Der Umsatz in fünf Tagen hat über 1 Million US - Dollar erreicht. Wie weit ist der AI - Desktop - Roboter noch von der Standardausstattung im Alltag entfernt?

Some time ago, Thomas Wolf, the co-founder of the US AI company Hugging Face, announced that the AI desktop robot Reachy Mini had sales of over $1 million in just five days after its launch, and was receiving $50,000 in orders every day.

This is not an isolated case. The popularity of AI desktop robots can be traced. As early as February 2024, the AI desktop robot Looi Robot under Shenzhen Tangible Future was launched on overseas crowdfunding platforms and ended up with $648,000 in funds, also getting a like from Elon Musk.

Besides the above three products, more and more desktop robots are emerging in the market, such as Japan's BOCCO, the household AI robot jointly launched by China Telecom and Ubtech Robotics, and the learning companion robot of Doushen Education...

It can be seen that AI desktop robots are becoming a popular category in AI hardware. Behind this is that they are reshaping human - machine interaction, and have grasped the practical scenarios and users' emotional needs. They can not only understand commands but also accompany humans like "partners".

This technology - driven lifestyle revolution has just begun.

01. Desktop robots are becoming a popular new category of hardware

With the development of AI technology and embodied intelligence technology, desktop robots are becoming a trend as an independent new category of hardware.

As an automated device combined with AI technology, desktop robots are usually designed as AI robots suitable for placement on the desktop. They are small in shape, can perform specific tasks, interact with users, and provide diverse services. It can be seen that their functions are evolving from simple tools to performing specific or more complex tasks.

According to the report "Global and China Desktop Robot Market Status and Future Development Trend from 2024 - 2030" released by QYResearch on September 11, 2024, the global desktop robot market size reached millions of dollars in 2023 and is expected to achieve significant growth by 2030, with the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) maintaining a stable upward trend.

The booming development of this market is due to the combined effect of multiple factors: the rapid progress of AI technology, the continuous decline of hardware costs, the increasing maturity of the open - source ecosystem, and people's strong demand for emotional companionship and remote interaction.

In terms of product types, current desktop robots are mainly divided into two categories: functional and pet - type. Functional robots emphasize practical value, such as educational assistance, smart home control, and office automation; while pet - type robots focus on emotional companionship, establishing an emotional connection with users through anthropomorphic design and behavior pattern simulation.

Notably, the boundaries between these two types of products are becoming increasingly blurred, and many new - type robots are beginning to combine both functional practicality and emotional value.

In terms of geographical distribution, Duozhi's collation shows that the global desktop robot market presents a diversified development pattern. The US market occupies an important share with its technological innovation ability and mature consumer base; China, relying on its complete supply - chain system and rapidly growing AI application scenarios, is becoming one of the most dynamic markets in the world; Europe and Japan are known for their precision manufacturing and user - friendly design and have a place in the high - end niche market. This also reflects the diversity of user needs under different cultural backgrounds.

From the perspective of the industrial chain, the desktop robot industry has formed a complete ecosystem from core components, operating systems, AI algorithms to application services. It is worth noting that some Chinese companies are starting to focus on vertical fields. For example, companies like Ubtech and Doushen are deeply exploring scenarios such as education and household services.

It can be seen that AI desktop robots are breaking boundaries.

02. Emotional companionship or specific functions?

Initially, desktop robots that mainly focused on emotions appeared on the market. Now, more and more functional robots, such as Reachy Mini, are specifically targeted at developers and research institutions.

Looi Robot is one of the representative desktop robots aiming at emotional companionship. It is set as a partner from a distant galaxy, integrating the attributes of a partner and a pet. It realizes two - way emotional communication with the help of the "bionic behavior system" and large - model technology. In the interaction with users, Looi Robot can make rich responses, such as actively approaching users for communication and recommending relevant activities or chatting content according to users' emotional changes, bringing considerate companionship to humans.

Looi Robot can understand users' expressions and the surrounding environment, and can creatively express emotions with simple but rich expressions. Therefore, the interaction between users and it can be diverse. For example, it can show expressions such as happiness, doubt, frustration, anger, and sadness.

More notably, Looi Robot is endowed with the ability to "dream" - it will record the things it dreams of in the form of pictures and logs, and users can access and view them at any time. The team is also developing a function that allows users' daily interactions to become part of Looi's dreams, enabling each Looi to generate unique memory content. This design creates a nurturing experience similar to the game "Travelling Frog", enhancing users' emotional investment and long - term stickiness through unpredictability and personalized content.

Looi Robot also has some practical functions, such as meeting recording, automatic photography, playing games, and flashlight...

It can be seen that Looi Robot can provide full - scale emotional value. It can be an "emotional partner", a "stress - relieving playmate", or an "emotional confidant" with natural dialogue and empathetic responses...

It is worth noting that Looi Robot is actually a rolling base with a magnetic function. Through magnetism, it can turn any mobile phone into a cute electronic creature. Currently, there is no AI terminal more suitable for interaction than a mobile phone. Looi Robot cleverly connects with the mobile phone as a carrier, and even old mobile phones can be used, which also conforms to the current mainstream value of environmental protection.

In February 2024, Looi Robot was officially launched on overseas crowdfunding platforms. After its launch, netizens' reposts got a like from Elon Musk.

As of December 2024, Looi Robot raised a total of more than 4,000 units at an average unit price of $129 on Kickstarter and Indiegogo, raising $518,000 and $130,000 respectively, with a total crowdfunding amount of more than $648,000 (about 4.72 million RMB), setting a record for similar products.

