Highlanders HLQ Air
Highlanders · Japan · 2025
An 8.5 kg quadruped that carries a third of its own weight and clears the same 30 cm steps as machines seven times heavier — the portable half of the Highlanders line.
HLQ Air is the small, portable quadruped of Highlanders, the Tokyo startup that also builds the HL Human humanoid and the 60 kg HLQ Pro. Announced on 1 May 2025, it is aimed at municipalities, research institutions and infrastructure companies that need a walking sensor platform one person can carry to the site in a case. The robot weighs 8.5 kg with its battery and folds to 600 × 280 × 150 mm, rising to 280 mm when standing. Each leg has four electrically driven joints. Despite the size it clears the same 30 cm steps and 35-degree slopes as its heavy sibling, moves at around 3 m/s, and carries 3.5 kg in slow gait mode or 2.0 kg while walking normally — a payload fraction that comfortably exceeds the far larger HLQ Pro's ratio. The trade-off is endurance: the battery lasts about 25 minutes of continuous walking, or 90 minutes at rest. Walking control uses machine learning and reinforcement learning to adjust joint torque and position in real time as the terrain changes, and control runs over 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11 b/g/n). A beta programme opened on the announcement day for domestic municipalities, research institutions and infrastructure companies; a full release was expected within 2025 and no price has been published. Source: Highlanders press release via PR Times, 1 May 2025.
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