Chinese Company XPENG Unveils IRON Humanoid Robot with Unprecedentedly Smooth Movements and Humanlike Features
Guangzhou, China — On November 5, 2025, XPENG Motors, a leading Chinese electric vehicle and AI technology company, revealed its groundbreaking humanoid robot named “IRON” at the XPENG AI Day event in Guangzhou. The unveiling stunned observers worldwide due to the robot’s remarkably smooth and lifelike movements, to the point where company representatives felt compelled to cut open the machine onstage to prove no human was concealed within.
The IRON robot embodies a new milestone in humanoid robotics, showcasing a design focused on replicating human biomechanics more closely than any previous model. It sports a flexible, biomimetic spine, multiple articulated joints, and artificial muscles that facilitate movements akin to a model’s natural swagger. This opens new frontiers in robotic agility and fluidity, far beyond the mechanical or jittery motions typically associated with robots.
Equipped with 82 degrees of freedom—including 22 independent joints in each hand—the robot can bend, pivot, and gesture with extraordinary precision and delicacy. This enables it to handle complex tasks requiring fine motor skills, such as picking up small objects, while also allowing expressive hand gestures and smooth body movements.
Powering this advanced system are three custom AI chips capable of an aggregate of 2,250 trillion operations per second (TOPS), making the IRON robot one of the most computationally powerful humanoid machines globally. For context, this level of processing power surpasses the best laptop processors by nearly 20 times, underscoring XPENG’s leadership in AI hardware innovation.
Another striking aspect of the robot is its fully covered flexible synthetic skin, which contributes to a more intimate and less sterile robotic appearance. Beyond just form, the skin helps the robot feel warmer and more relatable, marking a deliberate move away from common cold-metal robot stereotypes. The robot’s face incorporates a 3D curved display that enhances expressiveness through dynamic visual cues. Furthermore, XPENG offers customizable body types and options for hairstyles and clothing, allowing adaptations such as athletic, tall, or chubby builds to suit different applications or preferences.
XPENG’s CEO, He Xiaopeng, noted that while IRON’s humanlike visage is instantly recognizable, it is intentionally designed to leave a subtle sense of the uncanny, prompting reflection on the burgeoning coexistence of humans and robotic counterparts. The robot’s AI uses a vision-language-action (VLA) model, enabling it to interpret visual information and respond physically without converting visual data into language first, thus facilitating faster and more naturalistic interactions with the environment.
The IRON robot also features an all-solid-state battery, enhancing energy capacity and safety for future mass production. XPENG targets commercial deployment of the IRON by late 2026, focusing initially on uses that leverage its dexterity and perception in real-world service or industrial environments rather than household applications.
This breakthrough builds on China’s accelerated momentum in humanoid robotics, where investments and innovations have positioned the country as a leader in this field. XPENG’s IRON sets a new benchmark in combining artificial intelligence, robotics hardware, and design innovation to approach true embodied intelligence.
As the IRON robot moves beyond concept stage toward mass production, it exemplifies a potent fusion of AI and robotics promising to redefine human-machine interactions and broaden the frontiers of physical AI applications.
Reported by [Live Science].