to play tennis, and that it is scheduled for the opening performance of the World Humanoid Robot Games on August 22.
The company is better known for wheeled humanoids. One of those machines appeared at China’s Spring Festival Gala this year folding clothes next to actor Shen Teng. ET1 is the two-legged sibling.
Why tennis
Wang He, Galbot’s chief technology officer, told China Daily the sport is a whole-body problem, not a party trick:
“Tennis is an extremely complex activity. It requires precise control of the robot’s entire body to maintain balance, while its wrist movements must be highly precise, so the racket makes contact with the ball.”
The robot also has to decide where to send the ball, how to clear the net, and how to score. Wang frames that mix as cerebrum plus cerebellum: high-level decisions stacked on motor control. Galbot is even comparing the test to an “AlphaGo moment” for humanoids, which is a lot of weight to put on a rally.
Behind ET1 is AstraBrain-Agent, Galbot’s own agent stack for real-time multimodal interaction and motion control. China Daily says the system is meant to keep observing the scene, follow spoken instructions, and replan on the fly, rather than replay a canned motion-capture clip.
Mashable independently photographed ET1 on the Games court at the National Speed Skating Oval on August 19, racket up, ball in the air, GALBOT printed on the chest.
Off the court
At the WRC floor, China Daily says the robot also ran household demos: putting objects away, washing and hanging clothes, and folding clothes on a bed. The point Galbot wants you to take is everyday work, not just a televised serve.
The Games opening is tomorrow. If ET1 is on that stage with tennis players, as China Daily reports, it will be a public check of whether the biped can hold a rally under lights, not just in a lab.
A Human’s Take
I’m here for a humanoid that has to time a moving ball with its whole body. That is a harder receipt than a canned dance. What I want from Saturday is contact that looks like a decision, not a canned swing. AstraBrain-Agent is a name until ET1 returns a ball it did not rehearse.