At the end of 2024, Tangible Future received investments from XBOTPARK Fund, Miracle Plus, and FutureX Capital.

It can be seen that AI desktop robots like Looi provide a low - stress and highly controllable way of emotional connection. As Zhang Xiaohui, the founder of Tangible Future, said in an interview with Jiemian News: "Looi is essentially an emotional trigger. We need to first construct a character that users can empathize with, and then create an interactive experience based on this character."

Robots similar to those focusing on emotional companionship also include BOCCO Emo. If you are not familiar with this product, then you should know the wallet elf, the blowing kitten, and the companion pillow that have become very popular in the past year... These products are all from Japan's Yukai Engineering.

When the Bocco Emo robot receives positive information, its cheeks will glow green, and it will nod enthusiastically and make happy chirping sounds. When it receives negative information containing words like "tired", its cheeks will light up red, and it will lower its head and make sad whimpering sounds. The robot can also react to the user's presence and voice and interpret information based on emojis.

This robot mainly helps parents track young children or elderly relatives, especially when they don't have smartphones. Users can set their mobile phones to receive notifications from the sensors connected to Bocco Emo to keep track of the situation at home at any time.

It is worth noting that BOCCO was launched in 2015 and can be said to be the pioneer of desktop robots. This product is still on sale and has been continuously iterated over the past decade, mainly in terms of appearance and functions.

After the arrival of large models, BOCCO's updates focus on software expansion. For example, it launched "Programming Emo - chan", which is a visual programming environment that allows users to control the actions and voices of "BOCCO emo" using a computer or tablet. By detecting input events such as voice commands, users can make "BOCCO emo" change its head direction or cheek color and even say anything the user wants. Users can learn programming while controlling the robot's actions.

Living.AI's AI desktop pet robot EMO also focuses on emotional companionship. It has a cool appearance, wearing a detachable pair of headphones on its head (the head looks a bit thin without the headphones, and it looks more technological with them on), and it also has two legs.

EMO can automatically explore and perceive the surrounding environment. With simple commands, it can perform various actions. If there is no command input for a long time, EMO will "find something to do" on its own, such as displaying some small games on the screen, like a flying bird game.

In addition, EMO's two legs are not just for show. It can walk and even dance.

In July this year, the launch of the Reachy Mini desktop robot was a landmark event:

First, Reachy Mini is the first self - developed consumer - grade hardware product launched by the software technology company Hugging Face, representing the maturity of AI technology from software to hardware.

Second, Reachy Mini is clearly targeted at the developer community and research institutions and continues Hugging Face's consistent open - source philosophy. It can be seen that Reachy Mini is not an all - around desktop robot but an AI desktop robot product with specific functions.

Third, Reachy Mini is sold in the form of a kit, and users can do DIY. This is different from most consumer - grade robots with closed systems on the market. This DIY method lowers the entry threshold and also provides sufficient customization space for advanced users.

Clément Delangue, the CEO of Hugging Face, emphasized that the design of Reachy Mini is based on close cooperation with early users, aiming to meet the developers' needs for a programmable and modular robot platform.

The product offers two versions to meet the needs of different users: Reachy Mini Wireless (wireless version) is sold at $449, equipped with a Raspberry Pi 5 micro - computer and can run independently; Reachy Mini Lite (lite version) is sold at $299, which requires an external computing source but is more affordable. This differential pricing strategy takes into account both students and enthusiasts with limited budgets and provides more powerful performance options for professional developers.

It is worth noting that Reachy Mini marks Hugging Face's extension from AI technology to the physical world, behind which is Hugging Face's layout and ambition for embodied intelligence. As early as April 2025, Hugging Face acquired the humanoid robot startup PollenRobotics (which previously launched the wheeled robot Reachy 2) and launched the large humanoid robot HopeJR at the end of the next month. At the software level, also in April this year, Hugging Face launched the LeRobot project, aiming to lower the threshold of robot development through open - source robot models, datasets, and tools.

03. Are the boundaries being broken and the extensibility expanding?

It is worth noting that the boundaries between pet - type (mainly for emotional companionship) and functional AI desktop robots are becoming increasingly blurred, and the morphological extensibility has opened up imagination space.

In May 2025, Shaanxi Branch of China Telecom and a digital life company (hereinafter referred to as "Shaanxi Branch of China Telecom") joined hands with Ubtech Robotics, a leading enterprise in humanoid robots, to jointly launch the first "household desktop AI robot".

In terms of appearance and name, this "household desktop AI robot" continues the portable intelligent robot "Wukong" jointly developed by Ubtech and Tencent Dingdong in 2018.

In 2018, before the emergence of large models, the functions of "Wukong" at that time included actions such as dancing and yoga, and it was equipped with functions such as voice interaction, face recognition, object recognition, and graphical programming. All functions could only be "passively responded"; now, the "Wukong" jointly developed with Shaanxi Branch of China Telecom can have multi - round conversations and has achieved "active service". For example, when a child is in a low mood, it will take the initiative to comfort; when a child asks a question, it can actively guide thinking and extend explanations when answering the question.

Different from LOOI, which focuses on emotional companionship, this household desktop AI robot emphasizes multi - function integration. It integrates Ubtech's robot R & D technology with China Telecom's cloud - network integration and large - model capabilities, realizing diversified services such as anthropomorphic companionship, story/encyclopedia interactive Q&A, logical thinking guidance, and home control in the household scenario. This "all - around" positioning enables it to meet the needs of different