DroidUp Moya
DroidUp (Shanghai DroidUp Robotics / 上海卓益得机器人) · China · 2026
A humanoid that bets on skin, not strength: silicone warmed to body temperature, a moving face and a tendon-driven skeleton — aimed at care homes, not factories.
Moya, unveiled on 5 February 2026 at Zhangjiang Robotics Valley in Shanghai, is DroidUp's attempt to build a humanoid people will let close to them. Almost every other Chinese humanoid of this generation is sold on payload, uptime and factory cycle time; Moya is sold on skin. The silicone shell sits over internal padding and a ribcage structure and is heated to 32-36 °C, the face runs micro-expressions, and cameras track a person's eyes and expression so the robot can mirror them. The company behind it is not a newcomer to walking. DroidUp's stated core technology is tendon-driven actuation, and its published line runs from X01 (行者一号) through X02, which it calls the world's first full-size tendon-driven bipedal humanoid, to Rena, described as the first mass-producible robot with a full-degrees-of-freedom expressive face. Moya is essentially those two lines joined: Rena's face on a tendon-driven walking body. Tendon drive is also why the machine is light — around 32 kg at roughly 1.65 m, a fraction of the mass of comparable humanoids — which matters more for a robot working next to a frail person than any lifting figure would. The headline claims come from DroidUp and have not been independently benchmarked. The most-quoted one, 92% human-likeness of gait, is a marketing figure with no published methodology, and demonstration footage has drawn criticism for edited sequences and for hands that look considerably less finished than the face. The company's own site also claims a Guinness record for X01 walking over 100 km; the exact record category is not stated there, and this catalogue does not treat it as settled. Commercially Moya is still a promise. DroidUp quotes about 173,000 USD per unit, a first batch of roughly 50 machines and sales later in 2026, targeting hospitals, elder care, banks, museums and stations. Reporting on the company describes a small operation — around 30 staff and a modest funding total — so the gap between a launch event and 50 delivered machines is the thing worth watching.
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